Tag: People

Leading Southern California jockey Flavien Prat told Daily Racing Form's Steve Andersen on Saturday night he will be heading East to ride at the Keeneland spring meet in Lexington, Ky., before relocating to New York for the remainder of the year. The news came just days after reports that Umberto Rispoli will also be leaving Southern California for New York next month.

Prat, a finalist for the 2021 Eclipse Award for outstanding jockey won by Joel Rosario, will continue to be represented by Brad Pegram, hired by Prat in February 2021 to replace his longtime agent Derek Lawson. Prat said the move is designed to improve his chances for year-end honors.

“It feels like if you want to give yourself a chance to get an Eclipse Award that you need to go to New York,” Prat told DRF. “That's just the way it is. I never thought I'd leave here, to be honest.”

Pegram told Mike Willman on the Thoroughbred Los Angeles radio show on Sunday morning that Prat will ride at Belmont and Saratoga but plans to return to ride the winter meet at Santa Anita.

A champion apprentice in his native France, Prat, 29, began riding full time in Southern California in 2015 and has been leading rider at virtually every major meet there. His two Grade 1 wins on Saturday raised his career total to 46 wins at that level and includes victories in the 2021 Preakness aboard Rombauer, the 2019 Kentucky Derby via disqualification on Country House and three Breeders' Cup races.

Prat is leading the current Santa Anita jockey standings in a runaway: 60-35 over Juan Hernandez. His win percentage is 31% this meet.

Rispoli, a 33-year-old native of Naples, Italy, has ridden around the world with stops in Italy, France, England, Australia, Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong before coming to the U.S. to ride full time in December 2019. He battled Prat for leading rider honors throughout the 2020 Del Mar summer season, falling one win shy, 50-49. Rispoli is currently seventh in the Santa Anita standings with 15 wins from 113 mounts.

Mike Sellitto will handle Rispoli's business while continuing to book mounts for Junior Alvarado. Sellitto said Rispoli and his family will likely head to New York after the Santa Anita Derby day card on April 9.

“He is an all-around good rider – on dirt and turf,” Sellitto said, “and very strong. He's really gung-ho and has a hungry attitude. He wants to compete for leading rider.”

The post Go East Young Men: Prat, Rispoli Leaving Southern California appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Globetrotting and humble, jockey Joel Rosario needed only 11 racing days at Oaklawn to reach $1 million in purse earnings during the 2021-2022 meeting that began Dec. 3.

Rosario hit seven figures Feb. 21 – the last day he's ridden at the Hot Springs, Ark., track – before traveling to Saudi Arabia for the world's richest race, the $20 million Saudi Cup (G1), Feb. 26.

Of course, Feb. 10 was a noteworthy date for Rosario, too. That night at Santa Anita, Rosario, 37, was honored with his first Eclipse Award as the country's outstanding jockey of 2021.

“Very happy and thankful for the people that have really given me the opportunity to be here,” Rosario said following the Feb. 11 card at Oaklawn. “I have good people behind me. They gave me the support and opportunity to be there. I wouldn't be there without them. I'm really happy.”

After leading the country in purse earnings ($32,944,478), stakes victories (69) and graded stakes victories (49) in 2021, Rosario was the runaway winner in Eclipse balloting conducted by members of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA), Daily Racing Form and National Turf Writers and Broadcasters (NTWAB). Rosario collected 213 first-place votes. Runner-up Irad Ortiz Jr. received 17.

Rosario had been a finalist for champion jockey multiple times before finally breaking through in 2021. A native of the Dominican Republic, Rosario rode his first winner in the United States in 2006. His Hall of Fame-caliber resume includes more than 3,000 career victories, 15 in Breeders' Cup races and three in Triple Crown events, with his mounts earning more than $265 million. Rosario won the $10 million Dubai World Cup (G1) in 2013 in the United Arab Emirates aboard Animal Kingdom. Rosario also won the 2013 Kentucky Derby aboard Orb.

Ron Anderson, Rosario's longtime agent, said he believes Rosario could have won the award at least two other times, including 2020, but many voters only scan the top line – purse money.

“And a lot of times, it's not that,” Anderson said. “Like (analyst) Joaquin Jaime on TVG described it very well. You kind of have to look at the whole body of work, on whether it's the horse, the jock, the trainer. It's not always about the money and I think Joel was compromised by that thought and people not in tune. And back when he won the World Cup and won on Orb, I honestly think that could have been a year that they voted him an Eclipse. But it's never about him to a fault. He's always about the animal and the this, the that. 'Joel, you're on the third-best horse in this race and you won.' He doesn't want to take any credit. We laugh about it. In like 10 years, I think maybe four times he took credit for a horse that I know wasn't the best and he won.”

After suffering a hairline fracture of a rib in Dec. 2 accident at Aqueduct, Rosario resumed riding Jan. 14 Oaklawn. A regular in Hot Springs for the first time, Rosario is winning at a robust 26-percent clip (15 for 58) and his mounts have already earned $1,061,222. Rosario won the $600,000 Razorback Handicap (G3) for older horses Feb. 12 aboard Plainsman.

Rosario is named on five horses Sunday at Oaklawn, including four for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen.

The post Globetrotting Champion Rosario Enjoying Oaklawn As Wintertime Base appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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On a typical morning during the Tampa Bay Downs season in Oldsmar, Fla., trainer Arnaud Delacour observes his horses working out from a box seat across from the finish line, alert to any hiccups in the routine that may occur.

Smartphone – check. Binoculars – check. Stopwatch – check. And, in a nod to modern technology, a two-way radio that allows him to communicate with his exercise riders during a workout.

“I'm trying to say almost nothing” during the morning breezes, the Salt Rock Tavern Trainer of the Month said March 3 during the break between training sessions. “Just give them (the riders) their (furlong) times. … '13 (seconds). Twelve and change. Let him pick it up. Great.' It also helps them to get their timing right. It's a question of practice. The more they do it, when they're starting too fast, they can feel it.”

Delacour and his wife Leigh, a trainer from 2007-2013, employ four exercise riders, one of whom, Moises Nava, is also the assistant trainer. “They each have their fortes and strong points, and we try to adjust to find the best guy for each horse, or the other way around,” Delacour said.

In recent years at Tampa Bay Downs, few trainers have been as successful as Delacour in fitting the right horses to the right races. His skills were on full display two years ago, when he sent out 5-year-old mare Jehozacat to win the Wayward Lass Stakes on the dirt and, three weeks later, the Grade 3 Lambholm South Endeavour Stakes on the turf for owner Lael Stables.

With 20 graded-stakes victories to his credit, a 2016 Eclipse Award finalist in sprinter A. P. Indian – who won six consecutive stakes that year, including two Grade 1 races at Saratoga – and a classic-placed runner in 2015 Preakness third-place finisher Divining Rod, a Grade 3 winner who previously finished second in the Grade 3 Sam F. Davis Stakes and third in the Grade 2 Tampa Bay Derby, Delacour is among the best trainers whose names rarely get mentioned by the industry's media talking heads.

But even the normally unflappable product of Lisieux, France, grew a bit concerned when he failed to win a race from 19 starters from Jan. 8 through Feb. 12.

“For a trainer, for a jockey, for an owner, it's always a concern when you're not winning races. I'd be lying if I didn't say so,” Delacour said. “But we keep doing what we do every day – train them, assess them, make sure they're sound, happy and fit, and hopefully enter them in the right races. Usually, it works out.”

After breaking his mini-slump with two victories on Feb. 13, Delacour added two more on Feb. 20, including a thrilling nose victory on the turf by 5-year-old gelding Commence. A maiden special weight victory by 3-year-old filly Dawn on Feb. 27 clinched the deal – from dry spell to recognition as the Salt Rock Tavern Trainer of the Month in a span of nine racing days.

Of course, every horse progresses at a different pace, and it is Delacour's responsibility to gauge where each best fits on a racing card. In a sport in which a 15-percent strike rate translates to success, such calculations take on added importance.

“With our young horses, not all of them are maiden special weight or allowance caliber,” Delacour said. “By the time we get them assessed fully, we're more able to aim them a little better and put them in the right spots. It's a great feeling to be able to take a young horse that doesn't know anything, develop it step-by-step, point it in the right direction and eventually win a race.”

Delacour, who keeps about 30 horses at Tampa Bay Downs and 10 at Classic Mile in Ocala, shares his passion with Leigh. They race out of Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland during the summer.

The Delacours have three sons: Luca, 9; Julien, 7; and Alistair, who turns 4 on March 15. “We are trying to expose them to racing, and if they have the vibe for it, that's great,” Delacour said. “But we're not going to push them into it. That's going to be up to them.”

Delacour and Lael Stables, owned and operated by Roy and Gretchen Jackson, have been a force on the graded-stakes scene, with victories by Jehozacat, Divining Rod, 2019 Lambholm South Endeavour Stakes winner Hawksmoor, Magic Attitude – who won the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks Invitational in 2020 and the Grade 2 Sheepshead Bay Stakes in 2021 – and others. “Mark Grier is also a very good supporter of our operation,” said Delacour, who trained that owner's Eons to a 2019 victory in the Grade 3 Kent Stakes and a runner-up finish in last year's Grade 3 Tampa Bay Stakes.

The post Delacour’s Five February Victories End Early Season Slump, Earning Him Tampa Bay Downs Trainer Of Month Honors appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Coinciding with an ascent in his riding career, Ramon Vazquez is about to make a career change, his agent, Bill Castle, said Thursday morning.

A post-Oaklawn fixture in recent years at Prairie Meadows, Lone Star Park and Remington Park, Vazquez is “leaning towards” moving his tack to “Kentucky, New York” after the 2021-2022 meeting ends May 8, Castle said.

“At the moment, I would say 99 percent that's the direction to some degree,” Castle said. “Ramon will be Kentucky and go to New York and probably get into New York early. I really truly hope that people will give him an opportunity and support and that will absolutely make a decision whether Kentucky is a good fit.”

A Puerto Rico native, Vazquez has gained traction nationally the past year after piling up graded stakes victories from coast-to-coast aboard marathon specialist Lone Rock for 2020 Oaklawn training champion Robertino Diodoro and scoring his most lucrative career victory to date in last Saturday's $1 million Rebel Stakes (G2) aboard one-eyed Un Ojo, a 75-1 long shot, for trainer Ricky Courville.

The Rebel, among four Kentucky Derby points races at Oaklawn, propelled Vazquez, 38, to “Jockey of the Week” honors for Feb. 22-27 in a vote of racing experts. The award is open to members of the Jockeys' Guild, an organization that represents more than 1,000 active, retired and permanently disabled jockeys in the United States.

“I think that taking him into a little bit of Kentucky and then back into New York would be a wise move for him,” said Castle, who also represents 2019 Oaklawn riding champion David Cohen and apprentice Erick Medellin in Hot Springs. “That's absolutely the plan. It's time. He's been riding a lot of years. He's got 3,500 wins. In Puerto Rico, he set all the records there.”

Vazquez entered Friday with 25 victories, including a single-season best three stakes, to rank fourth in the 2021-2022 Oaklawn standings. His $2,045,509 in purse earnings ranked second. Vazquez also won the inaugural $200,000 Tinsel Stakes Dec. 18 aboard Lone Rock and the $250,000 Bayakoa Stakes (G3) for older fillies and mares Feb. 12 aboard Miss Bigly for Southern California-based trainer Phil D'Amato.

Vazquez and Diodoro teamed to win the $400,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap (G3) for older horses in 2016 at Oaklawn with Subtle Indian and their business relationship took off again during the 2021 meeting after Lone Rock won an allowance race at 1 ½ miles in April.

Vazquez then guided Lone Rock to victories in the $130,000 Isaac Murphy Marathon Overnight Stakes at 1 ½ miles in April at Churchill Downs, $400,000 Brooklyn Stakes (G2) at 1 ½ miles in June at Belmont Park, $120,000 Birdstone Stakes at 1 ¾ miles in August at Saratoga and the $250,000 Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance Stakes (G2) Nov. 6 at Del Mar in which he set a track record for 1 5/8 miles (2:42.61). The Isaac Murphy marked Vazquez's first career Churchill Downs stakes victory. The Brooklyn was his first career mount at Belmont Park. Lone Rock represented Vazquez's first career victory at Saratoga.

Vazquez's other signature victories last year included the $500,000 West Virginia Derby (G3) at Mountaineer and $300,000 Indiana Derby (G3) at Indiana Grand aboard Mr. Wireless for trainer Bret Calhoun and the $400,000 Steve Sexton Mile Stakes (G3) at Lone Star for trainer Mike Maker. Vazquez also won the $400,000 Golden Rod Stakes (G2) Nov. 27 at Churchill Downs aboard Dream Lith for Diodoro.

“He's always, to me, the last eight, 10 years that I've known the guy, he's always been an A1 rider,” Diodoro said. “But because of different situations, he's been treated as an A2 rider. It's not like he just got better. That's my opinion. He's always been good.”

Vazquez was named on six horses Friday at Oaklawn. He is scheduled to return Saturday to Southern California for three stakes engagements at Santa Anita, including the $500,000 Beholder Mile (G1) aboard Miss Bigly. Vazquez is still seeking his first career Grade 1 victory in the United States.

“Last year was great and this year is going along nicely,” Castle said. “Hopefully, California goes well. Do the best you can and then strike again when given the opportunity.”

Vazquez has almost 3,400 victories and more than $62 million in purse earnings worldwide in his career, according to statistics provided by Equineline. 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 Friday with 374 career victories in Hot Springs.

The post Ascending Jockey Ramon Vazquez Plans To Shift His Tack To Kentucky, New York After Oaklawn Meet appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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