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Longtime Del Mar Marketing Executive Dado Leaving Post

Craig Dado, a member of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club's executive staff for the past 20 years, has left the organization to focus on a developing information business in the sports betting world.

Dado, 54, a Northern California native who found a career in the racing industry in Southern California, has been a Del Mar executive vice president and its chief marketing officer since 2013. He had joined the company in 2001 as vice president of marketing, then in 2010 was named senior vice president before assuming his current role.

Prior to coming on board at Del Mar, Dado had begun his racing career at Santa Anita Park in 1991 where he worked his way up to become the track's vice president for marketing.

“Craig has been a solid contributor to our efforts at Del Mar over the past two decades,” said Joe Harper, DMTC's CEO. “His intelligence and instincts in the marketing business helped Del Mar rise up in the racing industry and for that we'll be forever grateful. We wish him nothing but well as he moves on to other things.”

Dado oversaw the track's successful strategies to woo younger fans through the use of music and food and drink festivals. He spearheaded the track's “branding” efforts through its blue and yellow diamonds color themes and its “Cool as Ever” marketing and advertising programs.

Three years ago, Dado teamed with Dr. David Chao – former longtime team physician for the NFL's San Diego Chargers – to create a free NFL injury information service catering to sports bettors and fantasy players. Originally known as Pro Football Doc, the business has recently been rebranded Sports Injury Central and will add injury information for the NBA and Major League Baseball.

“Working at Del Mar has been a dream job for over 20 years. I can't thank Joe Harper and the wonderful people there enough,” said Dado. “I'm going to miss it, but I have an opportunity to run my own business, which has been a goal of mine for years. I feel like the timing is right.”

He grew up in Petaluma near San Francisco and earned a degree in business from the University of California, Berkeley as well as a Master's degree from the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the father of two daughters and a son.

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Five Finalists Announced For 2022 George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award

Santa Anita Park has announced a group of five finalists for the 2022 George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award, with the winner to be announced in February. One of the most prestigious awards in American racing, the Woolf Award, which is determined by a vote of jockeys nationwide, can only be won once.

Jockeys Joe Bravo, Glenn Corbett, Julien Leparoux, Rodney Prescott and Tim Thornton, riders who have plied their trade with distinction nationwide, comprise a select group of 2022 finalists.

Presented annually by Santa Anita since 1950, the Woolf Award recognizes those riders whose careers and personal character garner esteem for the individual and the sport of Thoroughbred racing. The trophy is a replica of the life-sized statue of legendary Hall of Fame jockey George Woolf which adorns Santa Anita's Paddock Gardens area.

Regarded as one of the greatest big-money riders of his era, Woolf was a household name by virtue of winning the inaugural Santa Anita Handicap aboard Azucar on Feb. 23, 1935 and for his association with the immortal Seabiscuit, whom he rode to victory over Triple Crown Champion War Admiral in a mile and three sixteenths match race at Pimlico Race Course on Nov. 1, 1938.

Affectionately known as “The Iceman,” Woolf was revered by his fellow riders, members of the media and millions of racing fans across America as a fierce competitor and consummate professional.

In a move that had national implications, Joe Bravo, a dominant force in the Mid-Atlantic and in particular at Monmouth Park since the early 1990's, announced that he would be shifting his base of operations to Southern California on a full-time basis this past summer and hired locally-based agent Matt Nakatani. Long known as “Jersey Joe,” Bravo caught on immediately at Del Mar, winning 21 races, three of them stakes while finishing fifth in the Summer Meet standings.

A great judge of pace and conditions, Bravo, 50, won 13 riding titles at Monmouth and through Dec. 19, has 5,523 career victories dating back to his debut at age 17 in 1988. A third generation rider, Bravo's biggest career win came at Santa Anita aboard Blue Prize in the 2019 Breeders' Cup Distaff.

Hard work has been the hallmark of Glenn Corbett's career, which began in May of 1985 at Penn National. Corbett, 55, was born in Georgia and soon after graduating high school, set upon a career in racing that has seen him ride at 36 different racetracks in 18 states while riding more than 1,000 races annually a total of four times. A mainstay at Prairie Meadows in Des Moines, Iowa since its opening in 1989, he's also ridden at Turf Paradise in Phoenix, Ariz. since 1992. A member of the Prairie Meadows Hall of Fame, Corbett, who considered a career in Professional Rodeo while in high school, notched his 4,000th career win at Turf Paradise on March 8.

Roundly considered one of the top riders in the world, French native Julien Leparoux, the son of a jockey who was born July 15, 1983 in Senlis, France, is a truly dominant force at Keeneland Racecourse. A leading rider at Keeneland 12 times, dating back to 2006, Leparoux ranks second by stakes wins with 66 and is Keeneland's fourth all time leading jockey with 507 wins. At age 38, Leparoux has 2,840 wins through Dec. 19 and has amassed $179,307,259 in career earnings.

Born March 8, 1974 in Portland, Ind., Rodney Prescott is the Hoosier State's all-time leading rider and once again ranked among the top 10 jockeys at the recently concluded Indiana Grand race meeting. After a stint as a groom after graduating high school, Prescott broke his maiden at age 20 at River Downs, near Cincinnati. A three-time leading rider at Indiana Grand (2004, 2005 & 2018), Prescott registered his 4,000th career winner there on Nov. 4.

A native of Lake Charles, La., Tim Thornton is very much a rider on the ascendency, evidenced by the fact he set a single day record this past Oct. 23 by winning seven races at Delta Downs. Formerly a regular at Chicago-area tracks, he broke his maiden on June 13, 2003 and registered his 2,000th career victory this past Feb. 16 at Delta Downs and notched his third consecutive Delta riding title in April. In 2018, he ranked second to Eclipse Award winner Irad Ortiz with 286 wins and was 40th nationally in purse money-won with $4.9 million.

With Gordon Glisson winning the inaugural Woolf Award in 1950, DeShawn Parker won the 2021 Woolf Memorial Award, thus becoming its 72nd recipient.

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85-Year-Old Bob Dunham Fishing For Another Stakes Score With Byhubbyhellomoney

Trainer Bob Dunham, who turns 85-years-old on Tuesday, will try to keep the celebration rolling when he saddles Jupiter Stable's Byhubbyhellomoney in Thursday's $100,000 Bay Ridge at Aqueduct Racetrack.

Byhubbyhellomoney worked an easy five-eighths over the Belmont Park dirt training track on Dec. 23, in preparation for the nine-furlong test for New York-breds 3-years-old and up.

“I enjoy it. Training horses is a passion. I was there on Christmas Day,” Dunham said.

Earlier this summer, Byhubbyhellomoney won the Fleet Indian at Saratoga Race Course. Dunham said he loves his summers at the Spa which allow him to dabble in his favorite pastime – fly fishing.

“Training horses is like fly fishing – it gets into your blood,” said Dunham, with a laugh. “I love going up to Vermont. It's only 55 miles from Saratoga and you can smell the change in the air, it's so much clearer and so fresh. There's a beautiful river I like there that goes from Manchester all the way down to New York to the Hudson called the Battenkill.”

The veteran conditioner, who trained 4-year-old filly Chou Croute to Champion Sprinter honors in 1972, has met a lot of interesting people through his career, both on and off the track – including broadcaster Charles Osgood and the late actor Steve McQueen.

“I was in the water fishing one morning – maybe seven years ago – at 6:30 in Arlington, Vermont and this guy gets in about 40 minutes later,” Dunham recalled. “As the morning moves along we end up closer together and he hollers at me, 'catch anything?'”

While Dunham had caught a couple, the friendly fisherman upstream had been shut out. When the fishing was done, the two strangers sat down for a cup of coffee and traded tall stories as 'Bob' and 'Charlie.'

“He had on these sunglasses that wrapped around, a Tilley hat and waders,” Dunham said.

Before he left, Dunham asked the man for his surname and he replied, 'Osgood' – as in Charles Osgood, longtime host of the CBS News Sunday Morning and The Osgood File.

“I told him I enjoyed his show on Sunday mornings. He's really a nice guy,” Dunham said. “Later, I invited him to the races at Belmont and he showed up for a nice lunch and we talked about the horses and the radio.”

Dunham also recalled shipping a small string of horses to Santa Anita nearing the tail end of 1972, including Chou Croute, who won the Las Flores Handicap on Dec. 28 and came back Jan. 16, 1973 to win the Grade 2 Santa Monica Handicap.

Dunham said he enjoyed spending time at Santa Anita with the late Willard Proctor, father of conditioner Tom Proctor.

“He was a good friend of mine and he liked to go out for a drink. He knew a lot of actors out there,” Dunham said.

On one occasion, Proctor introduced Dunham to racing fan and acting legend Steve McQueen, who was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Actor in 1967 for his portrayal of Jake Holman in The Sand Pebbles.

After a few drinks, McQueen asked Dunham if he had any horses entered that he liked.

“I had a filly in that I loved. She'd had a couple races at Fair Grounds,” Dunham said. “We'd sprinted her a couple times and she was a route filly. She was entered going a mile and a sixteenth and I didn't think she could get beat, but I didn't tell Steve McQueen that. I said, 'I think she's got a chance.'”

Sure enough, the filly came through at a price.

“She won and McQueen came up and gave me a hug. I'm not sure how much money he bet,” Dunham said, with a laugh.

McQueen, known as a 'The King of Cool', kept in contact with Dunham through the years.

“He took us out to dinner several times and we exchanged numbers. Every time I had a horse in he called me,” Dunham said.

And while Byhubbyhellomoney, listed at 6-1 on the morning line, may be a little cool on the board Thursday, Dunham said he expects a big effort.

“She'll do good, but I don't know that she'll win,” Dunham said. “But every little bit helps.”

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‘I Just Need The Opportunity’: Determined Castellano Making Gulfstream Winter Home Again

Five winters have passed since his reign as the Championship Meet's dominant rider came to an end, but Hall of Famer Javier Castellano still comes to South Florida with the same level of enthusiasm.

This year, he also comes with a message.

“I need to have the opportunity and that's what I'm looking for: building the relationship with the trainers and hoping they give me the opportunity and they support me a little bit,” Castellano said. “I know how to do this. I know how to win races. I know how to get it done. I just need the opportunity from the trainers and I'm not going to let them down.”

No one won more races at Gulfstream Park than Castellano during a five-year span between 2011-12 and 2015-16, when he led the jockey standings with an average of 114 wins and set a then-record 132 in 2013-14. The mark has been surpassed twice since, by Luis Saez (137) in 2017-18 and Irad Ortiz Jr. (140) last year.

Besides Castellano, only three other riders have led the jockey standings as many as three consecutive years – Ortiz (2018-19 to 2020-21), Jorge Chavez (1999-2001) and Jeff Fell (1977-79). Ortiz will be back this year looking to make it four straight.

“I'm very excited. I feel like Gulfstream is my home. I've had a lot of success at Gulfstream,” Castellano, 44, said. “Five titles in a row is a great achievement. I'm very lucky and fortunate to be in that spot.”

Castellano got off to a late start at last winter's Championship Meet after having arthroscopic surgery to clean up some debris in his right leg, near the hip, last November. He didn't ride between Nov. 15 at Aqueduct and his Feb. 17 return at Gulfstream, finishing with 15 wins and $599,560 in purses from just 66 mounts. Among his victories was the March 27 Ghostzapper (G3) aboard Eye of a Jedi, a race named for the Hall of Fame horse that helped launch Castellano's career to new heights.

“It took a while to recover. That's what they predicted. The doctor told me I had to be out for three or four months. I was out three months and a half and came back to ride late at Gulfstream,” Castellano said. “It's been a long year for myself. Thank God I still win a lot of races … and I had a couple of Grade 1 winners, but not competitive with past years for me. I think it's partly the momentum [after] the surgery, building up a little bit of my business again.”

Castellano gave brief consideration to staying in New York for the winter, but ultimately decided to follow the blueprint that has proven successful for many years.

“I feel like that's the best way to do it. Thinking about more in the future, building my business and my relationship with trainers and look toward the spring and the summer and those big races,” Castellano said. “The only way you can build a relationship [and] be loyal with them is to go with the flow with the horses. When the horses go to Florida, I want to follow the horses and hopefully those maiden races help get the momentum building [and] the relationship with those trainers.

“I think that's the best way to go. Why do I need to change something that's been working for many years for myself?” he added. “I thought about it and I made my mind up that that's the way to go, that it's supposed to be like that. Go to Florida and ride the good horses.”

South Florida is where Castellano first landed when he came to the U.S. in 1997 and rode his first domestic winner before moving to the New York circuit in 2001. In the midst of his Eclipse run he set single-season career highs of 362 wins in 2013 and a then-record $28.1 million in purse earnings in 2015.

One new wrinkle at the Championship Meet is the addition of all-weather Tapeta to the dirt and turf courses, making Gulfstream the only track in North America to race on three different surfaces.

“I'm excited because we have a new surface with the [all-weather] track. It's an opportunity for those horses to develop and I think I have more options,” Castellano said. “In New York, unfortunately, in the winter, we don't have turf racing and we don't have synthetic. We have only one dimension and it's racing on the dirt, and you don't know how the weather's going to be. They only race four days a week.

“Hopefully we can find a nice 3-year-old to have for the year,” he added. ““I'm looking forward big time for this winter at Gulfstream. Gulfstream is amazing because that's where I started riding horses when I first came to this country. It opened the door for me. It gave me the opportunity and look where I am now more than 20 years later.”

Castellano has won the Preakness (G1) twice, the Travers (G1) a record six times and 12 Breeders' Cup races. He (2013-16) and fellow Hall of Famer Jerry Bailey (2000-03) are the only jockeys to win four consecutive Eclipse Awards as champion rider. Castellano ranks second all-time with more than $364 million in purses earned and has won more than 5,400 races.

Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2017, Castellano owns 463 career graded-stakes victories. Nine of them have come this year, including the Acorn (G1) and Joe Hirsch Turf Classic (G1).

“You always have to compete and you always have to work hard. I don't take anything for granted. Unfortunately I had a bump in the road in my career with the surgery but I've put it behind me. I feel 100 percent. The reason I did the surgery is because I want to extend my career. I want to ride more years ahead and the only way I can do that is to refresh my body and take care of my body. I'm looking ahead to another five, six, seven years, maybe 10. Who knows?” Castellano said. “I love this game and I love to keep doing what I'm doing. I love racing and I'm trying to enjoy it.”

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