‘Right Horses In The Right Spot’: James Graham Hoping Luck Holds Again This Summer At Ellis Park

James Graham won last year's Ellis Park riding title amid what likely was the toughest jockey colony in track history. Now he'll try to repeat his crown against an even deeper assembly of riders during the RUNHAPPY Summer Meet at Ellis Park that begins Thursday and runs through Aug. 30.

Graham won the 2019 Ellis title with 26 wins to nip the 25 accrued by three-time defending champion Corey Lanerie and Tyler Baze, who had just relocated from California to Kentucky. Graham has been adept this past year in winning meet championships in photo finishes, taking the Fair Grounds winter title in New Orleans with 63 victories, one better than Mitchell Murrill and three more than Colby Hernandez, both of whom will be based at Ellis Park for the first time.

Lanerie, who has won five Ellis titles overall, was out of state riding on the last day of the 2019 meet, when Graham won two races to secure his first crown at a Kentucky track.

“We got lucky,” Graham said. “Corey was out of town the last weekend, just about. If Corey had been there, would he have won two or one? Would Tyler have gotten lucky? With a couple of better trips from the horses he rode, he might have won it, too. Just luck. Riding the right horses in the right spot in the right time.”

But don't think that the 41-year-old doesn't take deep pride in winning his first riding title in Kentucky, after having won riding titles at Chicago's Arlington Park and New Orleans' Fair Grounds.

“Always, always,” Graham said. “Every win is an achievement.”

Still, he insists he didn't think about winning the title until the final days.

“I don't think about stuff like that,” Graham said. “I just think about the here and the now and riding races. I didn't realize I was as close as I was. I was just doing my work, enjoying it, because I enjoy riding. And that's what it's about. It's not about, 'Yeah, we knew we were close, but we didn't know if we were actually going get there.' Because you're worried about now and not what's going to happen in three or four days from now.”

With 15 wins, Graham also had a big meet at Churchill Downs, whose meet ended this past Sunday.

“You can never expect too much in horse racing,” he said. “You hope to have a good meet. The bonus is coming out of it without being hurt, making it through and making a living for yourself.”

Graham, a married father of three, grew up in Dublin, Ireland, coming to the United States in 2002 and working as an exercise rider in Lexington. His first summer as a jockey in America came in 2003 at Ellis Park before he moved on to ride at Chicago's Arlington Park in the summers and then on to California before returning to Kentucky fours years ago.

As the purse money got better at Ellis Park, so did the competition to win races.

Last year Florent Geroux and Baze were among those deciding that it works well to stay in Kentucky for the summer, riding at Ellis Park except when stakes business drew them out of state. Geroux is a five-time Breeders' Cup winner, including on Horse of the Year Gun Runner and Kentucky Oaks winner and champion Monomoy Girl. Baze was the Eclipse Award-winning apprentice jockey in 2000.

New for 2020 are two-time Eclipse Award-winning jockey Julien Leparoux, California mainstays Joe Talamo and Martin Garcia, Louisiana stalwart Colby Hernandez (brother of Kentucky-based Brian Hernandez) and the up-and-coming Mitchell Murrill, along with the return of two-time Ellis champ Rafael Bejarano after 13 years in California. That's in addition to the strong cast of regulars: Graham, Lanerie, Brian Hernandez, Miguel Mena, Shaun Bridgmohan and — oh, by the way — three-time Kentucky Derby-winner and Hall of Famer Calvin Borel.

“No matter where you go in Kentucky, it's always tough,” Graham said. “You've got a lot of good riders. Miguel Mena has a fantastic meet wherever he goes because he's a very good rider. You've got Mitchell Murrill coming in; he's been second at the Fair Grounds a couple of times. It's not like it's going to be easy anywhere being leading rider. And you've got Corey and you've got Brian. You got Colby Hernandez. A lot of guys are staying in Kentucky this year.

“… The riders here win races everywhere. To me, you hope everything goes well, hopefully get on some pretty nice stock. You look at the stock that ran last year, there were a lot of good horses who went to the Breeders' Cup, a lot of good 2-year-olds that broke their maidens at Ellis. The quality of horses in Kentucky has always been good. The quality of the maidens at Ellis Park have always been decent, but they've gotten better over the past couple of years. People don't want to go to New York and run against the heavy-heads like Todd Pletcher, Chad Brown and a couple of those guys who are always loaded. But we've got good horses. It's been very competitive the last couple of years in Kentucky with young horses and everybody kind of wanting to stay at home.”

With the exception of Churchill Downs meet-leader Tyler Gaffalione and Ricardo Santana Jr., who both will go to Saratoga for the summer, Ellis Park's jockeys' room will be much the same as the Louisville track. And Santana is riding the first two days at Ellis.

“I don't think there's ever been an Ellis Park jockey colony this deep, and I've been going to every meet since I was a kid,” said Jimmy McNerney, Ellis Park's announcer and race analyst. “Since we raised our purses and the quality of racing, every year the colony has gotten better. This is obviously the strongest one to date. You can go 12 deep in here. There's never been that many Derby and Breeders' Cup-winning jockeys at Ellis.”

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‘Really Impressive’ Juvenile Winner County Final Switches From Turf To Dirt For Bashford Manor

John Ennis, Hayden Noriega and 47 Roses' eye-catching debut winner County Final will switch surfaces from turf to dirt in search of graded stakes glory in Saturday's $100,000 Bashford Manor presented by TwinSpires.com (Grade III), a six furlong-event for 2-year-olds at Churchill Downs.

“This horse should absolutely love the slight stretch out in distance,” said jockey James Graham, who was aboard for the colt's four-length maiden victory June 5. “We opened up by three-to-four lengths mid-stretch on everyone but what was really impressive was how he extended his stride past the wire. He's a bigger colt with a really long stride. He's got a great mind, too, which is always nice for a younger horse.”

The six-furlong Bashford Manor will go as Race 8 of 11 with a post time of 4:43 p.m. (all times Eastern). The race shares the spotlight on Saturday with the $500,000 Stephen Foster presented by Coca-Cola (GII), $200,000 Fleur de Lis presented by Coca-Cola (GII) and $100,000 Regret presented by TwinSpires.com (GIII). First post is 1 p.m.

County Final, trained by Ennis, has been based at the Thoroughbred Training Center in Lexington. The $9,500 Keeneland September Yearling buy by Oxbow drew the outside post No. 7 in the Bashford Manor.

“I really like that we'll be the last horse to load in the gate,” Graham said. “If he breaks well, we'll be able to see what the other horses to our inside are doing in the early stages. He has speed and he trains well on the dirt. So, the switch from the turf to the dirt should be no problem either.”

The Bashford Manor field, which features all first-out maiden winners, from the rail out (with jockey, trainer and morning line odds): Crown and Coke (Miguel Mena, James Lawrence II, 30-1); Hulen (Corey Lanerie, Steve Asmussen, 5-1); Gatsby (Tyler Gaffalione, Juan Alvarado, 4-1); Hyperfocus (John Velazquez, Todd Pletcher, 4-1); Herd Immunity (Brian Hernandez Jr., Peter Miller, 9-2); Cazadero (Ricardo Santana Jr., Asmussen, 8-5); and County Final (Graham, Ennis, 6-1).

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Cash Logistics Rallies Late To Win Indiana’s Sagamore Sired Stakes

Cash Logistics likes to run off the pace, and it makes for an exciting finish, but it can be nerve wrecking for his connections. Ridden by Jockey James Graham, the Indiana sired son of Unbridled Express prevailed with a hard-fought finish to the wire in the seventh running of the $75,000 Sagamore Sired Stakes at Indiana Grand Wednesday, June 17. He delivered the first career stakes win for trainer Genevieve “GiGi” Londono.

Starting from post eight in the 10-horse lineup, Cash Logistics was unhurried out of the gate in the six-furlong contest. Maters N Taters and Eddie Perez established the pace up front with Nates Heartthrob and Santo Sanjur sitting right at their heels. Halfway through the turn, Cash Logistics had moved into fourth and was preparing for a stretch run to catch the leaders.

At the top of the stretch, it appeared Maters N Taters would keep everyone behind him, including race favorite Cash Logistics. Maters N Taters had a three-length jump on the field. Cash Logistics had his work cut out for him to catch the leader. Graham went to work on Cash Logistics and never backed down as the sophomore gelding continued to make up ground. Late in the race, Cash Logistics had momentum built up, moving in to capture the win and the title by three-quarters of a length. Nutty Train also closed well to finish second for Malcolm Franklin, just a neck ahead of Maters N Taters.

Owned by Charlie and James Hancock, Cash Logistics scored his second career win in three starts during his 2020 debut. He has been with Londono since the beginning of his career. She currently has four in training at the Churchill Downs Training Center and more babies at the farm who will join her barn soon.

“He (Cash Logistics) has matured quite a bit and he's starting to figure it out,” said Londono, who is in her fourth year of training. “He had some ground to make up, but he did that last time (in the Crown Ambassador Stakes last fall) and just ran out of time. Today, he stayed strong and made a big move at the end.”

Graham likes what he sees so far in Cash Logistics. He feels the three-year-old could have a big future ahead of him.

“He (Cash Logistics) has gotten big and long and tall, and he's still kind of green, which is a good thing,” said Graham. “He just keeps getting better and better. A couple more races, and I think he will be really good. He galloped out well today and I think 'GiGi' will think about stretching him out off that race. He's got a lot of potential.”

Cash Logistics completed the sprint in 1:13.44. A homebred by Charlie Hancock, he paid $4.40, $3.00 and $2.60 across the board.

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