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Special Two-Day Pick 4 Planned For Travers Weekend At Saratoga

The New York Racing Association Inc. (NYRA) will host a special two-day Pick 4 featuring exciting stakes action from historic Saratoga Race Course during the Runhappy Travers weekend.

The wager, which features a $2 minimum base, will be offered with a mandatory payout. Free past performances are available via NYRA.com and NYRABets.com. For more information, visit NYRA.com/CrossCountry.

The first two legs will be the $250,000 Albany and the $150,000 Yaddo in Races 9 and 10, respectively, on Friday. The concluding legs will take place the following day, starting with the Grade 1, $600,000 Personal Ensign presented by Lia Infiniti in Race 10 and culminating with the Grade 1, $1.25 million Runhappy Travers in Race 12.

Friday's New York Showcase Day will kick off the wager, starting with the Albany for 3-year-olds contesting 1 1/8 miles on the main track with a 5:39 p.m. Eastern post time. Americanrevolution will look to continue his upward trajectory following a 7 ¼-length victory in the New York Derby at Finger Lakes. The son of Constitution handled his two-turn debut with flying colors, arriving at the New York Derby off a narrow triumph against next-out winner Water's Edge in a June 20 maiden event going six furlongs at Belmont Park.

Trainer Kelly Breen will saddle two contenders in It's a Gamble and It's Gravy.

It's a Gamble, a son of English Channel, earned an open company stakes victory when capturing an off-the-turf edition of the Jersey Derby on May 28 at Monmouth Park. The three-time winner broke his maiden over the Mellon turf last summer at Saratoga and defeated winners over the Aqueduct outer turf in the final start of his 2-year-old season.

It's Gravy, by Freud, is in search of his first victory since breaking his maiden on January 16 over a muddy and sealed main track at Aqueduct Racetrack.

The Yaddo, with a 6:13 p.m. post time, is the last of six stakes for New York-breds worth a combined $1.15 million on the Friday card. The handicap for fillies and mares 3-years-old and up going 1 1/16 miles on the Mellon turf course will see a loaded 10-horse field headlined by Myhartblongstodady who returns to defend her title after scoring gate-to-wire last summer. The 6-year-old Scat Daddy bay, trained by Jorge Abreu, boasts a record of 13-5-2-3 with purse earnings of $344,216.

Strong opposition will be provided by the Christophe Clement-trained Classic Lady, who finished third in last year's Yaddo and last out ran fourth in an open optional-claiming race over the Monmouth Park turf on July 31.

Saturday's Runhappy Travers Day, featuring seven graded stakes, including six Grade 1s, will continue the two-day wager with the 74th running of the Personal Ensign for fillies and mares 4-years-old and up going 1 1/8 miles with a 4:47 p.m. post time.

The contest, a “Win and You're In” qualifier for the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Distaff in November at Del Mar, will see 2020 Grade 1 Preakness-winner Swiss Skydiver take on multiple Grade 1-winning Letruska, who will be attempting her fourth consecutive graded stakes score for trainer Fausto Gutierrez. Letruska has already secured her Breeders' Cup Distaff spot with a dominating gate-to-wire victory in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps, also a “Win and You're In” event, on Belmont Stakes Day June 5.

Swiss Skydiver, the reigning 3-Year-Old Filly champion and 2020 Grade 1 Alabama winner for conditioner Kenny McPeek, will go up against a talented field that includes Letruska and other top contenders including Bonny South.

Bonny South, from the barn of reigning Eclipse Award-winning trainer Brad Cox, will try to turn the tables on Letruska after a runner-up finish in the Ogden Phipps.

Concluding the two-day Pick 4 will be the 152nd running of the Runhappy Travers for 3-year-olds contesting the classic distance of 1 1/4 miles at 6:12 p.m. on FOX. Cox will send out the reigning Champion 2-Year-Old Essential Quality, who has sustained his excellence as a 3-year-old with back-to-back wins in the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes in June and a last out victory in the Grade 2 Jim Dandy in his first start over the Saratoga track.

Keepmeinmind, trained by Robertino Diodoro, will look to turn the tables on Essential Quality, after running a hard-charging second to the Runhappy Travers morning-line favorite in the Grade 1 Breeders' Futurity and ran third in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile in 2020.

The seven-horse Runhappy Travers field is also comprised of Midnight Bourbon for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen, Dynamic One, for Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher, Masqueparade [Al Stall, Jr.], King Fury [McPeek] and Miles D [Chad Brown].

Two-day Pick 4 – Friday August 27:
Leg A: Saratoga – Race 9, Albany (5:39 p.m.)
Leg B: Saratoga – Race 10, Yaddo (6:13 p.m.)

Saturday August 28:
Leg C: Saratoga – Race 10, G1 Personal Ensign presented by Lia Infiniti (4:47 p.m.)
Leg D: Saratoga – Race 12, G1 Runhappy Travers (6:12 p.m.)

The post Special Two-Day Pick 4 Planned For Travers Weekend At Saratoga appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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DeShawn Parker Wins 2021 Mike Venezia Memorial Award

The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) announced today that veteran jockey DeShawn Parker is the winner of the 2021 Mike Venezia Memorial Award.

Parker, based at Indiana Grand, was chosen in ballots cast by more than 350 professional jockeys at North American tracks. He outpolled a distinguished group of finalists including Junior Alvarado, Julien Leparoux, Scott Stevens and Gerard Melancon, and will be recognized in a special ceremony on Thursday, September 2 at Saratoga Race Course.

Created in 1989, the Mike Venezia Memorial Award is awarded to a jockey who displays the extraordinary sportsmanship and citizenship that personified Venezia, who died as the result of injuries suffered in a spill in 1988. Venezia, a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., won more than 2,300 races during his 25-year career.

“It's an honor just to be on the ballot for this award,” said Parker. “It's extra special that my fellow riders are the ones who made the selection. I take a lot of pride in being a role model both on and off the track. I will cherish this award.”

In a career that has spanned more than 30 years, Parker, 50, was America's leading rider in 2010 with 377 wins, becoming the first Black rider to do so since 1895. He led all jockeys again in 2011 with 400 wins; and is now closing in on 5,900 career wins. A native of Cincinnati, Parker was a dominant rider for more than 20 years at Mountaineer Park in West Virginia. He has also enjoyed considerable success at Indiana Grand, where he was leading rider in 2020, and at Sam Houston Race Park, where he was leading rider in 2015.

Winning the Venezia Award is another major accomplishment for Parker in a year he described as “personally emotional but exciting.” In early March, Parker lost his father, Daryl Parker, a longtime Ohio racing steward, to cancer. Parker called his father his mentor and inspiration for becoming a jockey, especially after telling his 5-foot-10-inch son to ignore the naysayers who said he was too tall to make it as a professional rider.

“My idol, my best friend and a great father!” Parker said of his father. “He meant so much to my life and my career. I can only hope to be as great as he was.”

Two weeks after the passing of his father, Parker was selected by a vote of jockeys nationwide as the winner of the 2021 George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award, presented by Santa Anita Park.

The Venezia Memorial Award is a 13-inch bronze sculpture with a title that reads, “The Jockey, A Champion.” Parker joins a legendary group of riders who have won the award previously, including Venezia, who posthumously earned the inaugural award in 1989, as well as Bill Shoemaker, Angel Cordero, Jr., Jerry Bailey, Mike Smith, Gary Stevens, Richard Migliore, Edgar Prado, Ramon Dominguez, Joe Bravo and Javier Castellano.

For Migliore, the 2003 Venezia Memorial Award winner who is now with NYRA TV, the award continues the legacy of Venezia.

“Winning the award myself was one the proudest moments of my career because Mike Venezia embodied everything you look for in a rider,” said Migliore. “He continues to be an example for today's jockeys and for our sport. DeShawn Parker is a worthy addition to this group of jockeys.”

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Deshawn Parker Wins Mike Venezia Memorial Award

Veteran jockey Deshawn Parker is the winner of the 2021 Mike Venezia Memorial Award, the New York Racing Association announced Thursday.

Created in 1989, the Mike Venezia Memorial Award is awarded to a jockey who displays the extraordinary sportsmanship and citizenship that personified Venezia, who died as the result of injuries suffered in a spill in 1988. Venezia, a native of Brooklyn, NY, won more than 2,300 races during his 25-year career.

In a career that has spanned more than 30 years, Parker, 50, was America's leading rider in 2010 with 377 wins, becoming the first Black rider to do so since 1895. He led all jockeys again in 2011 with 400 wins, and is now closing in on 5,900 career wins. A native of Cincinnati, Parker was a dominant rider for more than 20 years at Mountaineer Park in West Virginia. He has also enjoyed considerable success at Indiana Grand, where he was leading rider in 2020, and at Sam Houston Race Park, where he was leading rider in 2015.

“My idol, my best friend and a great father!” Parker said of Daryl “He meant so much to my life and my career. I can only hope to be as great as he was.”

Two weeks after the passing of his father, Parker was selected by a vote of jockeys nationwide as the winner of the 2021 George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award, presented by Santa Anita.

The post Deshawn Parker Wins Mike Venezia Memorial Award appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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‘Safe’ to Say Queen’s Plate Conquest Huge for Serpe

It's been a difficult few years for Phil Serpe and his stable. Like many smaller outfits trying to compete at a top-tier racing circuit, he has seen his number of horses dwindle as owners move in favor of consolidating their operations in the barns of “super trainers”. Partly due to circumstance, partly due to that increasing monopolization of the sport, Serpe has had an especially trying 2021. Heading into this past weekend, he had just two winners to his name since the calendar turned–a 4-year-old maiden-breaker named King Angelo (Lemon Drop Kid) Aug. 14 at Saratoga and a 38-1 upsetter in a Belmont allowance/optional claimer back on May 2 named Safe Conduct (Bodemeister).

So it made all the difference in the world–certainly more than it would have to any of the factory-sized barns he tries to compete with–when the latter runner, overachieving $45,000 weanling buy Safe Conduct, worked out a trip from the rail, struck the lead at the five-sixteenths pole, fought off several stretch challenges and held on by one jump over fast-closing Riptide Rock (Point of Entry) Sunday at Woodbine to win Canada's richest and most famous race, the 162nd running of the $1-million Queen's Plate. Though he was unable to be there in person, Serpe fully relished the victory after the year his outfit has experienced.

“We had an unusual amount of injuries this past winter for some reason, that's just the way things are sometimes,” said Serpe. “So we are a little bit down on stock, but we're working on that now. A race like that means a lot, regardless of if you're training six horses of 60 horses. It's Canada's premier race and it's great to be a part of it. I wish I could've been there, but because of COVID reasons we decided it was best to do things the way we did them. So my partner Lisa Bartkowski went up with the horse and handled things up there, and everything worked out.”

Serpe deflected much of the plaudits for the triumph onto the brilliant ride by Irad Ortiz, Jr., riding in his first Queen's Plate and piloting Safe Conduct for the first time. Ortiz asked the dark bay colt for just enough speed early to escape the fence, giving his mount the perfect two-path stalking trip in the clear before finishing with typical gusto to just hold on at the wire.

“I really have to give a lot of the credit to Irad,” Serpe said. It's tough coming out of the one-hole up there. We were the last ones to pick so that's the slot we got. He did a great job getting the horse out of the there and getting some position without using a lot of horse. I think that was instrumental in the horse winning. And Irad finishes the best of anybody in the stretch so we knew we were going to get that.”

Serpe showed steadfast confidence in his horse by sending him to Woodbine to make his all-weather track debut in the Queen's Plate. After upsetting that Belmont allowance, in which he out-finished recent GII Hall of Fame S. hero Public Sector (GB) (Kingman {GB}), Safe Conduct had beaten just two horses combined in his next two starts, finishing a distant fourth in the rained-off GIII Pennine Ridge S. and fading to eighth over 'good' turf in the GI Belmont Derby Invitational S. But Serpe didn't waver from going after a race he has long had his eye on for the talented Ontario-bred.

“The Queen's Plate was always on our target map from last year,” he said. “That's what we were thinking about last year, was to try to get him in the Queen's Plate. The other races, it was just unfortunate but it wasn't like he didn't run well. The Pennine Ridge came off the turf and we tried to run him in the slop. The race had fallen apart and he's the kind of horse you think would run through anything. Then in the Belmont Derby, that turf had taken a lot of rain and he just wasn't getting anywhere. He came back from those races in good condition and coming into this race, there was nothing he could've done any better. His last work leading up to the race was sensational.”

Sunday's success in a marquee race was undeniably big for the Serpe barn. In 2018, Serpe cleared the $1-million earnings mark for the 11th time in his career, with his runners banking the third-highest total in his 38-year training career. But in 2019, his earnings fell to $642,351, and last year, his horses earned $406,785, his lowest total since 1984, the year he started training. For perspective, Serpe's barn earned C$600,000–currently equivalent to $476,490 in U.S. dollars–for Safe Conduct's Queen's Plate score alone.

“It's a big help to our stable,” he said. “We were one of the leading trainers for Flying Zee Stable and when we lost Carl Lizza, we lost a lot of horses in New York–for everybody, but 30-35 for us every year. Then we were fortunate enough to have Chester and Mary Broman, but Mr. Broman has now decided to slow way down. He just has a handful of horses left. We were lacking horses. It's kind of sad because I don't know what people think, that only a handful of guys know how to train horses? There's a lot of guys out there who are competent horsemen who don't have horses. And we're starting to feel the effect of that.”

Lizza died in 2011 after a successful 35-year run of owning horses in New York–he was NYRA's leading owner for the year at the time of his death–leading to a dispersal of his substantial Flying Zee stock. The Bromans have 28 starts in 2021 as of this writing; at their peak in 2017, they had 263. So without the support of those once-massive New York breeding and racing operations, Serpe has struggled to keep his foothold against seemingly an army of high-priced auction and private purchases.

“When we trained for Mr. Broman and Flying Zee Stable, you're training for breeders, so whatever comes out is what you get,” he said. “You don't get to handpick these horses, you don't get to go buy them privately, so sometimes it's good, but sometimes you might not get great horses. Now you're winning at 14 or 15% instead of the miracle workers that are winning at 37%. It's frustrating. It is. But we just keep working, doing our job and that's just the way we are.”

Serpe puts some of the blame for the consolidation on the backstretch on the tracks themselves, and says some owners may be getting the runaround from mega-barns for their non-star horses.

“Partially it's the racetracks' fault,” he said. “That's why they would put in a stall limit, because they didn't want guys monopolizing what was going on out there in the races. And if you've got a guy who's got 10 one-other-thans, he's not running all 10. So I got news for you, as an owner, you're getting put on [the shelf] if yours is horse number eight. That's where you're going. You might think you're running at Saratoga; you might not run until Aqueduct. I think people need to rethink that a little bit, because there are some really good guys out there, and I consider myself one of them, that just need a shot.”

For now though, Serpe is appreciative to have Safe Conduct in his barn, and he has WellSpring Stables' owner Dr. Robert Vukovich to thank, in more ways than one. Vukovich's operation, named after the pharmaceutical corporation he founded in 1999 and sold in 2011, has maintained its investment in Serpe as it has increased its earnings each of the past four years. And Vukovich himself picked Safe Conduct out as a nine-month old weanling at Keeneland November in 2018.

“I was kidding around with Dr. Vukovich. We kind of knew right away with the horse, we didn't know how good he was, but we just knew he wanted to be a racehorse,” Serpe said. “He just loves to train. I said, 'Did your wife pick out this one or something? He's different than all the other ones you've picked out.' I don't know how much he appreciated that [laughs], but I always rib him about it. But this horse is all him. I had nothing to do with it and I was very fortunate he sent the horse to me.”

Occasionally, fortune in racing does still smile on the little guy.

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