Tag: marcelino pedroza

‘It Doesn’t Get Any Better’: Utley Wins Stakes At Home With Yes It’s Ginger

Mike “Hotdog” Utley, this Bud's for you!

Utley, who runs his family's Edward Utley Jr. Inc. beer (including Budweiser) distributorship in Henderson, got his biggest thrill in horse racing as favored Yes It's Ginger wore down the speedy Elle Z for a 1 1/4-length triumph in the $100,000 Kentucky Downs TVG Preview Ladies Sprint at Ellis Park. That's where the 59-year-old Utley has been going to the races since he was 12, as well as the hometown track for his eight partners who collectively own 25 percent of the 5-year-old mare with majority owner Brilliant Racing and Tagg Team Racing.

“It's great, in front of everybody,” Utley said. “I don't know how you can describe it… There will be a lot of Bud. I was crossing my fingers, trust me.”

He said the victory ranks No. 1 in his racing career as owner and fan “and it doesn't get any better.”

The Ladies Sprint was part of a turf stakes quartet Sunday that wrapped up the two-day Kentucky Downs TVG Preview Weekend at the RUNHAPPY meet at Ellis Park.

Marcelino Pedroza rode the Greg Foley-trained Yes It's Ginger for the first time, pressing Elle Z through a stiff pace before edging clear late. The Foley-trained Skinny Dip finished another 2 1/4 lengths back in third in the full field of 12 fillies and mares.

“I watched the replays on her and she's quick out of the gate,” said Pedroza, who earlier this meet won the Good Lord Stakes on the Foley-trained Bango. “She was quick out of the gate when she ran (finishing second June 3 at Churchill Downs) against Elle Z. We didn't want to be in the lead. We just wanted to sit there and make sure Elle Z felt the pressure. Turning for home, I asked her to go and she responded like a Quarter Horse. She was running in the end and was very impressive.”

Yes It's Ginger was the only one of the four Kentucky Downs TVG Preview Weekend stakes winners Sunday who didn't set a course record over the very firm turf. But she came close, powering 5 1/2 furlongs in 1:00.71, just off Totally Boss' mark of 1:00.26 set in 2019. Yes It's Ginger, a son of Yes It's True out of Ginger Light, paid $7 to win.

The mare now is 3 for 3 at Ellis Park. Brilliant Racing approached Foley about buying half-interest in Yes It's Ginger when she was a 4-year-old maiden who'd had arthroscopic surgery for a bone chip. Foley liked what he saw and brought in Utley's group, which had been looking for a horse and wanted to be part of the Foley family's Tagg Team Racing.

Yes It's Ginger promptly won a maiden and allowance race last summer at Ellis Park off a 13-month layoff. She came into this race off victory in Lone Star Park's $75,000 Chicken Fried Stakes in her last start. That made her the first stakes-winner for Utley, as well as for Louisville-based Brilliant Racing and Tagg Team, the partnership headed by trainer Greg Foley, wife Sheree and their sons Travis and Alex.

It was no sure thing that Yes It's Ginger would run at Ellis Park. She also was entered for a turf stakes Wednesday at Indiana Grand. While Foley thought the Indiana race's five-furlong distance would be even better, and the competition softer, the forecast for rain this coming week helped make the decision to stay put at Ellis.

“When we decided to run here, there were a lot of happy people, the boys from Henderson,” Foley said. “They're a great group, along with Brilliant, and then our own little group, our family.

“She's just a gutsy little filly. She gives you all every time you run her. From this time last year, when she broke her maiden over here at Ellis, she's just done nothing but gotten better all the time. She ran very impressive in Texas last time and again today. She's just a nice filly.”

Foley also was happy with Skinny Dip, who was making her stakes debut. The goal was to get at least a stakes-placing for the well-bred Into Mischief filly, a mission accomplished.

Yes It's Ginger now is 6-5-0 in 18 starts, earning $295,511. The $40,000 Ocala 2-year-old purchase in 2018 — the first horse bought by Brilliant Racing— was picked out by Brilliant founding members Natalie Gils and Brandon Stauble.

“She's been incredibly special to us — being the first one we bought, giving her all that time not knowing if she was going to come back,” Gils said. “… When it came to the point where we had to sell (part of) her, having the Foleys step in, it's just been a great relationship with them. It was really a blessing in disguise.”

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Full Time: Pedroza Plans To Ride 7 Days A Week Between Ellis Park, Indiana Grand

Ellis Park's riding colony the past few years has been pretty much an extension of Churchill Downs' jockey population. This summer the Ellis jocks' room also will look a lot like Indiana Grand.

Ellis Park opens Sunday June 27 and runs through Sept. 4. With racing Fridays through Sundays, its schedule dovetails seamlessly with Indiana Grand, which this year runs Mondays through Thursdays. The only overlap between the tracks three hours apart is Thursday, July 1.

One could ride full-time at both tracks — if one doesn't mind riding seven days a week all summer. And Marcelino Pedroza doesn't. He, along with DeShawn Parker and Fernando De La Cruz, headlines the prominent Indiana jockeys looking to make hay at the Pea Patch.

“I'm so young, that if I can do it right now, why not?” the 28-year-old Pedroza said. “I missed a lot of days last year, probably rode only three months. So I feel fresh.”

Pedroza was sidelined for four months in early 2020 with a fractured collar bone, returning to ride nine races in May before an elbow injury kept him off another 3 1/2 months. He came back as strong as ever, winning 49 races at New Orleans' Fair Grounds over the winter to finish sixth in the standings. He currently leads at Indiana Grand with 27 victories since that meet began April 13.

Parker possesses 5,864 career victories, including leading the nation in 2010 and 2011. The jockey, who began riding in 1988, spent much of his career in West Virginia and then Texas before relocating in 2017 to Indiana Grand, where he already is No. 8 all-time in victories. He won his first Indiana Grand title with 106 victories during last year's COVID-shortened meet and currently ranks third with 18. Parker was honored in March as recipient of the prestigious George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award, voted on by riders nationally to recognize one of their own for an outstanding career and character.

The Peruvian-born De La Cruz won Indiana Grand's 2014 and 2016 riding crowns. He is the track's all-time riding leader in purse earnings at more than $25 million in the track's 19-year history. His 35 stakes victories in the state also are a record. He joins all-time track leader Rodney Prescott as the only jockey with more than 1,000 wins at Indiana Grand.

Jose Batista, who has 14 wins at Indiana Grand this meet, likewise will ride both tracks. In addition to record purses at Ellis Park, clearly the jockeys are hoping that a greater presence this summer in Kentucky sets up opportunities in the fall at Churchill Downs and Keeneland.

“There are a lot of good horses to ride in Kentucky,” De La Cruz said on the Churchill Downs backstretch. “That's the reason I'm with my agent walking around here, trying to get some good business.”

The Panamanian-born Pedroza was a fixture at Ellis earlier in his career. He won 20 races to tie for third in the 2015 riding standings and also was third in 2013 with 23.

Pedroza also leads at Indiana Grand this meet in purse earnings ($698,156) and mounts (161) as he pursues his third riding title at the Shelbyville track. He was leading rider in 2017 and then ran away with the 2019 Indiana Grand title, his 152 wins and $3,407,744 in purses records for the 120-date meet.

“Last year I was hurt, so that doesn't count,” Pedroza, who lives in Louisville, said recently at Churchill Downs. “And the year before that, I was doing so well at Indiana that I wasn't thinking about (riding at Ellis). I wasn't riding here at Churchill, so I wasn't worried about riding anywhere else than Indiana. Now I'm thinking to do more.”

While he has ridden sparingly at Churchill Downs so far this meet, Pedroza has made the most of limited opportunities. That includes winning the $150,000 Aristides Stakes on Bango and finishing second in the Grade 3 Matt Winn aboard O Besos, who four weeks earlier rallied to be fifth in Pedroza's first Kentucky Derby. Both horses are trained by Greg Foley.

“It was a great experience, I don't even have the words,” Pedroza said of the Derby. “It was a big dream come true. No excuses. The horse ran big.”

Asked about Pedroza, Foley said, “Marcelino is a good rider, period. A good kid, class act. I like him. I wouldn't have ridden him in the Derby if I didn't think he could ride.”

The Indiana jockeys will add to an already strong riding colony that should feature most of the Churchill Downs regulars. That includes 2020 Ellis leader Joe Talamo, 2019 champ James Graham, Corey Lanerie (five Ellis titles), Rafael Bejarano (two titles), two-time Eclipse Award-winning jockey Julien Leparoux, former apprentice Eclipse Award winners Brian Hernandez and Shaun Bridgmohan, along with Miguel Mena, Adam Beschizza, Gabriel Saez, Mitchell Murrill, Colby Hernandez, Declan Cannon and others. In addition, Louisville product Drayden Van Dyke will be based at Ellis Park for the first time this summer after making the move to Kentucky earlier this spring from California.

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Derby Fifth-Place Finisher O Besos Headlines Saturday’s Matt Winn Stakes

Bernard Racing, Tagg Team Racing, West Point Thoroughbreds and Terry Stephens' Kentucky Derby (Grade 1) fifth-place finisher O Besos headlines a field of eight 3-year-olds that were entered in Saturday's $150,000 Matt Winn (G3) – one of seven stakes events on the 11-race Stephen Foster Preview Day card at Churchill Downs.

The 1 1/16-mile Matt Winn shares the Saturday spotlight with the $150,000 Regret (G3), $150,000 Aristides (Listed), $150,000 Blame, $150,000 Shawnee, $150,000 Audubon and $110,000 Douglas Park Overnight Stakes. The action-packed program gets underway at 12:45 p.m. (all times Eastern) and the Matt Winn is carded as Race 9 at 4:55 p.m.

O Besos, a 3-year-old son of Orb, closed into the early Kentucky Derby pace but flattened in the final furlong to cross the wire fifth. Trained by Greg Foley, O Besos had several options on the table following the Derby but opted to stay at Churchill Downs for the Matt Winn.

“We love running at Churchill and this race gives us plenty of options going forward,” Foley said. “He worked an easy half-mile (in :49) Monday morning and is doing well from the Derby. We can lead him over for the race right from Barn 11.”

Jockey Marcelino Pedroza, who rode O Besos to a third-place finish in the $1 million TwinSpires.com Louisiana Derby (G2) and in the Kentucky Derby, has the call in the Matt Winn from post No. 3.

Chief among O Besos' rivals in the Matt Winn is D J Stable's $400,000 Tampa Bay Derby (G2) winner Helium. The Mark Casse trainee finished 10th in the Kentucky Derby. He'll be ridden in Saturday's race by Julien Leparoux from post 2.

Also entered in the Matt Winn field is Juddmonte's $300,000 Oaklawn Stakes winner Fulsome. Trained by Brad Cox, Fulsome broke his maiden on turf but was transitioned to dirt in April at Keeneland when a first-level allowance event changed surfaces due to inclement weather. Fulsome defeated six rivals by 3 ½ lengths that day, which catapulted him to a 1 ¼-length win in the Oaklawn Stakes on May 1.

Florent Geroux has the mount from post 5.

The complete field for the Matt Winn (from the rail out with jockey and trainer): Ready to Pounce (Brian Hernandez Jr., Neil Pessin); Helium (Leparoux, Casse); O Besos (Pedroza, Foley); Southern Passage (Corey Lanerie, Dale Romans); Fulsome (Geroux, Cox); Hello Hot Rod (Francisco Arrieta, Caio Caramori); Sittin On Go (Joe Talamo, Romans); and Game Day Play (David Cohen, Robertino Diodoro).

Churchill Downs' admission gates will open Saturday at 11:30 a.m. and tickets, starting at $5, are available on www.ChurchillDowns.com/tickets. For those outside the Louisville area, all 11 races are scheduled to be televised on Fox Sports 2 from 12:30-6 p.m. Fans can also watch the live simulcast feed and wager on www.TwinSpires.com, the official ADW of Churchill Downs Incorporated.

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Watch: Team O Besos Grateful For Second Chances And Help From Above

Exercise rider Margarito Fierro and jockey Marcelino Pedroza have trainer Greg Foley's Kentucky Derby contender O Besos in common, of course, but there is more than that drawing the pair of riders together. In a video produced by Twinspires' Andrew Brown, both men reveal their personal struggles with cancer and how the relationship with horses helped them to overcome.

Fierro, a long-time employee for Foley, was diagnosed with Stage 2 colon cancer in 2016, and underwent surgery and several long months of recovery before returning to the racetrack. Eventually Fierro returned to galloping horses as well.

“That was a good therapy for me, to be around horses,” Fierro said. “After that, I never think I'd be able to gallop again, and I did. I still do it. I'm lucky to be alive. I'm very grateful, you know. I said, 'Thanks God, for giving me this second chance in life, because some people, they don't get it.”

Pedroza lost his mother to brain cancer two years ago, at the young age of 44.

“I'm glad that she doesn't suffer any more, and that she's in a better place,” said the jockey. “She told me, 'Papi, life continues, you gotta keep going, you got kids and a wife that depends on you.”

He took those words to heart. The same day his mother passed away, Pedroza won a race at Indiana Grand. He believes she'll be riding with him in the Kentucky Derby, celebrating his success.

Now, both Fierro and Pedroza will head to the first Saturday in May with big dreams. Both believe their big chestnut colt has a solid chance to wear the roses.

“My plan is to be in the Derby, and win it,” Pedroza summarized.

Check out the full video below:

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