Tag: People

As a bloodstock agent, David Ingordo was responsible for selecting Zenyatta, among the most celebrated stakes winners in Oaklawn history.

Now, Ingordo's wife, trainer Cherie DeVaux, has a chance to record her first stakes victory at the Hot Springs, Ark., racetrack when Tulane Tryst makes his local debut in Saturday's $200,000 Whitmore (G3) for older horses at six furlongs.

DeVaux, a former assistant to four-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown and now-retired trainer Chuck Simon, has started three horses at Oaklawn – all during the 2021 meeting – with Our Super Freak finishing second against older fillies and mares in the $150,000 Pippin Stakes and $250,000 Bayakoa Stakes (G3). Ingordo, in partnership, campaigned Our Super Freak and owns Tulane Tryst outright.

Tulane Tryst is seeking his third consecutive victory after coming from off the pace to capture an entry-level allowance sprint by 2 ¾ lengths Nov. 20 at Churchill Downs and an allowance sprint by 7 ¼ lengths Feb. 10 at Fair Grounds in his last start. The Feb. 10 victory generated a career-topping 91 Beyer Speed Figure.

DeVaux said the timing of the Whitmore – formerly known as the Hot Springs Stakes – is ideal for Tulane Tryst's return to stakes company after finishing fifth in the $400,000 Woody Stephens (G1) for 3-year-old sprinters last June at Belmont Park. He didn't resurface until Oct. 14.

“We just wanted to get him started once before we figured out what to do with him next at Fair Grounds,” DeVaux said Tuesday afternoon. “He won quite impressively. It's our own horse, so we can be patient with him and view what we think is right and only run him when we think he's going to run a good race. He ran well and came out of it well, so it was just the next logical progression, as long as he was training well enough.”

A 4-year-old son of super sire Into Mischief, Tulane Tryst has a 3-2-0 record from seven lifetime starts and earnings of $199,000. He brought $310,000 at the 2019 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. Although the Whitmore is the final major local prep for the $500,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap (G3) at six furlongs April 16, DeVaux said it's “race by race” with Tulane Tryst. He's 9-2 on the morning line for the Whitmore.

“Soundness-wise, he's fine,” DeVaux said. “He just can get a little light on us, so we just try to give him plenty of spacing between his starts.”

DeVaux started her first horse in 2018 and had a career year in 2021 with 32 victories and $2,407,893 in purse earnings, according to Equibase, racing's official data gathering organization. DeVaux, who has strings at Fair Grounds and in Kentucky, said she plans to saddle Tulane Tryst for the Whitmore.

“I was there many, many years ago for Chuck Simon,” DeVaux said. “I don't know what year it was, but it was many, many years ago.”

Ingordo selected Zenyatta for owners Jerry and Ann Moss, who purchased the filly for $60,000 at the 2005 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. Zenyatta went on to win 19 of 20 career starts, including Oaklawn's $500,000 Apple Blossom Handicap (G1) for older fillies and mares in 2008 and 2010, and earn $7,304,580.

Zenyatta was a three-time Eclipse Award winner (2008, 2009 and 2010) for champion older female, 2010 Horse of the Year and a 2016 inductee into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.

Oaklawn has a barn named in Zenyatta's honor.

The post Devaux Hoping For First Oaklawn Stakes Success With Tulane Tryst appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Bobby Raymond was preparing to start his Thoroughbred training career in the late 1970s when Emilio Rodriguez, a conditioner at Suffolk Downs in East Boston, invited him to learn how to talk with horses.

Teacher and pupil sat outside Rodriguez's barn, their eyes trained on one of his runners. Other than an occasional reminder from Rodriguez to “keep listening,” little conversation took place.

Finally, after about three hours of observation, the horse shifted a front leg awkwardly.

“You see, he just talked to us,” Rodriguez said. “That's where he's hurting.”

During the last 40-plus years, Raymond has never lost sight of his mentor's instruction in “listening” to his horses.

“They do 'talk' to you. They teach you things, if you just read what they're saying,” said Raymond, the Salt Rock Tavern Trainer of the Month at Tampa Bay Downs.

The 74-year-old Woonsocket, R.I., product has been conversing with horses, owners, fellow trainers, bloodstock agents, jockeys, exercise riders, grooms and bettors since beginning his career at Suffolk Downs in 1979, a few years after marrying Kathy, his wife of 48 years.

They knew entering the business that horse racing is filled with peaks and valleys, but the highs have far outweighed the lows. Raymond has trained 1,288 career winners, winning the 2019 Inaugural Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs with Zaino Boyz. He continues to compete successfully at the Oldsmar oval, where he currently is tied for ninth in the meet standings with 11 victories.

On Saturday's Festival Day 42 card, no trainer won more races than Raymond – well, Chad Brown did, but no one else. Raymond sent out Joseph Gentile's 4-year-old Florida-bred filly Night Cap to win the first race, the $38,000 Manatee Overnight Handicap, then won the third race for maiden claiming horses with John Marceda's 3-year-old gelding Rocky Dice.

“I'm an old guy. Winning a race is winning a race,” said Raymond, who seemed more excited when Clarke Cooper – the colorful co-breeder-owner of Grade 2 Tampa Bay Derby winner Classic Causeway – took a picture of the Raymonds after Night Cap's victory.

“What a friendly guy,” Raymond enthused a few days later. “Here's this guy who owns his own jet, excited for us to win that race – just unbelievable.”

Certainly, the backstretch community at any racetrack is close-knit, and trust is the foundation of a successful Thoroughbred operation. Raymond has been training too long to think he knows everything, and having three extra sets of eyes during the morning is invaluable to his ongoing success.

On a recent pleasant morning on the Tampa Bay Downs backside, Raymond sat in a golf cart while his assistant, Pedro Posadas; exercise rider Alex Mendieta; and groom Arturo Dela Cruz attended to the 10-horse string. In addition to their galloping duties, Posadas and Mendieta both own a few horses, and the men bounce ideas off each other throughout training hours.

“It's a team thing. Without these guys I couldn't do anything,” Raymond said. “I'm having a little trouble walking, and the only time I run is when I win a race.

“They'll all tell me what they think is wrong with a horse, or what they think needs changing, and we'll make a decision what needs to be fixed. Just like any other good barn. If that doesn't work, we'll try something different. We've had a lot of success here the last month, and it's been all of us working our butts off, talking and asking questions.”

The Raymonds have a 23-acre farm, Bobkat Stable, in North Smithfield, R.I., cared for by the trainer's brother Fred. Raymond plans to head to Delaware Park when the current Oldsmar meeting wraps up in early May.

Raymond enjoys regaling visitors to the barn with tales from his heyday at such New England racetracks as Suffolk Downs, Narragansett Park, Lincoln Downs and Rockingham Park, all now sepia-hued memories. He has trained two outstanding mares he considers virtually inseparable in ability: Technically Wicked, who earned $221,195 from 15 wins and 15 seconds, and Dreamed a Dream, who earned $221,177 from 10 victories.

Raymond's love affair with horses goes back as far as he can remember, to when an uncle took him to Bobkat Stable when he was 4 and bought him a pony (it's so easy hooking kids that age on horses). He enrolled in a blacksmith school in Oklahoma when he was 21 and after returning home to Woonsocket, he went to work shoeing horses. He worked on various racetrack starting gate crews before taking over 12 horses from Rodriguez and going out on his own in 1979.

After those two Festival Day 42 winners, as it turned out, Raymond would need one more to earn the Salt Rock Tavern Trainer of the Month Award. It certainly couldn't happen in Sunday's fourth race with Mendieta's 5-year-old mare Magicgirl, could it? At 29-1, the longest shot in the race?

But when he delivered the pre-race instructions to apprentice jockey Madeline Rowland, Raymond detected a familiar spark. It was the same look of brazen confidence he saw in the late Jill Jellison, a jockey he mentored during a career that produced 1,913 victories before she died in 2015 after battling breast cancer.

“It seems like when I see these young kids starting out as jockeys, I think of Jill,” said Raymond, who predicted Jellison would become a jockey when she was 4 and later hired her to work at his farm after she dropped out of high school.

“We did very good together,” Raymond said after Jellison's death. “Every horse she got off of she tried to help.

“She was tough. She was kind. And she loved her animals.”

On Sunday, it felt kind of eerie watching Rowland, who appears to possess those traits, carry out Raymond's orders to the letter in the seven-furlong race – taking Magicgirl back to last early, then finding position along the rail to commence a stretch-long drive that resulted in a neck victory.

“I could see Jill all over again,” Raymond said.

That's two, OK, three Magicgirls if you're counting, helping to remind folks of guys such as Salt Rock Tavern Trainer of the Month Bobby Raymond – individuals who devote their lives to a sport in which the valleys are merely temporary dips on the climb to the peaks.

The post Life Devoted To ‘Listening’: Bobby Raymond Honored As Tampa’s Trainer Of The Month appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Rachael Blackmore made history once again by becoming the first female jockey to win the Boodles Gold Cup during this week's Cheltenham Festival.

Just some of Blackmore's achievements in her career so far include; the Randox Grand National 2021, Unibet Champion Hurdle 2021 & 2022, BBC World Sports Star 2021 and RTE Sportsperson Of The Year 2022 – but now she can add the pinnacle of Jump racing after leading A Plus Tard to victory.

Reflecting on her iconic win, Blackmore said: “You can never dream a dream too big because look what happened to me.”

“I can't believe [winning the Grand National] is not even 12 months ago. I don't know how I'm this lucky! It's phenomenal.

“When I took out my licence, I didn't think I would be riding at Cheltenham, let alone a favourite in the Gold Cup. I'm so lucky to be getting the chance to ride horses in these kinds of races. This is the Gold Cup, you know what I mean?

“To have that roar back and to get to walk back in when you can't see space and you can just see bodies is just incredible. It is the closest thing to feeling like a rockstar you will ever feel without being able to sing. It is just incredible to have people back and I feel very, very lucky.”

This year's result is a reversal of the 2021 result. In 2021, Minella Indo defeated A Plus Tard by a length and a quarter. 2022 saw a closely contested race but in the end A Plus Tard got the better of Minella Indo by 15 lengths.

The win made it 12 Festival winners for Blackmore, while A Plus Tard is the 28th Gold Cup winner to be trained in Ireland.

Winning trainer Henry de Bromhead said: “Incredible. What a ballsy ride by Rachael – she was just unreal. She hunted away there; they went a good gallop and she was very brave, I thought, and brilliant.

“It definitely does [mean more this year than last] – it's the crowds, just looking here at the stands. It's just incredible and this is what it's all about. It was amazing to win it last year, but it's triple amazing this year.”

Asked how proud he is of his daughter, Charles Blackmore said: “It's fantastic. It's just fantastic. You couldn't make it up.

“It's probably a bit of a haze at the moment, but to see the reception that she got on Tuesday, and to do it again today, it's just mind boggling. Everything else pales, it's fantastic.

“Jonathan, her brother, Charlotte, her sister, are both here today, so to get us all here was brilliant. Her mum's at home holding the fort so she's jumping around the kitchen – she's over the moon and so happy that we're all here. Jonathan came from New York, so it's just per chance that he's here. A last minute decision and now he's here and it's brilliant.

“We missed being here last year. Eimir was here with me on Tuesday [this year], so we both experienced that and the roar she got. The support she's getting from both sides of the water is just incredible. People are so kind to her and it's a unique sport and there's so many strands that have to be pulled together to pull off something like this. Owners, trainers, jockeys, horses.

“I was being collected from the airport and the taxi man asked if I have an interest, and I said that I have a daughter riding. He said, 'Rachael?' It's just her first name is used, she's known all over now.”

The post History-Making Jockey Rachel Blackmore: ‘You Can Never Dream A Dream Too Big’ appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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As Teon Walker walked through the shedrow in Barn 9 on the Woodbine backstretch last March, a striking dark bay, head high, eyes forward, appeared to gesture him over.

It was the first day on the job for Walker, 19 at the time, a moment that brought out a myriad of emotions as he readied himself for the 30-minute drive from his home in Brampton, Ontario, to one of the top Thoroughbred racetracks in the sport.

As the hotwalker stepped outside of the sunlight and into the shadows of the barn of trainer Harold Ladouceur and his wife Jessie, any trepidation Walker had about how he would be received by his new boss or the stable of a dozen Thoroughbreds disappeared the second the kind-eyed gelding glanced over at him.

“I remember Harold and Jessie showed me all the horses and when they showed me Primo Touch, he came to me, and he put his head on my shoulder,” recalled Walker, whose grandmother Angela Walker worked for years as a groom and hotwalker for the Ladouceurs. “It was an instant connection, I think, for the both of us.”

The kid with a love for horses and the veteran campaigner would become inseparable from that moment on.

Every morning Walker arrives at the barn, the Kentucky-bred is waiting for him.

“When I come in, he likes to look at me. Early on, I started to think, 'This is my guy, this is my boy.' I have this bond with him. They asked me to start brushing him, to become a groom, and doing that, it just strengthened that bond we have. Every day, we became closer.”

Owned by Kirk Sutherland, the son of Midas Touch has had exactly that for his connections.

In 41 races, Primo Touch has posted eight wins and 19 top-three finishes, along with just over $252,000 (U.S.) in purse earnings.

His 2021 campaign didn't get out of the gates in stellar fashion, a tenth-place finish on June 13. But things would soon get better, much better, in fact, for the front-running, free-wheeling sort.

In July, Primo Touch stepped up to tackle the stakes ranks. He finished fourth in the Niagara, then fifth in the Grade 3 Singspiel.

On September 8, he climbed the class ladder and took on a world-class group in the Grade 1 Pattison Canadian International, at 1 ½-miles over the world-renowned E.P. Taylor Turf Course.

“His past couple of races before that, we saw that he truly is a speed horse,” offered Walker. “He loves the front. We really prepared him for that race. We took a lot of time with him. I did everything slowly with him, just to reassure him and have him calm for the big race. I stayed with him the whole day. I didn't go home because I wanted him to know I was there with him every step of the way. I told him, 'If you're going to go to the front, keep it. Don't let them catch you. And if they do, finish with heart, and finish strong.'”

Sent off at 41-1, Primo Touch, with Daisuke Fukumoto in the irons, took his preferred position on the front end. The duo was five lengths clear at the half, and four lengths ahead after a mile.

With every stride, Walker urged him on.

When 4-5 choice Walton Street and two-time International winner Desert Encounter enveloped Primo Touch ahead of the 1 ¼-mile mark, he heeded Walker's pre-race pep talk advice.

He finished strong.

At the wire Primo Touch held third, a result that felt more like a Grade 1 triumph to his connections.

“He came up huge,” said Harold Ladouceur. “We were over the moon. He ran so hard and gave everything he had.”

It was exactly what Walker had expected.

“He goes to the front, he tries to keep it and if he gets passed, he doesn't give up. He stays calm, he stays focused and he works hard.”

Words that could easily be applied to Walker, who is planning to complete his post-secondary education at Humber College over the next few years.

In just over 12 months in Barn 9, he's become a beloved member of the Ladouceur operation.

“For me, what stands out is his dedication, his morning revolves around the horses, nothing else,” said Harold. “He loves horses. He's quiet but funny, and he's very well mannered.”

Jesse offered up similar high praise.

“Teon's best quality would be his kindness and patience. I would like to think our horses are generally well behaved, but I have never heard Teon raise his voice, cuss or call a horse a nasty name. I appreciate that so much because not only do I own many of the horses, so I would find it offensive, but I know horses understand so many words, much like dogs, maybe more, and they most certainly feel our energy. So, his energy is always peaceful which makes them feel secure and confident. Teon treats 'Primo' like a big horse and I think some horses just know. Whether it's the therapy blanket, extra grazing, treats, all the little things that let a horse know we care… Primo gets all of that from Teon.”

Walker, who grooms seven horses, is grateful for the path that brought him to the racetrack, for Primo Touch, and for all the horses under his care.

It's not uncommon for him to work seven days a week.

“The love of the horses, that's what it is for me. I don't like sitting around at home. If I feel my best, I come in every day. They don't ask me to, but I want to. I do appreciate when people acknowledge that I am a hard worker, that they see my dedication. It makes me want to come back every day. I like Harold and Jessie. They make me feel good.”

As does the seven-year-old star of the Ladouceur barn.

The morning hugs from Primo Touch never get old for the 20-year-old Walker.

“He's calm and he's never rowdy. Maybe we're the same. Sometimes, he has his days and I understand. Even then, he knows I'm there to take care of him. He's my boy. I call him 'Primski,' just a fun little name for him. I'm very lucky that he has come into my life.”

On any given day during the Woodbine season, odds are the hard-trying horse, and his doting groom will be hanging out together for hours.

Just the way both want it to be.

“Each time I come to work, Primo looks at me, like he's waiting for me. I go over to him and we have a big hug. Like I said, that's my boy. He makes every day a good one for me.”

The post ‘He Makes Every Day A Good One’: The Unbreakable Bond Of Teon And ‘Primo’ appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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