Tag: People

Bill Castle said in early March that jockey Ramon Vazquez would be making a major circuit change in 2022. Castle, who is Vazquez's agent, just wasn't sure the direction.

“Could be north,” Castle said. “Could be south, could be east, could be west.”

A post-Oaklawn fixture in recent years at Prairie Meadows, Lone Star Park and Remington Park, Vazquez is heading west, specifically to Southern California, where he will begin riding regularly at Santa Anita April 9, Castle said Sunday morning.

Castle was originally planning to send Vazquez to Kentucky, then New York, after the Oaklawn meeting ended May 8. But the direction changed when Southern California stalwarts Flavien Prat and Umberto Rispoli announced in early March that they would be relocating to New York.

“We're doing it,” Castle said. “We're all in. We're looking forward to it. I think that they'll realize that this is a rider that likes to get up in the morning. He goes out and works his five, six, seven because he loves it. He loves to do it. He enjoys this business. So, I think they're going to see a very happy, very lightweight rider, that weighs 112. I think they're going to be thrilled.”

Castle said Vazquez's final day as a regular this season at Oaklawn is April 3. Vazquez is scheduled to ride Un Ojo in the $1.25 million Arkansas Derby (G1), Dream Lith in the $600,000 Fantasy Stakes (G3) and Mo Mosa in the $400,000 Oaklawn Mile (G3) April 2 and Lone Rock in the $150,000 Temperence Hill Stakes April 3.

Castle said he will continue to represent 2019 Oaklawn riding champion David Cohen (Kentucky and New York) and, hopefully, 7-pound apprentice Erick Medellin (next venue undecided) after the Oaklawn meeting ends. Castle said he will immediately be on the ground in Southern California to hustle business for Vazquez.

“We're flying together and our two cars are being flat bedded out there,” Castle said. “We're all in.”

Vazquez's geographical U-turn coincides with a major business uptick in the last year.

Vazquez, 38, gained national attention as the regular rider of marathon specialist Lone Rock, a millionaire multiple Grade 2 winner for 2020 Oaklawn training champion Robertino Diodoro, and scored his most lucrative career victory to date in the $1 million Rebel Stakes (G2) aboard one-eyed Un Ojo, a 75-1 long shot, Feb. 26 at Oaklawn.

In addition to the $400,000 Brooklyn Stakes (G2) at 1 ½ miles last June at Belmont Park and $250,000 Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance Stakes (G2) at 1 5/8 miles Nov. 6 at Del Mar (both aboard Lone Rock), Vazquez's other major 2021 victories included the $500,000 West Virginia Derby (G3) at Mountaineer and $300,000 Indiana Derby (G3) at Indiana Grand and the $400,000 Steve Sexton Mile Stakes (G3) at Lone Star. Vazquez also won the $400,000 Golden Rod Stakes (G2) Nov. 27 at Churchill Downs aboard Dream Lith for Diodoro.

Vazquez entered Sunday with 34 victories at the 2021-2022 Oaklawn meeting, including the $250,000 Bayakoa Stakes (G3) for older fillies and mares Feb. 12 aboard Miss Bigly for trainer Phil D'Amato.

Castle said D'Amato and Richard Baltas are among the Southern California-based trainers expected to use Vazquez. Diodoro said Sunday morning that he will have about 12 horses this summer at Del Mar, adding Vazquez will be his “main guy.”

“I just hope and pray that they (trainers) give him support,” Castle said. “Give him the opportunity, he'll deliver. He's hungry, he wants to do it, he's looking forward to doing it and he deserves the opportunity because of the two derbies, the Brooklyn, all the things that he achieved. It's a lot. That was a very good year last year and he continued this year, Thank God.”

Vazquez has almost 3,400 victories and more than $63 million in purse earnings in his career, according to Equibase, racing's official data gathering organization. He rode his first career winner in 2002 in Puerto Rico and began riding in the United States in 2011. Vazquez has ridden each season at Oaklawn since 2012 and entered Sunday with 383 career victories in Hot Springs.

Castle said it's too early to know if Vazquez will return to Oaklawn next season.

“Great question,” Castle said. “It's going to depend on California.”

The post Jockey Vazquez To Shift Tack To Southern California appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Theresia Zhang of China, a junior at the Maryland Institute College of Art, was honored March 25 as winner of The Art of Racing, a unique competition presented by 1/ST and the Maryland Jockey Club in partnership with MICA to honor the Preakness Stakes (G1), Middle Jewel of Thoroughbred racing's Triple Crown, and its impact on Baltimore.

The presentation was made in the lobby of Brown Center's Falvey Hall, a 520-seat theater that serves as a venue for intellectual and cultural life on MICA's campus, located at 1301 West Mt. Royal Ave.

A total of 147 entries of original, two-dimensional visual art that depict the unique elements of Thoroughbred racing and the Preakness Stakes were submitted for the contest. The Preakness, for 3-year-olds, will be run for the 147^th time Saturday, May 21 at historic Pimlico Race Course.

Depicted from above and titled “Speed,” Zhang's winning entry shows horse and jockey in synchronized motion and wearing matching colors as they blend into a single moving object.

“I intentionally illustrate the velocity of the horse race and the tension between the determined rider, horse and the victory through a slow motion-like shot,” Zhang wrote in her description which accompanied the piece. “Textures are used to mimic painting style while keeping it realistic and believable. The figure can be detached from the background.”

Zhang donated part of her $4,000 stipend for winning the contest to the Park Heights Renaissance (PHR). The winning artwork will be reproduced and available for sale during the Preakness, with proceeds benefiting PHR.

The Preakness and MICA have an illustrious history dating back to the 1970s, when then-MICA professor Raoul Middleman led his classes in painting murals of Pimlico. The seven murals Middleman created with his students live in perpetuity behind the track's grandstand and provide an intimate look at a tradition defined by history and character.

Contest winner Theresia Zhang: “My biggest inspiration behind the piece is how people have the same philosophy as life as in horse racing, that people are always chasing each other and you never know if you're going to win until your nose touches the finish line. This is how I put my full emotion into the painting, so that everyone can see themselves when they are working so hard and their muscles are tense, they are holding their breath and doing their best to win the race. The Preakness has a long history and is deep into the community of Baltimore. They are also working with non-profit organizations to help the locals, and I am glad that I can help.”

MICA President Sammy Hoi: “I have juried many, many competitions in my work life and usually it runs the gamut from anyone just doing a doodle to really high quality. What astounds me about this particular group of entries is that there's such a strong threshold of quality. If you look at the 147, I would say more than 100 of them you could imagine as a winning piece. I've never seen an open competition from a community of that kind of caliber. Of course many of my students participated, so we did raise the bar, but many, many community members participated, too. It speaks to me about the talent, enthusiasm and the pride of the city. I truly believe that creativity is innate to everyone. If you have the energy and the passion, the best of you will come through your art. I think the fact that the quality of the art is so high speaks a lot about the city of Baltimore, the talent that we have in Baltimore, and also what people think of Pimlico and the ownership of this event.”

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott: “To have 147 entries as we're celebrating 147 years of Preakness is great. But when you look at these pieces of art from people all over – from MICA, all over the city, all over the state – it's such a great way to honor a new tradition as we go into building a new Pimlico and a new Preakness for Park Heights and all of Maryland and all over the world. What a way to kick it off. Not only am I from Park Heights, I was a founding board member of Park Heights Renaissance. So, when you talk about an organization like PHR that's working every day to help save lives, help families stay in their homes, cleaning up the neighborhood, working with redevelopment in the neighborhood, all of those proceeds are going to go to building a better Park Heights. We know that we can't just renovate the racetrack. We have to build the neighborhood up, and now we're connecting the two in such a great way. We couldn't think of a better way to spend that money. We're really excited about this year as we come out of the pandemic, really to be back into a normal Preakness. We know what a great day it is, when you talk about the horse racing, the music, seeing friends, interacting with people, catching up, the memories that are created there. We're looking forward to expanding that this year and can't wait for May to get here.”

The post Chinese Student Wins ‘Art Of Racing’ Competition Celebrating Preakness Stakes appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Eddie Brown, who worked for many years at Aqueduct Racetrack, Belmont Park, and Saratoga Race Course, including as an exercise rider, assistant trainer, a valet to several Hall of Fame jockeys, and most recently as the New York Racing Association's assistant clerk of scales, has died at the age of 85.

Brown, who retired in 2019, lived in Seaford, N.Y.

Brown was a racetracker to the core, turning a childhood love of horse racing into a career on the track that lasted more than 65 years. He was a throwback, a colleague with great reverence for the sport with an encyclopedic knowledge of its history and a love for sharing the wisdom of what he knew with fellow employees and fans.

Brown fell in love with racing as a boy attending Jamaica Racetrack in Queens, N.Y., and made his way in the sport galloping horses and working as an assistant to trainers Frank Wright and Victor J. “Lefty” Nickerson. Joining NYRA in 1972, he worked as a valet for Hall of Fame riders Angel Cordero Jr., Steve Cauthen, Jerry Bailey, and Pat Day.

Brown was Day's valet when he won the 1989 Belmont Stakes (G1) on Easy Goer, which he once described as his favorite memory of the “Test of the Champion.” And Brown maintained close friendships with all those riders, especially Bailey who when working with NBC at Belmont or Saratoga always made a beeline for the jockey room to see him.

In a 2018 interview with Andy Serling on the podcast, “Across the Board with Andy Serling”, Brown described being assistant clerk of scales as, “supervising superstars and union people” alike and helping to ensure the smooth operation of the jockey room as being, “like a Broadway show…once it starts, it keeps going.”

Brown was always insistent in crediting others for his career breaks.

“I had such great teachers,” he told Serling – and he took considerable pride in seeing young riders on the NYRA circuit blossom into stars, citing Hall of Famers John Velazquez and Javier Castellano, as well as Irad Ortiz, Jr. and Jose Ortiz, in particular.

But for all the traditions of the track that Brown revered, he always had a foot firmly planted in the present. Brown could relate to anyone from new NYRA employees he enjoyed showing around the jockeys' room to discussing his favorite movies – horse racing movies, of course (his favorite: “Boots Malone” from 1952, starring William Holden). One of Brown's legacies at NYRA was hanging racing-related photos, win pictures and posters on the walls of the Aqueduct jockeys' room.

Brown, a widower, was laid to rest Saturday at Pinelawn Memorial Park in Pinelawn, N.Y. Krauss Funeral Home handled the arrangements and has a tribute page on its website where anyone is welcome to leave a note that it will pass along to the family.

In the coming days, NYRA will honor Brown with a moment of silence.

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As first impressions go, it doesn't get any better than what Jeiron Barbosa did Friday at Laurel Park.

A 10-pound apprentice from San Juan, Puerto Rico who had been in the U.S. for all of two days, the 18-year-old Barbosa made an immediate splash on the American racing scene by winning with each of his first two domestic mounts.

Aboard Magic Stable's Heliacal Rising ($6.60), Barbosa raced in mid-pack before sweeping to the lead on the far outside at the top of the stretch and passing Claudio Gonzalez-trained stablemate Chica Rabiosa to capture Friday's opener, a one-mile claimer for 3-year-old fillies, by 6 ½ lengths.

In Race 3, a claimer for 4-year-olds and up going about 1 1/16 miles, Barbosa and Abuelitas Racing Stable's 5-year-old gelding Ludicrous Mode ($6.60) found themselves last coming off the far turn but were able to navigate between horses, drop down to the rail and rally past Flatexcel for a one-length triumph. Ludicrous Mode is trained by Rodolfo Sanchez-Salomon.

“It feels really good,” Barbosa said through family friend and fellow Maryland-based jockey Angel Cruz, who rode Chica Rabiosa. “It is a dream of mine to ride in the United States. To win my first two races right away helps to take away some of the pressure.”

Barbosa attended the famed Escuela Hipica Vocacional in Puerto Rico for two years. According to Equibase statistics, he began riding professionally Jan. 1 at Camarero Racetrack, winning his first race the following day aboard Queque, and had three wins, 10 seconds and 12 thirds from 72 mounts.

“They wanted me to take him a few months ago, but I told them with the cold weather up here and the shorter fields to stay down there and ride more horses and get some experience and when the weather breaks, I'll bring him up here,” Barbosa's agent, Tom Stift, said. “He looks like a little kid, but he looks good on a horse.”

Barbosa wound up in Maryland thanks to his relationship with Cruz, whose wife is related to Barbosa's mother and best friends with Barbosa's sister. He was inspired to become a jockey by his late grandmother.

“She loved the horses and horse racing, and when she passed away I wanted to become a jockey as a tribute to her,” Barbosa said. “It was my goal to become a jockey and everybody was telling me I could do it.”

Stift said Barbosa has been getting on horses for trainers Gonzalez, Sanchez-Salomon and Jose Corrales since his arrival. He is named aboard Glorious Weekend for trainer Marco Salazar in Race 1 Sunday, closing day of Laurel's 2022 winter meet.

“[The trainers] all said he has good hands on a horse. Being that small, you can't outmuscle them. You have to have good hands,” Stift said. The agent also represented fellow Puerto Rico native Victor Carrasco upon his arrival in the U.S. Carrasco, still based in Maryland, went on to win the 2013 Eclipse Award as champion apprentice.

“I've had bugs in the past, like Victor Carrasco. When I brought him up here, Victor didn't speak any English either, but within two months he was speaking English,” Stift said. “You can just tell when they want to learn, and that's what Jeiron reminds me of.”

Through Cruz, Barbosa also thank all the connections who helped make his dream of riding, and winning, in the U.S. a reality.

“His goal is to stay here in Maryland and keep riding,” Cruz said. “I've known him since he was 10 years old. He listens, he works hard and he's a good kid.”

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