Tag: People

Ready Made Racing's Dazzlingdominika gamely battled to victory Friday at Churchill Downs and provided young trainer Will Walden his first career win.

Walden is the son of former trainer Elliott Walden, who is president and CEO of WinStar Farm in Versailles, Kentucky. He has about a dozen horses in training, but will not have any for WinStar.

A 2-year-old Ghostzapper filly, ridden by Gerardo Corrales, Dazzlingdominika led from the gate but was collared entering the stretch by Ski Hope. She knuckled down when called upon, regained her advantage nearing the eighth pole, and edged away before crossing the finish line one-length clear of runner-up Vicki Rose.

Janet Is Ready, the 11-10 favorite, was third in the field of seven.

Rebounding from a seventh-place finish in her career debut April 29 at Keeneland, Dazzlingdominika covered five furlongs in :58.73 to take the maiden special race and provide her trainer the milestone. She returned $17.

Ready Made Racing paid $30,000 for Dazzlingdominika, who is out of the Trappe Shot mare Trappingsofsilver, at the 2021 Keeneland September yearling sale where she was offered by Blandford Stud.

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Emerald Downs lifts the lid on its 27th season Sunday with a new voice high atop the grandstand.

Bill Downes takes over the microphone when the nine-race card begins at 2:15 p.m. The 52-day meet runs through September 18 and features 23 stakes events including the 87th renewal of the $150,000 Longacres Mile on August 14.

A Chicago native, Downes becomes only the fourth track announcer in track history, following Robert Geller (1996-2015), Matt Dinerman (2015-2017), and Tom Harris (2018-2021).

“I'm excited to learn about all the horses and horsemen participating in horse racing at Emerald Downs,” Downes said. “From my previous experiences here as a fan and handicapper, what impressed me was the on-track experience.”

Downes, who spent the last nine seasons calling races at Indiana Grand near Indianapolis, recently drove from Pittsburgh, PA, to Auburn, Wash., a 2,500-mile trip that included stops in his hometown of Chicago, as well as Rapid City, Billings and Spokane. The only thing missing upon arrival was warm weather, but things figure to heat up soon.

At Emerald Downs, the 27th season is highlighted by the 87th renewal of the $150,000 Longacres Mile on Sunday, Aug. 14. The track's signature race has been raised $50,000 in value for 2022 and anchors a stakes quadruple-header featuring the $75,000 Emerald Distaff, $75,000 Muckleshoot Derby, and $75,000 Washington Oaks. The Distaff, Derby and Oaks are all up $25,000 from 2021.

Overnight purses, meanwhile, are up 20 percent from last season and takeout on Win/Place/Show wagers has been reduced to 14.7 percent—lowest in North America.

Alex Cruz, who edged Julien Couton 75-74 for the 2021 riding title, bids for a third straight riding crown in 2022 while Juan Gutierrez—the track's all-time leading rider—begins the season needing just three wins to reach the 1,500-win mark at Emerald Downs. Javier Matias, Kevin Radke and Jennifer Whitaker—among the top 10 all-time at Emerald Downs—return for another season while Kevin Orozco, last year's top big-money rider with five stakes wins, also returns.

Joe Toye bagged his first Emerald Downs training title last year with 29 wins but faces a tough task while gunning for a repeat. Frank Lucarelli, second last season with 26 wins, is the track's all-time leader with 1,093 wins and figures to make a strong bid for his eighth career Emerald Downs crown. Jeff Metz, a four-time leading trainer, and Blaine Wright, with two titles, also have strong stables for 2022, while Washington Hall of Famers Tim McCanna, Howard Belvoir and Doris Harwood also figure prominently. Kay Cooper, last year's leading stakes trainer, is another strong contender.

John Parker's yellow and black silks led all owners with 19 trips to the winner's circle in 2021, the fourth time the Lake Bay resident has topped the owners' standings. He and trainer Candi Cryderman have a strong stable of horses in a bid for a fifth title in 2022.

Windribbon and Papa's Golden Boy, second and fourth in last year's Longacres Mile, are both training forwardly for 2022. A 6-year-old California-bred gelding owned by Seamist Racing and trained by Blaine Wright, Windribbon missed by a head last year, opening a 2 ½-length lead in midstretch before Background nailed him in the last jump. Papa's Golden Boy, a 6-year-old Washington-bred gelding owned by the Lusk family of Puyallup, has been the state's fastest sprinter the last two years. Background, meanwhile, has fared well since his Mile triumph, recently winning a $106,000 allowance race at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark.

Other top horses returning for 2022 include stakes winners Ms Lynn, Midnight Mojo, Daffodil Sweet, Koron, A View From Above and 2020 Horse of the Meeting Dutton. Top Executive, 2021 Horse of the Meeting after sweeping all three open stakes for 3-year-olds, moves into the older horse division and gives Wright a terrific one-two punch with Windribbon. Owned by John and Janene Maryanski and Gail and Gerald Schneider, Top Executive is 5 for 9 lifetime with $125,648 in earnings.

A 23-race stakes schedule begins with the $50,000 Seattle Stakes for 3-year-old fillies and $50,000 Auburn Stakes for 3-year-olds, both on Sunday, June 19. The $50,000 Budweiser Stakes on Sunday, June 26, is first stop 3-year-olds and up on the road to the Longacres Mile.

Opening week features a single day of racing followed by a pair of two-day weekends (May 21-22, May 28-29) before settling into a Friday thru Sunday schedule the weekend of June 3-5.

Emerald Downs is located right off Highway 167 in Auburn, Washington.

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Herman Braude's Jimmy the Kid cruised to a front-running 2 ¾-length triumph in Friday's fifth race at historic Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Md., giving jockey Lauralea Glaser a win with her first mount in 398 days.

Jimmy the Kid ($8), a 4-year-old gelding trained by Richard Sillaman, ran six furlongs in 1:11.01 over a fast main track in the claiming event for 3-year-olds and up that had never won two races.

“Jimmy is a horse I get on every morning,” Glaser said. “Looking at his past races, he prefers to be on the front end. He's pretty quick out of the gate so I let him break, let him get out front, and there were some other horses that came up early to us. He seemed pretty relaxed with it so I just sat and he drew away from them going around the turn and when I asked him to kick on he just kicked on.

“It feels great, especially for Ricky,” she added. “He's always been good to me and I've worked on and off for him for the last eight years. It's always good to kind of come back home and work for somebody like that.”

Glaser, 28, had not ridden in a race since last April 11 at Laurel Park. She rode only 12 races in 2021 and now has 83 career wins from 873 mounts since 2014.

“It was just the way things happened,” she said. “Last spring, Laurel shut down to do some repairs. I was working for [trainer] Cal Lynch at the time and he was going up to Fair Hill and I didn't want to make the move up there, so I took a little time off. Then Ricky called me and said he was headed to Tampa for the winter, so I went down there and galloped for the winter and came back here. [I'm] just taking things as they come.”

A native of Bliss, N.Y., a small farming community of little more than 500 residents located about an hour southeast of Buffalo, Glaser grew up with horses. After graduating from Hall of Fame jockey Chris McCarron's North American Racing Academy she embarked on a pro riding career in Maryland.

Glaser won her first professional race in October 2014 and 58 more over the next three years before deciding to take a break. She didn't ride a race between Dec. 15, 2017 and July 27, 2019, picking up the first win of her comeback July 27, 2019. Glaser had 17 wins from 75 mounts in 2020, and has earned nearly $2 million in purses in her career.

“I've tried to make a point of doing this because it makes me happy,” she said. “I've tried to do this full-time, riding races, and it ends up being more stressful than fun and that's not why I got into it. I try to pick and choose and do it just to make me happy.”

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Dylan Davis reached 1,000 career victories with a stylish late-rallying finish aboard Heels Together in Race 5 on Friday at Belmont Park. Davis guided the Christophe Clement-trained filly from off the pace to break her maiden by two lengths over the main track.

“It feels great. Obviously, I couldn't have done this without the horses, my agent Mike Migliore and my supporters – countless trainers and owners to get me here,” Davis said. “It feels really special. I love doing this and I love the game.

“I wasn't really keeping track of the number I was at,” Davis added, with a laugh. “Mike kept telling me I was getting closer and closer and I just keep doing what I'm doing.”

Davis executed a patient ride aboard Heels Together in the $40,000 maiden claimer, settling in fifth-of-eight down the backstretch before swinging her five-wide in the turn and giving a strong ride down the stretch to pick off rivals and complete the 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:20.50 over the fast main track. Heels Together, a 4-year-old Hard Spun bay owned by Hoolie Racing Stable, paid $8.90 for a $2 win ticket.

Davis, a 27-year-old native of Manhasset, N.Y., teamed up with Clement to earn another milestone when guiding Mutamakina to victory in the 2021 E.P. Taylor at Woodbine to secure the first Grade 1 win of his career.

“Christophe is a trainer that really pushed me along through the tougher circuit here,” Davis said. “He gave me a lot of opportunities. What I needed is someone with the support like him to help get the job done.”

The son of accomplished jockey and current NYRA circuit trainer Robbie Davis, Dylan Davis began his riding career in 2012 at Saratoga Race Course and guided his first winner, Soldier Sam, to victory in a claiming race in September of that year at Suffolk Downs. His first stakes win came aboard Henny Jenney in the Inaugural on May 11, 2014 at Presque Isle Downs just two weeks before piloting Tell All You Know to a stakes coup in the Honor the Hero at Canterbury Park.

Davis celebrated a breakout year in 2018, earning a trio of Grade 3 victories in the Soaring Softly aboard Nootka Sound for his first career graded win, the Toboggan aboard Great Stuff and the Westchester on Tale of Silence. He earned nine other stakes victories that year, all of them at NYRA tracks.

He recorded a record year in 2021 for earnings [$9,493,444] when he visited the winner's circle 130 times from 927 starts. Davis' Grade 1 triumph aboard Mutamakina in the E.P. Taylor came that October with a stalking trip and a well-timed ride to take the lead and hold off the late-charging La Dragontea by a neck for Clement. Davis also earned two other graded wins aboard Mutamakina in 2021, taking the Grade 2 Dance Smartly at Woodbine and a repeat win in the Grade 3 Long Island at Belmont.

This year, Davis earned his first riding title when he posted 63 wins at the 2021-22 Aqueduct winter meet, finishing nine wins the better of Trevor McCarthy. The meet included three four-win days for Davis and victories in six stakes races for total purse earnings of $3,411,574.

Other graded stakes wins at NYRA for Davis include the Grade 2 Kelso Handicap [Pat On the Back, 2019], the Grade 3 Withers [Max Player, 2020], the Grade 3 Futurity [Second of July, 2020], the Grade 3 Turnback the Alarm Handicap [Gibberish, 2021], and the Grade 3 Distaff Handicap [2022, Glass Ceiling].

Davis said Pat On the Back and Mutamakina stand out among his 1,000 winners.

“Pat On the Back was my first special horse and following him, Mutamakina,” Davis said. “The horses always give me 100 percent. Every horse is meaningful because every horse tries their best and runs their heart out. I'm thankful for every horse.”

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