Tag: People

Tony Martinez has been named the new track superintendent at Horseshoe Indianapolis. Martinez is set to replace current track superintendent Roy Smith, who has announced his retirement at the end of the 2022 season at Horseshoe Indianapolis.

Martinez has been involved in track maintenance for more than 30 years and brings more than 15 years of experience as a track superintendent. The third generation track man has expertise in all surfaces and is especially know for his work in fine grading, track moisture evaluations, extensive harrowing, and soil composition. Over the years, he has been involved with the construction of more than 25 training and arena facilities. Martinez has served as superintendent at seven racetracks over his career with his most recent post at Gulfstream Park in South Florida.

“We are extremely pleased to bring in Tony as our next track superintendent,” said Eric Halstrom, Vice President and General Manager of Racing. “Roy (Smith) has developed a great track maintenance program at our facility. We look forward to welcoming Tony in to continue the hard work already implemented. We have a great foundation for both our dirt and turf courses and are confident in Tony's skills to take the lead in this department.”

Horseshoe Indianapolis underwent a total track renovation during the 2018 racing season with an investment that topped $800,000. Prior to that, a new $3.3 million track maintenance building was constructed with upgrades in equipment added for both surfaces.

“I'm very excited to join the team at Horseshoe Indianapolis,” said Martinez. “Their facility is state of the art and being able to walk into a program like this is a great opportunity for me. I look forward to working with both the Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse programs in Indiana.”

Martinez will begin his duties alongside Smith this fall. Smith will remain on property in a consulting position until his retirement at the end of the year.

“Having a top-notch track man like Roy (Smith) is hard to replace,” added Joe Morris, Senior Vice President of Racing for Caesars Entertainment. “Being able to secure a talent like Tony (Martinez) is another way we can continue our upward momentum in the Indiana horse racing industry. It shows our continued commitment to both the Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse programs. We strive to provide the best possible racing surfaces and will continue that goal under the guidance of someone who is a third generation track man and who is invested in our vision in taking our program to the next level.”

The 20th season of live Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse racing extends through Wednesday, Nov. 23. Live racing is conducted at 2:30 p.m. Monday through Wednesday with Thursday post times set for 2:10 p.m. A total of 12 Saturdays will feature live racing in 2022 highlighted by the 28th running of the Grade 3 $300,000 Indiana Derby and the 27th running of the Grade 3 $200,000 Indiana Oaks set for Saturday, July 9. For more information on live racing at Horseshoe Indianapolis, visit www.caesars.com/horseshoe-indianapolis.

The post Tony Martinez Named Track Superintendent At Horseshoe Indianapolis appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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The last time Ramon Dominguez was at Monmouth Park he was at the height of his illustrious career as a jockey, riding First Dude to a third-place finish in the 2010 Haskell Invitational.

That seems like a lifetime ago for the National Racing Museum Hall of Famer and three-time Eclipse Award winner, who was back at the Jersey Shore racetrack on Monday to support his wife, Sharon, a part owner of first-time starter Login Required in the third race (the 2-year-old colt was disqualified from first and placed third for interference).

“Do I miss riding? Not at all, not after all of these years,” said the 45-year-old Dominguez. “I am in the next phase of my life.”

Once one of the nation's premier jockeys – he won 4,985 races with earnings in excess of $191 million during his career – Dominguez was forced to retired five months after suffering a traumatic brain injury in a spill at Aqueduct Racetrack on Jan. 18, 2013.

It has kept him away from riding but not from the sport he loves.

“I'm staying busy with a lot of different projects,” said Dominguez, who was at Monmouth Park with his sons Alex and Matt. “Racing is something I love. All of the things I am doing allow me to stay involved with it in a very rewarding way.”

The native of Caracas, Venezuela, serves as the head of the New York Track Chaplaincy. He also created the 360 Gentle Touch crop that is widely in use now. In addition, he serves as a consultant for HISA and oversees a program on YouTube for horse racing in Spanish.

“I'm keeping busy and I am still very much involved in racing,” said Dominguez, who began riding in the United States in 1996, leading the nation in wins in 2001 and 2003.

Dominguez earned the Eclipse Award as the sport's top rider from 2010-2012, leading the nation in earnings in all three years, after having won the Isaac Murphy Award in 2004 for having the highest winning percentage in the country. He was named the winner of the George Woolf Memorial Award in 2012 and the Mike Venezia Award in 2013 before being inducted into the sport's Hall of Fame in 2016.

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Andy Mathis is a 43-year old trainer based out of Golden Gate Fields. He loves to come to Del Mar every summer and try his luck. This year it's been very good.

With only 24 starts, Mathis has seven wins at the meet, good enough to place him seventh in the trainer standings. It has Mathis sitting on cloud nine.

“Better than I could have expected,” Mathis says. “Sometimes you get a little luck and there's plenty of time you don't.”

Mathis brought 28 horses to Del Mar at the start of the meet. Some have been claimed and the rest he'll take back up to Northern California.

“My plan has never been to come down here and stay down here,” Mathis says. “I fully understand people who want to do that. I'm raising my kids in Walnut Creek, they're in school so that's my home. I'm not trying to make a new home.”

Mathis comes to Del Mar a week before the meet begins and stays thru the last week of racing.

“We don't come here for a vacation,” Mathis says. “It's all work. We run hard and go hard the whole way and whatever happens, happens.”

Mathis first started making the trip south in 2014 and he's done it every year since, except for the first year of COVID. He got his trainer's license in 2001 and has been based at Golden Gate Fields since then. He says he first became interested in working in horse racing while he was in college.

“I was going to a community college in San Francisco,” Mathis says, “and I was wrapping that up, figuring I didn't want to go to school anymore. I had been going to the races at Golden Gate Fields and Bay Meadows and thought that (horse racing) could be something I'd like to get into. I got a job on the backside with Bill McLean at Golden Gate Fields and kind of fell in love with it.”

For a boy who grew up in Sonoma, Calif., a town just north of the Bay Area, Del Mar has always held a special charm for him.

“I have a good group of horses, a good group of Cal-breds,” Mathis says. “I like coming down here for the weather and the beach. The whole town, everybody knows there's a racetrack and it's a big deal. I think the thing for me is to be a part of that, to be racing in an environment like that. It's exciting and you want to do good.”

Ironically, Mathis wasn't even present for his first winner at Del Mar, an Argentina-bred horse named Igor in 2006. Instead, he had sent the horse to Art Sherman to run here.

“They're all special here,” he offers. “You win a cheap claiming race and it's exciting because it's hard to win here. I never assume I'm going to get back in the winner's circle. You run horses here you think are alive, that they're going to run well…believe me anytime I win a race here at Del Mar I know it could be a couple years before I get back into the winner's circle.“

Lately, that doesn't seem to be a problem for Andy Mathis.

The post ‘They’re All Special Here’: Northern California Trainer Andy Mathis Enjoying Big Del Mar Meet appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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It came down to the last race on the final day, but Laurel Park's summer meet came to a thrilling finish Sunday with a new name and a couple of familiar ones at the top of the standings.

Rudy Sanchez-Salomon edged Claudio Gonzalez by one win, 19-18, to earn his first career training title. The two entered closing weekend tied but went winless on Friday and Saturday before Sanchez-Salomon, 50, captured Sunday's opener with 6-5 favorite Please Marry Me ($4.60), who he also owns as J R Sanchez Racing Stable.

Sanchez-Salomon had two other starters Sunday, running second with Icy Reply in Race 2 and seventh with Heartburn in the eighth-race finale. He clinched at least a tie when Gonzalez's Eye'n a Deal was a late scratch in Race 5 after the trainer failed to win with starters in Races 2 and 3 and earned the title outright when Gonzalez was third with 5-2 favorite Tilted Tiara in Race 8.

“I don't know exactly what I feel right now, but I'm very happy,” Sanchez-Salomon said. “It's been a great meet. Everything has been great for us. We've been very blessed. I thank God and thank my help and thank everybody. I have no words to say how I feel, really. I appreciate everything.”

Sanchez-Salomon was introduced to horses growing up on the family farm in his native Mexico. After arriving in the U.S. he first visited the racetrack at old Garden State Park in New Jersey, which closed in 2001. Working for trainers Scott Lake and Dane Kobiskie, he wound up at Monmouth Park before ultimately landing in Maryland.

According to Equibase statistics, Sanchez-Salomon ran seventh with his first career starter, Legend Keeper, April 15, 2017 at Laurel. His first winner came May 28, 2017 with 36-1 long shot Nairet, a 4-year-old filly he had claimed out of her prior start for $5,000, at historic Pimlico Race Course.

Sanchez-Salomon registered three multi-win days during the summer meet, including a career-high four June 24 and a triple July 23. He has 153 wins and more than $4.4 million in purse earnings lifetime and ranks third in Maryland this year with 42 wins, trailing only Gonzalez (55) – the state's leading trainer since 2017 and a 19-time meet champion – and Jamie Ness (45).

To date, Sanchez-Salomon has trained 11 six-figure earners including multiple stakes winners Clubman, Shake Em Loose and Can the Queen. It was Shake Em Loose that brought the trainer into the spotlight earlier this year, after the horse he claimed for $16,000 last fall won the Heft and Private Terms, ran third in the Federico Tesio and was briefly under consideration for the 147th Preakness Stakes (G1) after the trainer – who also owns the horse – made him a late nominee to the Triple Crown.

“I had a good feeling about the first two we ran today and the last one, she's been a filly that we've been working with. We think she's got a little potential,” Sanchez-Salomon said. “We tried not to get caught up in it. We have to thank God for what he gives us, but you always want to be the winner of something.”

Jevian Toledo and Horacio Karamanos finished tied for leading jockey honors with 31 wins apiece. They also shared Laurel's summer meet title in 2020.

Toledo took a 30-28 edge into the final weekend before Karamanos cut the deficit in half with one winner Saturday. Karamanos notched back-to-back wins Sunday with Ness-trained Romantic Comedy ($14.40) in Race 3 and Millean ($6.80) in Race 4 to go ahead by one, but Toledo countered in Race 5 with Night Boss ($6.20).

Neither rider was able to win with their final two mounts Sunday. Karamanos was third on Israeli Army in Race 6 and Tauber in Race 7, while Toledo finished second in Race 7 on Balistico and sixth aboard Cumulonimbus in the Race 8 finale.

“We won a couple today, so it was a good day. It's great to tie for the title,” Karamanos said. “It was a tough meeting for everybody, especially for Jevian and me.”

Karamanos now owns or shares seven titles in Maryland, four at Laurel and three at Pimlico. The Argentina native has also won multiple meet titles at Colonial Downs in neighboring Virginia, where he is the track's all-time leading rider.

A winner of more than 1,500 races in his native country before coming to the U.S. in 2000, Karamanos landed full-time in Maryland in 2002 and tied a Laurel record with seven winners on a single card that October. Represented by agent Kevin Witte, he earned his 2,000th career victory on Father's Day, June 17, 2017, at Laurel.

Karamanos registered eight multi-win days during the summer meet including hat tricks on June 24 and July 16. He also won two races June 19 capped by the $75,000 Find aboard Nick Papagiorgio.

“I'm very happy. I'm so glad to win in Maryland. I always say Maryland is my home. This is where I've lived for 20 years,” Karamanos said. “It makes me so happy to win. Every win is important, and to win the title is even better. There are good riders in Maryland, so it's tough. It's good competition, so I'm very happy to win races and the title.”

Toledo, a native of Puerto Rico who turned 28 on Saturday, now has 10 riding titles in Maryland and has finished first in three of the four meets this year. He also won Laurel's winter stand and the Preakness Meet at Pimlico, and was second by one win to apprentice Jeiron Barbosa at Laurel's spring stand.

Represented by agent Marty Leonard, Toledo was Maryland's overall leading rider in 2015, 2017 and 2021. He is first again this year with 101 wins, with Jean Alvelo (69) second and Karamanos (60) third.

Toledo had six multi-win days during the meet, registering a triple July 30 that included Alottahope's 15-length victory in the $75,000 Star de Naskra. He also won the $100,000 Caesar's Wish July 2 with Hybrid Eclipse.

“It feels great. I'm just happy to be here. This is my hope and I'm happy with all the opportunities I've been getting from all the trainers and owners. I have to thank them and all the employees at the barn, they're the ones that do the job and my agent he does a great job, too,” Toledo said. “I think every horse I ride is special, even the ones where I don't win.”

Racing shifts to the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium starting Aug. 26 and running through Labor Day, Sept. 5 before the Maryland Jockey Club hosts a fall meet at Pimlico Sept. 9-25.

Notes: Jockey Sheldon Russell doubled Sunday aboard Vibrant Judy ($5.20) in Race 2 and Premiere Choice ($16.80) in Race 7 … Team Hanley's Vibrant Judy, a sophomore daughter of champion Bernardini, was triumphant in her career debut, winning the seven-furlong maiden special weight for fillies and mares ages 3, 4 and 5 in front-running fashion and covering the distance in 1:24 over a fast main track … Premiere Choice also led from start to finish to earn his second straight win in Sunday's feature, an entry-level allowance for 3-year-olds and up sprinting six furlongs on a firm Fort Marcy turf course. The winning time was 1:08.87 … There were mandatory payouts of $940.28 in the Rainbow 6 and $471.75 in the Late Pick 5.

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