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Equine Insurer Sylvester Kiger Jr. Passes; Insured Triple Crown Winners Seattle Slew, Affirmed

Longtime Central Kentucky equine insurer Sylvester Kiger Jr. died in Lexington on Dec. 8 at the age of 86.

Kiger began his career in the equine insurance business in 1962 when he was invited to join the Kentucky Insurance Agency by Leslie Combs II. He was associated with Fasig-Tipton for many years and started his own agency with Jerry Parks, the Kiger-Parks Insurance Group in 1984. He continued with Kiger Insurance until his death.

Over the years, he insured Kentucky Derby, Oaks and Breeders Cup winners and two Triple Crown winners – Seattle Slew and Affirmed. His clientele included many well-known actors and sports figures.

Born to Sylvester Kiger and Edna Mae Nikirk Kiger, Syl Kiger was a graduate of Henry Clay High School in Lexington. He was inducted into the Henry Clay Hall of Fame in 2018. Following graduation, he worked at the Lexington Public Library and moonlighted at Bluegrass Billiards until 1962. He volunteered for the U.S. Army and was stationed at Thule Air Base in Thule, Greenland, as a Computer/Radar Specialist.

Kiger was political coordinator for Kentucky House Speaker William G. Kenton, who introduced legislation establishing the Kentucky Horse Park. He also served on the Lexington Fayette County Human Rights Commission, the Lexington Public Library Advisory Board, as President of the Underwriters at Lloyd's Agents Association and the Central Kentucky YMCA Men's Club. He was a featured speaker in the “Davis Bottom History Preservation Project” sponsored by the Kentucky Heritage Council.

As important as any of his official recognitions however, Syl is known for his many acts of kindness toward the less fortunate in Lexington, especially those in the inner city.

He is survived by his wife, Cathy Lowe, children Kige Hayes Kiger and Cassie Kiger (Jackson), and a special niece, Olivia Lowe.

An event for family and friends to gather in the spring to honor his life is planned. In lieu of flowers please consider a contribution to the Central Kentucky YMCA or a charity of your choice.

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‘We’ve Had A Great Year’: Tyler Gaffalione Rides Four Winners Friday At Gulfstream

Jockey Tyler Gaffalione continued his recent hot hand riding four winners on Friday's 10-race card at Gulfstream Park.

Gaffalione, the Eclipse Award-winning apprentice of 2015 born and raised in nearby Davie, Fla., won four of the first six races aboard Monte Ne ($3) in the first, Makisupa ($3.60) in the third, Battalion ($9.40) in the fifth and Uncaptured Soldier ($7.20) in the sixth.

“I had a lot of confidence coming into today. My agent always does a great job. He's lined up some great mounts for me, especially this week,” Gaffalione said. “Hopefully we can keep it going.”

Represented by agent Matt Muzikar, Gaffalione ranked fourth during last winter's Championship Meet with 67 wins. He missed the first four days of this year's meet and was off to a 3-for-32 start before winning twice in seven mounts Thursday.

“There's an adjustment period coming from Churchill and Keeneland. It's a much different configuration of the track,” Gaffalione said. “It's just a matter of getting comfortable again.”

Gaffalione came into the 2020-2021 Championship Meet having swept all five major meets in Kentucky, most recently Churchill Downs' fall stand that ended Nov. 29. He ranks second to two-time reigning Eclipse Award winner Irad Ortiz Jr. among all North American jockeys in wins this year and will soon pass his personal single-season record for purse earnings of nearly $15.2 million set in 2019.

“It's amazing. It's truly a blessing,” Gaffalione said. “My agent, he does such a great job. I owe him all the credit. He makes my job so much easier. We've had a great year and it's been a lot of fun.”

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Jockey Sheldon Russell Scores Natural Hat Trick Friday At Laurel Park

Jockey Sheldon Russell reeled off three consecutive wins to open Friday's card at Laurel Park and further extend his lead atop the rider standings at the calendar year-ending fall meet.

Russell captured Friday's opener with 1-2 favorite Chloe Rose ($3), a 2-year-old daughter of Twirling Candy making her second career start. He followed up with 4-year-old filly Nana's Shoes ($4) in Race 2 and 2-year-old Bullsbay gelding Maythehorsebwithu ($5.40) in Race 3.

Among his remaining mounts Friday, Russell was third with Remain Anonymous in Race 6, second with Nomo Ron in Race 7.

“It's always nice to start the day off with a win, let alone the first three. It puts you on just such a high,” Russell said. “I knew coming into the day I had a couple of live mounts. You need good trips. We got off to a good start and to be fair all my horses ran well.”

Both Chloe Rose and Maythehorsebwithu, the latter runner-up in the First State Dash Sept. 26 at Delaware Park, are trained by Russell's wife, Brittany Russell, who is tied with Claudio Gonzalez for the fall meet lead with 21 wins.

“We have a great work ethic together. I know what she wants and she knows what she's doing. She keeps me busy in the morning and feel like we both understand her horses,” Sheldon Russell said. “We're both on the same page and we've got a great team behind us. You can just see the horses are well-spotted and they're running really well right now.”

Represented by agent Marty Leonard, Russell has 39 wins at the fall meet, 13 more than runner-up Jevian Toledo with Trevor McCarthy third at 25. McCarthy and his fiancé, jockey Katie Davis, have moved their tack to New York for the Aqueduct winter meet and plan to return to Maryland in the spring.

“I'm just very pleased, riding the right horses. Marty's doing a great job for me in the mornings,” Russell said. “Just want to ride this high out through the end of the month. We've had a fantastic last two months, really. I couldn't be happier.”

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Up-And-Coming Trainer Kent Sweezey Employs ‘The Jerkens Way’ For South Florida Success

Falling back on the knowledge he gained while serving as trainer Jimmy Jerkens' assistant for three years, Kent Sweezey has been making a name for himself while competing in South Florida on a year-round basis for the first time this year.

“We're doing old school stuff with the cheaper horses and, I'll tell you, it's working,” he said.

Fresh off a banner Gulfstream Park West meet, during which he saddled 11 winners from 31 starters, Sweezey visited the winner's circle twice Thursday afternoon and on the first day of the 2020-2021 Championship Meet at Gulfstream last Wednesday.

“We've got a good group of horses. It's been a learning curve. What we have now are a lot of the lesser-level horses, but they're winners. We've got a barn full of winners,” said Sweezey, who will saddle Phat Man for a start in Saturday's $100,000 Harlan's Holiday (G3) at Gulfstream. “They're lesser-level horses. They're not maiden special weight or allowance horses. I've got a couple of those. The 2-year-olds we have did well in Jersey and down here. I hope they keep going and we get some fresh 2-year-olds coming in.”

Sweezey's year-round success in South Florida has been very much a case of making the best of a very bad situation.

“When we stayed down here this year, the COVID thing was going on. I thought this was the one place that was staying open, would continue to run and had good purses,” Sweezey said. “I knew the place, I thought it was a good time to leave horses here year-round.”

Sweezey, who had a larger string based at Monmouth Park during the summer, wasn't able to be as hands-on with his horses at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream's satellite training facility in Palm Beach County, as he would have liked.

“I expected to come down every couple weeks and check things out and try to grow my business a little bit, but with restrictions that were put in, we couldn't travel like we wanted to,” he said. “I came down one time early on and had to quarantine for 14 days when I went back to Monmouth. I couldn't keep doing that.”

Sweezey's horses were left in very capable hands with assistant trainers Steve Moyer and Eddie Azate, who also had previously worked for Jerkens.

“The same things I learned is the same stuff Steve Moyer learned. With Eddie it's the same way. We all learned the Jerkens Way,” Sweezey said. “We just need to get the grooms to buy into it. We already know it works.”

Sweezey grew up in Lexington, Ky., where his parents operate Timber Town Stable.

“I did the sales, foals and mares, and yearling prep. I did all that,” he said.

Sweezey went on to work for trainer Christophe Clement for a year, before venturing to Southern California to work for trainer Eoin Harty for three years and returning east to serve as Jerkens assistant for three years.

“As soon as I started at the racetrack, I wanted to work for the best people,” he said. “I wanted to win races. That's what you get up for in the morning.”

Sweezey went out on his own in 2017 and has saddled 128 winners, including Phat Man, who gave him the first graded-stakes success while winning the Fred Hooper (G3) at Gulfstream Park last January.

Sweezey, who saddled Phat Man for runner-up finishes in last season's Harlan's Holiday and Gulfstream Park Mile (G2), is hoping to build on that success during the 2020-2021 Championship Meet and beyond at Gulfstream.

“We're big-time looking forward to the meet and we love Palm Meadows,” Sweezey said. “We're always trying to pick up new owners. We've had some calls, because they see us down here. This is a constant. The good thing about South Florida is it's a constant.”

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