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Jockey Paco Lopez Looking Forward To Strong Competition At Monmouth Meet

The competition may change from one summer to the next but the goal never does for Paco Lopez. Once he arrives at Monmouth Park he does so with a single-minded objective: To be the leading rider.

With his right thumb fully healed following surgery on April 14, Lopez has his sights set on a seventh riding title when Monmouth Park's 75th season of racing gets underway on Friday, July 3.

“I want to try to win it again. I come to Monmouth Park thinking that every year,” said Lopez.

The native of Veracruz, Mexico, notched his sixth Monmouth Park jockey title a year ago, leaving him behind only Joe Bravo (13 titles) in number of titles won at the Jersey Shore oval.

But last year's finish atop the rider standings at Monmouth Park may have been his most impressive one yet. He didn't ride at the track until June 15 – six weeks after the meet started. Nik Juarez had built what looked to be a comfortable lead in the standings by then. Lopez caught and passed Juarez on the final weekend of the meet, finishing with 109 victories to Juarez's 107 in the closest jockey's race in track history.

The strong finish by Lopez included a victory aboard 14-1 shot Hunter O'Riley in the Grade 1 United Nations.

“You have to be lucky and stay healthy. But at least this time I will be there from the beginning of the meet, so maybe that will give me an extra advantage,” Lopez said. “I know I will try hard for it. Every year things change so you don't know what will happen. There are new faces, new clients and new challenges. You have to see what happens.”

Lopez will face some rigorous competition over the 37-day meet, with proven journeyman Victor Carrasaco, the 2013 Eclipse Award-winning apprentice, moving his tack from Maryland. Bravo is back as well, as are Juarez and reliable veterans Jose C. Ferrer and Chris DeCarlo, with Antonio Gallardo and Trevor McCarthy adding to the jockey room's star power. Gallardo, who had 65 mounts at Monmouth last year, has committed to full-time riding after recently capturing the jockey's title at Tampa Downs.

“The competition is very good this year,” said Lopez. “But I like competition. The competition pushes me.”

Lopez, who has more than 2,800 career wins, is coming off a career year, having set personal bests for victories (283) and earnings ($10.9 million-plus) in 2019.

He still sports a supporting brace on his right hand to help with his surgically-repaired thumb, which he fractured when he was unseated during a race on April 11 at Gulfstream Park. Lopez returned to riding on May 21, finishing third in the standings at the Gulfstream “Championship Meet” with 96 winners.

“I'm fine. I feel good. I'm ready to go,” he said. “I love being here every summer. I keep coming back because I love Monmouth and I love being in New Jersey in the summer. As long as I stay healthy I think it will be a good meet.”

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Oceanport Centennial Stakes Headlines Six-Race Opening Day Card At Monmouth This Friday

Awesome Anywhere, who dominated in a starter allowance race at Oaklawn Park two starts ago, heads a field of eight older horses for the first running of the $75,000 Oceanport Centennial Stakes, the feature race on Monmouth Park's opening day card on Friday, July 3.

First race post time on Fridays will be at 5 p.m. with the exception of Sept. 4 (Kentucky Oaks Day), when post time will be 12:50 p.m.

Post times on Saturday and Sunday during the 37-day meet will be 12:50 p.m. except for a noon start Haskell Day on Saturday, July 18.

Parking and admission are free all year except for Haskell Day.

Monmouth Park will open its gates to fans at 11 a.m. daily starting Thursday, July 2, when simulcasting wagering and the William Hill Sports Book will be available for the first time since the track was shut down on March 16 under state-imposed restrictions to fight the COVID-19 virus.

Starting Thursday, fans can enter the track through the Grandstand or Clubhouse entrances only. Upon entry, fans will receive a temperature check and will be asked to fill out a brief health questionnaire.

Masks are required to enter the facility.

No outside food or beverages will be permitted.

The Oceanport Centennial Stakes, at five furlongs, headlines a six-race Friday card that has drawn 57 entries.

Paco Lopez, seeking a seventh Monmouth Park riding title, has the mount aboard Awesome Anywhere, who is trained by Jerry Hollendorfer. A 6-year-old gelding, Awesome Anywhere has won seven of 18 career starts.

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Monmouth: Trainers’ Race Appears Wide Open Ahead Of Shortened 2020 Meet

Kelly Breen would normally embrace the role as the early favorite for what appears to be a wide-open trainers' race when Monmouth Park launches its 75th season of live racing on Friday, July 3.

But this year has been anything but normal.

Breen, who owns Monmouth Park training titles from 2005 and 2006, is the leading returning trainer from a year ago in terms of wins with 36. But the Covid-19 virus has changed everything about the sport, forcing Monmouth Park into a condensed 37-day meet.

“I don't have the number of runners right know to think about being leading trainer,” Breen said. “When you have 40 horses and quite a few are 2-year-olds they're going to make minimal starts, especially over a shorter meet. Until I start claiming some horses I can't think about a title. We'll see how that goes.”

Breen is one of six trainers stabled on the grounds who have a Monmouth Park training title to their credit, a list that includes Jane Cibelli, Tim Hills, Bruce Alexander, Dan Lopez and Ben Perkins, Jr.

If there's strength in numbers, veteran Michael Stidham should be a factor with 71 stalls, the most of any trainer.

Yet for all of his career success, Stidham has won just one training title – in 2016 at Fair Grounds.

“Generally we don't run the type of operation that goes for a training title because we don't do a lot of claiming,” Stidham said. “We tend to get well-bred young horses that we're trying to develop. That's usually not the formula for a leading trainer.

“Having said that, we did win the title in 2016 at the Fair Grounds. You have to see how things develop and whether the barn gets rolling quickly in a shorter meet. It just kind of happened at the Fair Grounds that year as a byproduct of winning.”

With 25 winners a year ago – from just 81 starts – Jose Delgado is the second-leading returning trainer from Monmouth Park's 2019 meet. With a claiming stable and a high percentage of success he looms as a factor as well.

“I don't know. So much depends on luck,” said Delgado. “I think I've got the right horses to make a run for the title. The thing about being leading trainer is you have to have the right horses for that meet and you have to have a lot of horses. I only have 25.

“But it is a shorter meet and if they're ready to go from the beginning you have a chance. I'm definitely going to give it a shot.”

Delgado, 41, said it would especially significant for him personally to win his first training title at Monmouth Park.

“It would mean a lot to me because I couldn't do it as a jockey,” he said. “I would have loved to have won a riding title as a jockey. Now I have another chance to do it as a trainer.”

Pat McBurney, coming off a successful 2019, should be in contention as well, along with Cibelli, Gregg Sacco, Kent Sweezey and Mike Dini, all of whom are well-represented in the Monmouth Park backside.

With 35 horses stabled at Monmouth, after winning 10 races from just 19 starts a year ago, Jonathan Thomas said “numerically, this is the biggest stable we've ever had in any one place.”

But he doesn't expect to be in contention for leading trainer because of the makeup of his stable, with up to 25 of his 2-year-olds calling Monmouth Park home this summer.

“We're top heavy with 2-year-olds, the majority of which we'd like to get started here,” he said. “We've found it to be a great place for young horses. Maybe if the meet were longer would could be a factor. At this juncture we're more focused on individually starting a campaign for a horse and seeing where that takes us.”

Monmouth Park's semi-sesquicentennial season will feature live racing from Friday, July 3, through Sunday, Sept. 27. Post time on Fridays will be 5 p.m. (except for Sept. 4, which will have a 12:50 post), while Saturdays and Sundays will start at 12:50 p.m. The exception to that will be a noon first post on Saturday, July 18, when the $1 million TVG.com Haskell Stakes headlines a stakes-filled program.

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Krone Returns To Monmouth In New Role As Agent For Veterinarian/Apprentice Jockey Peterson

Julie Krone immediately saw some familiar traits in Ferrin Peterson the first time she met her, and then after she watched her ride: the burning desire to succeed, the competitiveness, the work ethic, how comfortable she was on and around horses.

“When I see someone like that it reminds me of myself,” she said.

That mirror image was enough to prompt Krone, the retired Hall of Fame jockey, to return to the sport she loves after years watching from afar as a mom to her daughter, who is now 15.

Krone will be back at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, N.J. – where she won riding titles from 1987-89 – when the 37-day meet begins on Friday, July 3, in a new role as the agent for Peterson, an apprentice trying to make inroads as a rider.

At 28, Peterson is much older than most jockeys trying to launch their careers. But she has a valid reason for that. She's a licensed veterinarian who completed medical school at the University of California-Davis in May of 2019. That was after excelling as a pole vaulter during her undergraduate college years at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

“Anyone who is changing their career path like this after going to medical school clearly has a passion that won't go away,” said Krone. “The drive is there to succeed as a jockey. That's what it takes. That's what impressed me so much and drew me to her.

Julie Krone

“She has a love for the sport that is infectious. She made me remember how much I love this.”

Peterson, who has spent the past few months galloping horses at Overbrook Farm in nearby Colts Neck in preparation for the Monmouth Park meet, met her future agent when Krone was doing a book signing in California. They hit it off immediately.

“Having a mentor like Julie Krone is a tremendous benefit for someone like me,” said Peterson. “She has done so much for the sport. I just try to be a sponge around her, learning whatever I can from her.”

Peterson began her career in January of 2019 at Golden Gate before trying the competitive Del Mar meet. Krone convinced her to come East this summer and to use Monmouth Park as her home base, with the added benefit of being able to ride at other tracks within easy driving distance during Monmouth Park's dark days.

“The goal is to ride to ride as many days as possible within reason,” said Peterson, who is also a certified acupuncturist. “That's one of the advantages of being on the East Coast and at Monmouth Park.”

Krone isn't sure that being a licensed veterinarian will be much of an advantage to Peterson right now – “It's not going to help you out there splitting horses,” she said – but she can see long-term benefits because of her familiarity with horses.

Peterson, though, says you can never have too much knowledge about dealing with horses.

“Working with horses on the ground helps when you are working with them on their backs,” she said. “Understanding horses, how they function anatomically, helps you think of how to balance on a horse. It helps knowing how their mind works and their behavior. The more you're around horses the better you get to know them. They're such intricate creatures.”

The 5-4, 108-pound Peterson does get some quizzical looks about her career shift, but says she would not have done it any other way.

“It's interesting becoming a jockey through becoming a veterinarian,” she said. “But I'm really glad it happened this way because it was the right order for me. I want to know as much as I can about horses. I am always wanting to learn more about them.

“I don't think I would be satisfied just being a jockey and clearly I wasn't satisfied just being a veterinarian either. So combining the two has been the perfect fit for what I am seeking in my life.”

Having Krone's star recognition doesn't hurt either when it comes to securing mounts.

“People know who she is right away,” said Peterson, who currently owns 15 career victories. “She has been good for the sport. Trainers are happy to hear from her. She has the credibility that people listen. And being mentored by her is an amazing opportunity.”

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