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Pick-Up Mounts Help Reyes Achieve Five-Win Day At Gulfstream

Jockey Leonel Reyes rode five winners on Sunday's program at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla., while continuing to build momentum during the Spring/Summer Meet.

The two-time Venezuelan champion, who had missed several months due to injury, scored back-to-back wins aboard So Long Chuck ($5) in Race 2 and Thunder Ride ($6.40) in Race 3. Reyes also scored aboard a pair of pick-up mounts, Pont Du Gard ($7.60) in Race 5 and Panarea ($3.40) in Race 8. He finished off his big day with a front-running score aboard Moon Pistol ($6) in Race 10.

Reyes broke his right wrist and his jaw in a spill at Gulfstream Park West in early November at a time when he was atop the jockey standings. The 33-year-old Reyes, who rode more than 1,400 winners in Venezuela before venturing to the U.S. in 2016, has ridden 43 winners, including a pair of recent stakes winners, during the Spring/Summer Meet to climb into a three-way tie for fifth in the standings after a slow start.

Reyes' third and fourth winners of the day came aboard mounts that became available when leading rider Edgard Zayas took off his remaining mounts due to a sore left ankle following a gate incident in Sunday's Race 4. Zayas' mount, Emma Rose was declared a non-starter following a stewards' review of the start of the maiden special weight race for fillies and mares.

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Take Five: Big Day At Saratoga For Saez, Winning On 5 Of 6 Mounts

Luis Saez became the second jockey to notch a five-win day during the 2020 summer meet at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., going 5-for-6 on his mounts on Thursday's nine-race card.

“This was an amazing day. I'm so grateful and so blessed. Especially to do this in Saratoga, where it can be tough to even win one, winning five is big,” said Saez. “I was confident today. The first horse I rode, she stumbled and still won easily. The track is good, the rail is a little bit heavy, but the outside is pretty good

Saez kicked off the flat racing portion of Thursday's card by guiding Thankful [No. 6, $3.60] to a maiden win as the favorite in Race 2. He followed up in Race 4 with a front-running score aboard favored Threepointninenine [No. 8, $4.90] as the Tom Morley-trained gelding graduated at third asking.

The veteran rider utilized a prominent approach in Race 5 to guide mutuel favorite Leaveuwithasmile [No. 6, $4.90] to a neck score in a claiming sprint and was on the engine again in Race 6 aboard Wild William [No. 4, $11.40] en route to a 1 1/4-length win in a turf claiming sprint.

In Race 7, the $85,000 Tale of the Cat, Saez piloted T Loves a Fight to a dead-heat for third with Binkster in his lone non-winning mount.

Saez completed the quintet of victories in Race 9 with a hard-fought win aboard Foolish Ghost [No. 6, $13.60] after battling to the wire to edge a game Bronx Bomber.

Saez now boasts 20 wins at the Saratoga summer meet, good for fifth in the standings.

Irad Ortiz, Jr., won with 5-of-8 mounts on July 23rd during a 10-race card at the Spa.

Live racing returns on Friday with a nine-race card which features the $85,000 Skidmore for juveniles going 5 ½ furlongs over the Mellon turf. First post is 1:10 p.m. Eastern.

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‘A Dream Come True’ As Keith James Asmussen Rides First Winner

You couldn't have witnessed a prouder moment than that of Hall of Fame trainer, Steve Asmussen and his wife Julie watching their first born son, Keith James Asmussen, ride his first winner in the nightcap at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, Texas, on Sunday.

Sunday was Stars of Texas Day featuring two $75,000 stakes races celebrating Texas-bred horses, but the most exciting race of the day was the finale when Keith won by just a head at the wire aboard Inis Gulaire. The entire place erupted in screams and cheers, more than witnessed here in recent memory.

Keith rode his first race at Lone Star on June 15, and had ridden a total of sixteen races finishing 2nd four times and third twice. It wasn't until race number 17 that he finally caught the elusive victory.

A beaming Keith was almost speechless after the win but managed to get out an excited, “It's a dream come true.” He then added, “You know Lone Star has been open for 24 years and I'm 22. My earliest memories are of coming here, so to get a win here is just surreal.”

Inis Gulaire, a 3-year-old son of Bernardini is trained by his father, Steve who said, “You know the amazing horses we've had and how blessed we've been, this is the greatest win we've ever had.”

After the celebration's finally wrapped up in the winner's circle fellow jockeys scooped Keith up in their arms and marched him to the paddock for a dip in the fountain, a tradition here for a rider's first win at Lone Star.

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‘I Just Feel Blessed’: Jevian Toledo Records 1,000th Career Win

Pedro Nazario's M. J.'s Lady slipped through an opening on the inside at the top of the stretch and held off Ski Bunny approaching the wire to give jockey Jevian Toledo his 1,000th career victory Friday at Laurel Park in Laurel, Md.

Making her third career start, all since mid-June, M. J.'s Lady ($12) ran one mile in 1:40.60 for the milestone win. It gave Toledo a sweep of Friday's maiden special weight events for fillies and mares 3 and up, also taking Race 3 with Dontletsweetfoolya ($6.80) for No. 999.

He becomes the second rider this year to reach 1,000 wins at Laurel following his close friend, Victor Carrasco, who did it Jan. 26. Carrasco, the champion apprentice of 2013, is currently sidelined for six weeks with a fractured right elbow.

“Whenever you win a race, you feel happy. When you win a thousand, you feel amazing like all the hard work pays off,” Toledo said. “I just feel blessed. I have to thank God. Without him, we wouldn't be here. I have to thank the owners, trainers, grooms, exercise riders, hotwalkers, my agent – everybody does a great job.”

Toledo leads all riders at Laurel's summer meet in mounts (124) and purse earnings ($578,122) and is third behind Sheldon Russell (20) and Trevor McCarthy (15) in wins. Russell, like Toledo represented by agent Marty Leonard, is out 4-6 weeks with a broken wrist.

M.J.'s Lady had only one horse beat through a half-mile as Peachy Between Us set fractions of 23.27 and 46.98 seconds. Toledo moved the 3-year-old daughter of First Dude between horses on the far turn, shifted down to the rail for running room once straightened for home, wrested the lead from Ski Bunny inside the eighth pole and edged clear to win by three-quarters of a length.

“In the beginning my filly give me everything that she had and I feel comfortable how I was going. By the three-eighths pole, she grabbed the bit and I said I think I have a good chance to hit the board,” Toledo said. “To be honest, at the three-eighths I didn't feel I was going to win the race, but coming to the stretch when I found the hole on the inside, she passed the other horses and kept going.”

A native of Puerto Rico, where Carrasco, Manny Franco and Jorge Vargas Jr. were among his classmates at the famed Escuela Vocacional Hipica jockey school, Toledo won 33 races before coming to the U.S. in the spring of 2013. He earned his first domestic win June 8, 2013 aboard Peaceadaaction at Pimlico Race Course.

He led all Maryland riders in wins in 2015 and 2017 and ranked second in 2016, finishing third in 2018 and fifth in 2014 and 2019. Toledo owns five meet titles at Laurel, the most recent coming at its 2018 summer stand.

Toledo won graded-stakes with Divisidero in the 2018 Arlington Handicap (G3) and Miss Behaviour in the 2014 Charles Town Oaks (G3) and has also regularly ridden multiple stakes winners O Dionysus, Sonny Inspired, Las Setas, Name Changer and Talk Show Man.

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