Apprentice jockey Mauro Cedillo, severely injured in an accident during the first race on May 1 at JACK Thistledown in North Randall, Ohio, has been removed from a ventilator and is able to breathe on his own, according to a report from theThoroughbred Daily News.
Agent Luis Quinones told TDN that doctors believe Cedillo will make a full recovery, and may even be able to ride again.
“I just want to let you know that Mauro Cedillo was taken off the ventilator (Sunday) and he was breathing on his own,” Quinones told TDN. “He stood up and was walking good today and he was moving his hands. Everything is going to be ok, according to the doctors. God answered all the prayers.”
Cedillo, a 24-year-old native of Guatemala, was thrown from his mount, Spectacular Road, who stumbled in the run down the backstretch while racing on the lead in a $5,000 claiming race. The rider was catapulted forward over Spectacular Road's neck, then appeared to be struck by either his mount's hind legs or by a horse immediately behind him.
Spectacular Road continued racing and was eventually caught by an outrider.
Cedillo was a rising star on the Ohio circuit, winning the fall riding title at Mahoning Valley in 2022 and finishing fifth in the standings earlier this year.
So Happy to see Mauro Cedillo with a smile GOD It's awesome! thank you everyone for all the prayers … pic.twitter.com/30If9dxkng
— Guillermo Rodríguez (@GRodriguez1312) May 7, 2023
Frankie Dettori's farewell tour has well and truly started, with the Italian guiding Andrew Balding's Chaldean to QIPCO 2000 Guineas success on a wet day on the Rowley Mile.
“To cap off my last season with a Classic is beyond my wildest dreams, especially after what happened at Newbury last time,” Dettori told Racing Post. “My emotions are all over the place. I don't know whether to laugh, cry or enjoy it. I'm so messed up at the moment – let me soak it all in!
Some would've wondered what might've been for Dettori when he hit the post earlier in the card, losing out by a head aboard Saga for The King and Queen Consort on Coronation Day. However, Chaldean's persistence in the Group 1 gave Frankie a fairytale QIPCO 2000 Guineas victory on his last year in the saddle.
The pre-race talk had been largely about Aidan O'Brien's Auguste Rodin, who went off favourite, but he didn't live up to his 'Triple Crown' potential when finishing 12th of a field of 14. Oisin Murphy and Hi Royal finished second with huge odds of 125/1, shared most of the running with the winner, before the Juddmonte horse stormed clear of the field. Royal Scotsman who raced keenly, ran an enormous race to finish in third place.
A jubilant Dettori saluted the crowd on his way into the Winners Enclosure, before delivering his iconic Flying Dismount.
It gave Dettori a fourth QIPCO 2000 Guineas victory, who said: “It [the emotion] has really hit me now – I've got a lump in my throat. It's incredible.”
It's safe to say Chaldean's prep didn't quite go to plan, when chucking off Dettori when leaving the stalls in The Greenham Stakes at Newbury. It didn't look to have an effect with the son of Frankel completing an across-the-card double for trainer Andrew Balding.
Iconic trainer Sir Michael Stoute and legendary racehorse Sea The Stars have today been formally inducted into the QIPCO British Champions Series Hall of Fame – the official Hall of Fame for British Flat racing.
Both inductions were officially recognized with a special presentation moment at Newmarket Racecourse. Stoute and Christopher Tsui, owner of Sea The Stars, received a specially commissioned, bespoke medal from Asprey in honour of their outstanding achievements.
Champion sprinters. Champion milers. Champion middle distance horses. Champion stayers. And a Champion hurdler, too. They have all come alike to the masterful Sir Michael Stoute, who today we induct into the QIPCO British Champions Series Hall of Fame.
The ten-time Champion Trainer has accumulated more than 4,000 winners in Britain since enjoying his first success at Newmarket in 1972. Only Mark Johnston, Martin Pipe and Richard Hannon Sr have had more winners on these shores – with Stoute still not finished yet.
Stoute's massive haul includes six Derby winners, including a pair who rewrote the record books. The breath-taking Shergar won by a record margin of ten lengths in 1981, while Workforce clocked a record time, that still stands, in 2010. His other winners of the premier Classic have been Shahrastani, who beat Dancing Brave in a dramatic 1986 renewal, plus Kris Kin (2003), North Light (2004), and Desert Crown (2022). The last-named remains unbeaten heading into this current season (2023).
The doyen of the training ranks, 77, has had a record 82 winners at Royal Ascot, including Estimate's unforgettable Gold Cup triumph for Queen Elizabeth II in 2013, and nobody has trained more winners of prestige prizes such as the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes (six), Juddmonte International (six),
Eclipse (six), Lockinge (eight), Falmouth Stakes (six) or Yorkshire Oaks (nine).
He has also plundered a record-equalling six victories in the Irish Oaks and captured some of the biggest races around the world, securing eight victories at the Breeders' Cup in America and successive triumphs in the Japan Cup. The Champion Hurdle? That came with the nimble Kribensis, in 1990, when owner Sheikh Mohammed had a brief dalliance with jump racing.
Stoute has a reputation for giving his horses plenty of time and excelling with older horses, but in truth the man with a calming voice, a hundred facial expressions and deep belly laugh is a marvel with one and all. You don't win 29 Classics around Europe, as he has, unless you can have young horses ready to peak a couple of years before they even have a full set of teeth.
Despite more than half a century of accolades and sustained success, there remains an air of mystery around the Barbados-born septuagenarian, knighted in 1988 for promotion of sports tourism in his native island country. His racecourse appearances are rare these days and he is well known for being coy with interviewers and giving them the slip, preferring to let his horses do the talking. However, ask him about his beloved West Indies cricket team and you might get a more detailed discussion.
West Indies were the dominant force in the 1980s, a decade when Stoute also often revelled in hitting his rivals for six. He was Champion Trainer in 1981, 1986 and 1989 (despite Aliysa being disqualified after winning The Oaks that year) with his brilliant horses during this decade including terrific talents such as Marwell, Hard Fought, Shergar, Dafayna, Sally Brown, Green Desert, Shadeed, Ajdal, Sonic Lady, Scottish Reel, Unite, Doyoun, Musical Bliss, Shahrastani and Zilzal. As a collective, they perfectly showcased his talent for training all manner of thoroughbreds, over a range of distances.
Shergar was Michael Holding and Viv Richards rolled into one; silky smooth yet wonderfully destructive at the same time. He established himself as one of the all-time greats, with his jaw-dropping Derby demolition under teenager Walter Swinburn an indelible image. That came after similarly wide margin wins in his trial races at Sandown Park and Chester, and after Epsom he breezed home in the Irish Derby at The Curragh before landing the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot. He had been retired to stud by his owner, the Aga Khan, when kidnapped in 1983 and sadly never seen again.
Stoute gained two more Trainers' Championships in the 90s, taking the spoils in 1994 and 1997. Ezzoud played a pivotal role in the former triumph, landing both the Eclipse and Juddmonte International, while Entrepreneur got the ball rolling in 1997 by landing the 2000 Guineas before Singspiel, winner of both the Coronation Cup and Juddmonte International, and Pilsudski, who took the Coral-Eclipse and Champion Stakes, put a stamp on things. The same campaign, Singspiel won the Dubai World Cup at the start of the year, while Pilsudski landed the Japan Cup at the end of it.
Other fabulous horses for Stoute during the 90s included Hellenic and Pure Grain, both Yorkshire Oaks winners; Stagecraft (Prince of Wales's Stakes), Saddlers' Hall and Opera House (both Coronation Cup) and Soviet Line, a twotime Lockinge winner.
At the start of the new millennium, Stoute trailed his great Newmarket rival, Sir Henry Cecil, 10/5 in the Trainers' Championships. But, by 2009, he had matched him despite the emergence of Aidan O'Brien, the serial Irish Champion. Stoute won the title in 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2009, with O'Brien filling the gaps.
Only Alec Taylor, who won the championship a dozen times between 1907 and 1925, has ever been Champion Trainer on more occasions.
King's Best (2000 Guineas), Kalanisi (Champion Stakes), Regal Rose (Cheveley Park), Daliapour (Coronation Cup) and Petrushka (Yorkshire Oaks) were key in him triumphing in 2000, while Kris Kin (Derby), Islington (emulating her mum, Hellenic, in the Yorkshire Oaks) and the outstanding Russian Rhythm (1000 Guineas, Coronation Stakes and Nassau) led the way for him in 2003. Any punter who blindly put £1 on his 443 runners in 2005 would have had a lot of fun, plus made a profit of £54.47 into the bargain. Peeress (Lockinge and the Kingdom of Bahrain Sun Chariot Stakes) and Notnowcato (Juddmonte International) helped Stoute prevail again in 2006.
The King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes was the dazzling highlight of his 2009 success. He was responsible for the first three home in Conduit, Tartan Bearer and Ask, with Ryan Moore aboard the victor. Moore has been an integral part in the Stoute story, riding more than 600 winners for him in the past 20 years.
Harbinger was a stunning 11-length winner of the King George for Stoute in 2010, a few weeks after Workforce had stopped the clock at 2min 31.33sec in the Derby. The latter would also go on to scoop the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.
However, an eleventh trainers' title eluded Stoute, with Richard Hannon Sr edging him about by about £95,000, having had about 800 more runners. Stoute's title-winning days are almost certainly behind him because, by design, he trains under 80 horses these days. But he continues to polish equine jewels with a craft and care that he has done since the early 1970s, when two smart handicap sprinters, Alphadamus and Blue Cashmere, gave him early momentum following a spell as assistant trainer to Pat Rohan, having moved to Britain as a horse-mad youngster in 1964.
In the past decade and into his seventies, Stoute has remained in racing's fast lane with horses such as Integral (2014 Falmouth and Sun Chariot); Ulysses (2017 Eclipse and Juddmonte International); Poet's Word (2018 Prince of Wales's Stakes and King George); Mustashry (2019 Lockinge); Crystal Ocean (2019 Prince of Wales's Stakes) and Dream Of Dreams (2020 Sprint Cup).
And only last year, he and long-time ally Saeed Suhail won another Derby together (after Kris Kin 20 years earlier), this time with the sublime Desert Crown. In the process, Stoute became the oldest trainer to win the great race, aged 76. And in the autumn, Bay Bridge provided him with a first success on QIPCO British Champions Day at Ascot by landing the QIPCO Champion Stakes.
Stoute becomes just the third trainer to be inducted into the QIPCO British Champions Series Hall of Fame, following in the legendary footsteps of Vincent
O'Brien and Sir Henry Cecil.
About the QIPCO British Champions Series Hall of Fame:
The QIPCO British Champions Series Hall of Fame launched in April 2021 and lives online at Horseracinghof.com. It celebrates the Modern Greats of British Flat racing from 1970 onwards, across four categories: Horses; Jockeys; Trainers and Special Contributors. Current Hall of Famers are:
Jockeys: Lester Piggott (2021), Pat Eddery (2021), Frankie Dettori (2022), Willie Carson OBE (2022) Trainers: Vincent O'Brien (2021), Sir Henry Cecil (2022), Sir Michael Stoute (2023) Horses: Frankel (2021), Brigadier Gerard (2021), Nijinsky (2021), Mill Reef (2021), Dayjur (2021), Dancing Brave (2022), Galileo (2022), Sea The Stars (2023) Special Contributors: Her Majesty The Queen (2021)
Information about new Hall of Famers, together with stories and features about some of racing's most important moments and influential figures, are published throughout the year and in the build-up to QIPCO British Champions Day (21st October 2023), creating opportunities for fans to learn and engage with the rich history of the sport.
A Hall of Fame exhibition is also housed within the National Horseracing Museum in Newmarket, where visitors can enjoy a display of special mementoes belonging to Hall of Famers and their connections and find out more about the Hall of Fame itself through displays and interactive activities. See NHRM.co.uk for more information on how to visit.
About QIPCO British Champions Series:
QIPCO British Champions Series showcases 35 of the UK's finest Flat races, including three of the world's top five. The Series features at all of the UK's most iconic Flat festivals, from the Derby and St Leger, to Glorious Goodwood and Royal Ascot, presenting unparalleled, quality racing across 10 of the country's finest racecourses.
The Series includes world-class sporting action across five different categories – Sprint, Mile, Middle Distance, Long Distance and Fillies & Mares.
Five top-class races mark the climax of the Series on the Ultimate Raceday, QIPCO British Champions Day at Ascot on Saturday 21st October, where the world's best compete at the nation's richest raceday.
Put simply, QIPCO British Champions Series shines the spotlight on the best horses, the best jockeys and the best racecourses, so that millions worldwide can follow the finest Flat racing.
Veteran trainer Kieron Magee secured Laurel Park's spring meet trainer title, and five-pound apprentice Axel Concepcion earned the jockey title when he rode two winners Sunday before the track capped the meet later in the day.
Magee, 62, entered the eight-race, closing day program without a starter but an 11-8 lead over Jamie Ness in the trainer standings. Hugh McMahon won twice Sunday to pass Ness for second, while Brittany Russell wound up fourth with seven wins.
For the meet, which began April 1, Magee won at a 42 percent clip (11-for-42) while also registering five wins and four seconds to finish with a 77 percent in-the-money success rate. His horses banked $299,085 in purse earnings with three of his winners – Oxide, Aristocat and Honor the Fleet – being claimed.
“It feels great because I'm down to 25 horses. To pull off a training title with 25 horses, that takes some doing,” Magee said. “I lost a bunch of them but they won on the way out. Everybody that got claimed won. I was thrilled to win it with such few starts. To have a high percentage is fantastic.”
A native of Ireland who worked as an exercise rider for recently retired trainer Dale Capuano after coming to the U.S., Magee led all Maryland trainers in wins from 2014-2016 and now owns or shares a total of 10 meet titles at Laurel and historic Pimlico Race Course. It was his first meet title since Pimlico's 2018 spring stand.
Magee registered at least one win on 10 of 16 racing days, including a double April 15. He won with three straight starters April 15-16 and registered a stakes win in the off-the-turf Henry S. Clark April 29 with Classier, a Grade 3 winner for Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert in 2021 that has won both his starts since being claimed out of a March 19 win at Laurel.
“We claimed him for 40 and he came back and won the optional two and then we won a hundred grander with him,” Magee said. “He's doing great. The phone's been ringing. People want to buy him, but I don't think it's going to happen. My partner said, 'Let's not sell him. Let's have some fun.'”
Magee is based year-round at Pimlico, where live racing in Maryland moves for the 15-day Preakness Meet starting Thursday, May 11 and running through Sunday, June 4. The 148th Preakness Stakes (G1), middle jewel of the Triple Crown, will be run May 20 with the 99th Black-Eyed Susan (G2) for 3-year-old fillies contested on Preakness eve, May 19.
“I always love being back at Pimlico. It's home for me,” Magee said. “Hopefully we can keep it going.”
Concepcion, who turned 18 March 16, entered Sunday with 12 wins, one behind co-leaders Jevian Toledo and Jeiron Barbosa. Concepcion won the opener on I Have Courage ($5.40) to make it a three-way tie before riding Fancee Grace C ($5.20) to victory in Race 5 and earn his first riding title.
A native of Puerto Rico, where he won 21 races after attending the Escuela Vocacional Hipica jockey school and turning pro Jan. 1, Concepcion registered wins on nine of 16 racing days with doubles April 1, 13, 14 and 29 prior to Sunday.
Represented by agent Tom Stift, Concepcion made his Maryland debut Feb. 24 and picked up his first winner, Shinelikeadiamond, the next day at Laurel in his fifth U.S. mount. He follows in the footsteps of Barbosa, who won three riding titles last year in Maryland and was a finalist for the Eclipse Award as champion apprentice.
Prior to Barbosa, the only apprentices in the past decade to win a meet title at Laurel were Yomar Ortiz (winter 2013) and Julio Correa (summer 2019). Correa was also an Eclipse finalist.
“I'm very confident for my work and the job Tom does for me. I don't have pressure. The wins are coming and thank God for two wins today,” Concepcion said. “I ride all my horses with confidence. Thanks to all the owners and trainers that help me. In the morning I work very hard for this, my first meet that I win. I'm very grateful. Thanks to everyone for giving me the opportunity. I'm ready for Pimlico.”
Toledo, Maryland's four-time leading rider including 2021 and 2022, led all jockeys at the spring meet with $632,615 in purse earnings. Toledo, who did not ride Saturday or Sunday at Laurel, won four races April 29 including three stakes – the Clark with Classier, Native Dancer on Nimitz Class and Primonetta aboard Princess Kokachin. He also won the Weber City Miss April 15 with 3-year-old filly Cats Inthe Timber.
GOD It's awesome!
thank you everyone for all the prayers … pic.twitter.com/30If9dxkng
