Tag: People

Having steadily earned the respect of the horsemen, as well as the bettors, at Gulfstream Park, Leonel Reyes is on the verge of capturing the Royal Palm Meet riding title.

With three programs remaining in the 2023 Royal Palm Meet, Leonel Reyes is well on his way to clinching his first title in the U.S. since venturing from Venezuela in 2016, holding an 87-71 lead over Edwin Gonzalez after riding two winners Sunday.

Reyes had ridden more than 1,400 winners in Venezuela before making South Florida his home and establishing himself as a smart and seasoned professional.

“My agent has done a great job. The key is to work hard every day, every morning,” said the 37-year-old journeyman after guiding Saffie Joseph Jr.-trained Li Li Bear to a hard-fought front-running triumph in Race 2 on Sunday's program. “I've won titles in Venezuela, but this is my first here. I thank the owners and the trainers, my team and my family for all the support.”

Reyes, who is represented by agent Jose Sanchez, has surpassed the 100-win mark for the second time in two years while winning the confidence of Gulfstream's top stables.

Meanwhile, Joseph has his seventh consecutive training title at Gulfstream virtually wrapped up.

Joseph, who has won back-to-back Championship Meet titles, has separated himself from Jose D'Angelo in recent weeks to hold a 64-51 lead.

Gulfstream's Sunshine Meet will get underway Friday, Sept. 1.

The post Jockey Reyes Enjoying Breakthrough Meet At Gulfstream appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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It has been a summer to remember for trainer Jamie Ness and jockey Jaime Rodriguez, who both reached career milestones and teamed up for the second time this year to lead the Laurel Park standings.

Laurel wrapped up its 33-day summer meet Sunday with Ness winning the training title, 27-22, over Brittany Russell, and Rodriguez outdistancing five-pound apprentice Axel Concepcion, 39-29, to finish as leading rider.

Ness and Rodriguez put an exclamation point on their meet with a Sunday hat trick – Madison Avenue Racing Stable Inc. and Jagger Inc.'s Liberty Star ($4.20) in Race 5, Double B Racing Stables' My Boy Colton ($7.20) in Race 6 and Morris Kernan Jr. and Jagger Inc.'s Borracho ($5.40) in Race 8. They also led Laurel's calendar year-opening winter stand.

Ness, 48, ranked second to Russell in purse earnings while winning his seventh training title in Maryland by recording at least one winner on 19 days and six with two or more. He also had three winners July 16 including Sing Scat, his 4,000th career victory, with Rodriguez aboard.

“We've been on a pretty good roll this summer,” said Ness, who also tops the trainer standings in wins at both Delaware Park and Parx. “It's hard to win on one front, but to win on three is really hard. We spread it out pretty equally. We've got good horses and we've got a good operation here in the Mid-Atlantic. We've got horses at all three tracks, and we've got Fair Hill and I've got my farm. We fine-tuned the infrastructure to the Mid-Atlantic region, and it seems to be getting a little bit better every year.”

Ness won at least one race at Laurel, Delaware, or Parx for 20 consecutive calendar days between June 30 and July 19. He ran third in a pair of Laurel stakes, the Deputed Testamony with Ournationonparade and Miss Disco with Rowsie's Express.

Ness is coming off a 2022 season where his horses earned a career-best $10.3 million in purses to go along with 326 wins, the fourth time he has topped the 300 mark including a personal best 395 in 2012. He ranked third in North America in wins in 2022 and 2021 (311) and fifth in 2020 (224). So far this year he has 202 wins and nearly $6.8 million in purses earned.

“Last year was our best, money-wise, and I didn't think we could surpass that,” Ness said. “We're ahead of schedule for this year. It's on to the next.”

Ness' Jagger Inc. – named for his late dog – and Kernan finished as the meet's leading owners with 10 wins. Jagger also won five races with Madison Avenue Racing and another four as sole owner.

“That's another part of my business. I own a percentage of most of my horses. I like that and my owners like that, and it works well for us,” Ness said. “If I'm vested in the horse, then they feel more comfortable being vested in the horse. I've got some really good partners and they're really good people and it's been working out for us.”

A South Dakota native that began his racing career in the media relations department at Canterbury Park in Minnesota, where he won his first race in August 1999. Now with 4,033 wins, he also earned No. 2,000 at Laurel with Caylee's Song Nov. 28, 2013.

“Maryland's been great to us. We've got a farm in Chesapeake City where we breed. We have 16 or 20 broodmares now, so we're vested heavily in the Maryland breeding program,” Ness said. “Most of our broodmares are horses that I trained and that's nice because I was able to retire them and keep them around. We're tweaking every year and we feel like we're getting better every year.”

Rodriguez, 32, also won on 19 of 33 days during Laurel's summer meet, 10 of them with two or more, including four June 25 and three June 23, July 3, 14, 16 and 22 and Aug. 12 in addition to Sunday. He was tops with more than $1.3 million in purse earnings, with 23 of his wins coming for Ness from 62 starters.

It is the second Maryland meet title for Rodriguez following Laurel's winter stand. Represented by agent John Weilbacher, he is also the two-time defending champion at Delaware where he currently has a two-win edge over Daniel Centeno.

Rodriguez placed in eight Laurel stakes this summer, running second in the Big Dreyfus on Atomic Blonde, Find (Crabs N Beer), Bald Eagle Derby (Ari Gold), Jameela (Spun Glass) and Concern (Coffeewithchris). He also ran third in the Caesar's Wish (Intrepid Daydream), Deputed Testamony (Ournationonparade) and Star de Naskra (Coffeewithchris).

“It's been awesome, amazing. We're having a great year,” Rodriguez said. “Thank God, he keeps me healthy, and my agent and everybody for giving me a chance, Ness and all the trainers and owners. To be the leading rider at two tracks, that's impressive.”

A native of Puerto Rico that tied a Laurel record with seven winners on a single card March 17, Rodriguez is in his second go-around in Maryland. After attending the famed Escuela Vocacional Hipica jockey school, he earned his first domestic victory May 5, 2010 on East to Eden at Belmont Park. He rode primarily at Aqueduct and Belmont before relocating to Finger Lakes in 2012, dominating the standings. Rodriguez also spent time at Mahoning Valley before moving his tack to the Mid-Atlantic in 2020.

Rodriguez enjoyed his best season ever in 2022, with career highs in wins (243) and purse earnings ($7.5 million) from 982 mounts, ranking seventh among North American riders in victories. He has 147 wins and more than $5 million in purses earned this year, with his milestone 2,000th winner coming June 15 at Delaware aboard Strugar.

Following the Maryland State Fair Meet in Timonium which opens Aug. 25, the Maryland Jockey Club will resume live racing with its boutique nine-day fall stand at Pimlico Race Course beginning Sept. 8.

The post Ness, Rodriguez Take Respective Trainer, Jockey Titles At Laurel Summer Meet appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Trainer Jorge Delgado will hope to saddle his first top-level winner when he sends out the lightning-quick New York Thunder for AMO Racing USA in next Saturday's $500,000 H. Allen Jerkens Memorial (G1), a seven-furlong sprint for sophomores at Saratoga Race Course.

The 33-year-old native of Maracaibo, Venezuela, got his start stateside at Gulfstream Park working for his uncle, Gustavo Delgado, the trainer of Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Mage, a top contender in the card's feature event, the $1.25-million Travers (G1).

Delgado went out on his own in 2017 at Gulfstream and picked up his first winner with Saturado that July as the first of five victories in his initial campaign.

“When I look back, I started with a $1,500 horse and a $500 horse at Gulfstream Park. I was my own groom for over eight months just to get started and now to be one of the favorites in a Grade 1, it means a lot,” Delgado said. “You don't forget where you come from and you don't forget all the adventures and the highs and the lows, but it's all worth it when you're in this position. Whatever happens, to be in this position and to have a horse racing on Travers Day that can compete at that high of a level means a lot to me as a trainer.”

Delgado, who has won 45 of 211 starts this year for purse earnings in excess of $1.9 million, has seen an increase in all of the key stats year-over-year from number of starters to wins, purse earnings and earnings per start. He credits a hard-working, cohesive team and improved stock – currently some 58 strong – with helping him thrive.

“Thankfully, I have more quality than quantity right now. We're earning more money per start and running in bigger and better races,” Delgado said. “I've been lucky to win stake races in Gulfstream, Tampa, Delaware, Laurel, Pimlico, Saratoga, Monmouth, Woodbine, and Keeneland — pretty much every track we're going in. I think we're going under the radar, but I will let the horses speak for me.

“We have 22 people, two assistant trainers and pretty much we've been together for several years now,” he continued. “The main characters are the same and a few exercise riders have been with me for years. My assistant, Johan Aldana, has been with me since I started.”

New York Thunder is undefeated in four tries, announcing his talent with a pair of starts at Gulfstream this winter with a 6 1/2-length debut score in November over Tapeta followed by a 1 3/4-length turf score one month later.

The Nyquist colt shipped to Woodbine in April and won his stakes debut in the six-furlong Woodstock by 7 1/2-lengths over Tapeta and was then entered in the Woody Stephens (G1) on June 10 at Belmont Park but scratched due to a bruised foot.

He re-routed to the 6 1/2-furlong Amsterdam (G2) on July 28 at the Spa and made every pole a winning one under Tyler Gaffalione, rocketing through splits of :21.48 and :43.56 over the fast main track.

New York Thunder opened up by three lengths at the stretch call, putting away odds-on favorite Drew's Gold and romped to the wire a 7 1/2-length winner in a final time of 1:14.65. His six-furlong split of 1:07.77 is faster than Saratoga's six-furlong track record of 1:07.92 set by Imperial Hint in the 2019 Alfred G. Vanderbilt (G1), and the colt's geared down final time was not far off of Quality Road's track record of 1:13.74 set in the 2009 Amsterdam.

The victory marked the third graded win for Delgado and first at Saratoga in his fifth attempt – his best previous efforts here coming last year in third-place finishes with Willy Boi [G1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap] and Super Chow [G2 Saratoga Special].

“It's a feeling you will never forget. You imagine it and you dream about it, but it's only when it happens that you can acknowledge that it happened and it exists,” Delgado said. “We had such high expectations for the race and you run all the scenarios in your mind of how the race will happen but, so far, that has been the most perfect race in my career. It was everything you want in a race in the same race – beating stakes-winning horses and winning in that fashion, it doesn't happen every day.”

While New York Thunder worked multiple bullets at Monmouth Park heading into the Amsterdam, the speedy bay has provided just a pair of moderate maintenance works for the Allen Jerkens, including a half-mile effort in :52 flat Saturday.

“He's doing good,” Delgado said. “He just ran 23 days ago and he came back to breeze after 15 days from the race, so I'm just using that race itself like a breeze for the race. I don't think he needs way more than that. It's just about keeping him healthy. He knows what he's doing, by now.”

New York Thunder defeated a compact, but talented, field in the Amsterdam that included the multiple graded stakes-placed trio of Deer District, Drew's Gold and Gilmore as well as the graded stakes-winner Ryvit, who stumbled badly at the break and never factored.

He will face a steeper challenge Saturday as he stretches out to seven furlongs for the first time while facing a top-flight field expected to include Grade 1  winner Arabian Lion and Grade 3 winner Fort Bragg for Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, Grade 3 winner Verifying for trainer Brad Cox and Grade 2 winner Lord Miles for trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. among others.

But Delgado said he is confident his horse is ready to take that next step.

“I like everything I see and every sign. We went over him today after the breeze and he's as good as he can be,” Delgado said. “As long as my horse gets to the race 100 percent like he's acting right now, I'm going to be happy.”

New York Thunder was purchased for $130,000 at the 2021 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, where Threave Main Stud consigned him. Bred in Kentucky by Gatewood Bell and Forgotten Land, New York Thunder is out of the Midshipman mare Start Over, who is a half-sister to graded stakes-placed Degree of Risk. His third dam, Surf Club, produced 2012 Forego (G1) winner Emcee.

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Stop by the barn of Antonio Saavedra on the backside at Del Mar these days and you may recognize one of his workers. On any given morning there is a man hot walking the horses and generally helping out around the stable.

Now, what if you were told that man has won more races (765) at Del Mar than every jockey currently riding at the seaside oval.

He is Patrick Valenzuela.

“I'm trying to do some live work and keep busy,” Valenzuela said. “And of course, I love being around horses. It's also nice to be out here around other horsemen I've known for years and years.”

Valenzuela also is rehabbing from the knee replacement surgery he had two months ago. While he has not officially announced his retirement from race ridding, Valenzuela is 60-years-old and has been out of racing for several years now. His association with Saavedra goes back to his riding days.

“I've known Tony for years,” Valenzuela said, “when he was working for Barry Abrams. Tony's been a good guy to me and very supportive. He said he would give me a job on the backside doing something, so he's got me helping him at the barn. It's pretty cool.”

It sort of reminds Valenzuela of the days when he first got into horse racing.

“As a kid I used to help my dad,” he said. “He had about 25 horses and me and my brother would help him. Groom them and gallop them and everything. I started out when I was 9-years-old, washing feed tubs, cleaning up around the barn and helping the grooms.”

When he turned 14 Valenzuela started working horses and by 16 he was racing them.

“I know everything there is in the barn,” Valenzuela notes. “It's all I've ever known. I don't know anything else, but I do know horses.”

Valenzuela's racing career spanned 39 years, some of it interrupted and marred by the demons of addiction. But much of it was filled with success. Of his 4,372 victories, two were Kentucky Derby (G1) and Preakness (G1) wins aboard Sunday Silence in 1989 and seven were Breeders' Cup wins. He had 68 stakes victories and 765 wins overall at Del Mar, fourth best all-time.

He's hoping to get back up in the saddle by September. As for any kind of comeback to racing, P Val will leave that up to fate.

“You never know, only God knows that,” he said. “The doctors will let me know if I'm good enough to do that. I'll just keep trying one day at a time and see what happens.”

The post ‘You Never Know’: Recuperating P. Val Helps Around Del Mar Barn, Return To Race Riding Uncertain appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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