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Keeneland: Perfect 3-For-3 Day for Diodoro, M & M Racing, Cohen

M & M Racing of Mike Sisk zoomed to the top of the Keeneland owner standings Friday with three winners from three starters at the Lexington, Ky., track. All were ridden by David Cohen and trained by Robertino Diodoro.

“There was a lot of texting going on yesterday afternoon,” Diodoro said. “I think he was in Dallas. He hasn't been in the game long, but we need more owners like him.”

Sisk, in 2009 founded Low T Centers that provide diagnosis and treatment for men with low testosterone and other health issues. The company has upwards of 50 clinics in a dozen states. He operates M & M Racing with his wife, MIckala. Former trainer Cody Autrey is the stable's racing manager.

Friday rivaled the day that Godolphin and trainer Kiaran McLaughlin had April 15, 2017, here when they won with all four entrants, including Dickinson in the Coolmore Jenny Wiley (G1) and Watershed in the Ben Ali (G3).

“I don't think I have gone three-for-three for the same owner in one day,” Diodoro said. “And definitely not at Keeneland, and that's the most important thing.”

Nomizar started the day with a 10 3/4-length romp in the second race at odds of 3-1. New Mexico-bred Ghostly Who won the fourth race by 7 1/2 lengths at odds of 6-1, and Strike That took the eighth race by a head at 6-1.

Diodoro, whose main base of operations was Turf Paradise for 10 years before he relocated to Oaklawn Park, is a relative newcomer to the Kentucky circuit.

“A year or two ago, I tried to get more involved,” said Diodoro, who has ranked third in wins in North America the past two years. “You can't beat the facilities here, at Churchill and at Ellis and the purses are good.”

Diodoro began training in 1995 and has amassed more than 2,500 wins. However, things really began to take off in 2014 with Diodoro averaging more than 230 victories a year with a 23-26 percent win rate.

“I'm only one person,” Diodoro said. “I've got good owners and they are good guys and I've got good help with guys that have been with me for a while.”

Among the horses Diodoro has here is Southern Equine Stable's Keepmeinmind, runner-up in last Saturday's Claiborne Breeders' Futurity (G1) who is pointing toward the $2 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) Presented by Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance.

“He is doing well,” said Diodoro, whose previous Breeders' Cup starter was Grade 3 winner Broadway Empire, who finished ninth in the Dirt Mile (G1) in 2013. “(Keepmeinmind) will work next weekend, but for now we are taking it day by day.”

During his banner day on Friday, Diodoro had two other runners for Heads Up Racing finish third in two races behind his runners. For the meet, he is 100 percent in the money with a 9-4-2-3 mark.

His 10th starter, Blacktop Legend, comes in this afternoon's fourth race.

“He is in a little deep,” Diodoro said. “It is his first time for us.”

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Ouzts Passes McCarron On All-Time List With 7,142nd Win

The ageless wonder, jockey Perry Wayne Ouzts, reached another milestone on Friday's closing-day program at Belterra Park in Cincinnati, Ohio, when he rode Wine Me Up Baby to a wire-to-wire 3 1/4-length victory in a maiden special weight race for 2-year-old fillies. Wine Me Up Baby, an Ohio-bred by Kantharos, is trained by Michael Evans II for Sheltowee Farm.

The win was No. 7,142 for the 66-year-old Ouzts, moving the Arkansas native past Chris McCarron as the sixth all-time winningest jockey in North American racing. It was Ouzts' 76th win of the Belterra meet from 406 mounts, placing him second behind John McKee (90 wins) in the rider standings. Ouzts is winning at an 18% clip in 2020, having ridden 76 of his 411 mounts to victory. Earlier this year, on June 25, Ouzts rode five winners on an eight-race card at Belterra Park

Ouzts began his riding career in 1973, the year Secretariat won the Triple Crown, scoring his first victory in March of that year at defunct Beulah Park near Columbus, Ohio. He won 11 riding titles at Beulah and 18 at River Downs, the Cincinnati track that's been replaced by Belterra.

Ouzts is the winningest active rider in North American racing.

The top 10 all-time North American jockeys by wins are: Russell Baze (12,842); Laffit Pincay Jr. (9,530); William Shoemaker (8,833); Pat Day (8,803); David Gall (7,396); Perry Ouzts (7,142); Chris McCarron (7,141); Edgar Prado (7,078); Angel Cordero Jr. (7,057); and Mario Pino (6,959).

Prado and Pino are the only other active riders in the top 10.

Ouzts is one of three riders in the top 10 who have not been inducted into the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame, along with Gall (who rode at Fairmount Park in Illinois) and Pino (who rides primarily in the Mid-Atlantic).

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Apprentice Jessica Pyfer Rides Longshot Indy Jones To Her First Victory At Santa Anita

It's often said racing is a game of peaks and valleys. And so it was for 22-year-old Jessica Pyfer on Friday at Santa Anita, as she experienced major trouble leaving the gate aboard 6-5 favorite Give Me a Hint in the third race, only to experience the ultimate exhilaration of winning her first career race in the day's ninth and final, aboard the Val Brinkerhoff-trained Indy Jones.

“I had two more mounts and I knew I had to make it up somehow,” said Pyfer, who was soaking wet from multiple buckets of ice water administered in a time-honored fashion by her fellow jockeys prior to a winner's circle interview on TVG. “Val told me at Del Mar that this horse was ready and I really can't thank him enough for this one. I'm just feeling so blessed and so happy that I decided to go down this road.

“I knew at the top of the stretch when I was in front, that I had to stay in front. That was my only motivation to get down to the wire. It was just such an amazing feeling and all the guys in the jocks' room have been so awesome to me, celebrating me by drenching me with water, but they've all helped out so much, I just can't thank them enough.”

A native of Denver, Colo., Pyfer has been raised around racing as her father, Roger Pyfer is an ex-jockey and her mother Sherrie is now married to top trainer Phil D'Amato and assists in the management of his stable.

In what was her sixth career mount, Pyfer had Indy Jones away alertly from her number four post position, was head and head into and around the far turn with Baby Gronk to her inside, took charge a quarter mile from home and prevailed by 1 1/4 lengths while getting 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:18.50.

Winless in his last 10 starts and ridden for the first time today by Pyfer, Indy Jones, a 4-year-old gelding by Temple City who was entered for a $16,000 claiming tag, was off at 14-1 and paid $31.60, $14.60 and $7.00.

“Sixth mount. But I've learned so much in the past six months that it's just crazy how things happen.”

Indeed it is as Jessica Pyfer is now on her way as a promising young apprentice with but one mount on Saturday, the George Papaprodromou-trained Lucky Ryan Seven in the ninth race.

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McPeek, Gaffalione’s Agent Pointing Fingers Over Preakness Decision With Swiss Skydiver

Tyler Gaffalione rode top 3-year-old filly Swiss Skydiver to win the G1 Alabama and then to a second-place finish in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks, and according to her trainer Ken McPeek, was scheduled to ride her in her next start, as well. This week, McPeek told the Thoroughbred Daily News that Gaffalione's agent, Matt Muzikar, had reneged on their agreement.

“I announced that we're going to run in the Preakness and Tyler was on board,” McPeek said on the podcast. “By maybe 6:00 that night, his agent tells us that he can't ride. And I'm like, 'Look, you've given us a two-race commitment [GI Kentucky Oaks and Preakness].' He said, 'Oh well, sorry, I've got to ride for Chad Brown at Keeneland.' I said, 'You can't do this. It's dishonorable.' I've been doing this for 35 years and I've never had something like that happen. I still find it dishonorable. Shame on Tyler Gaffalione and his agent.”

Muzikar responded Friday, telling TDN that McPeek had informed him, nine days prior, that Swiss Skydiver would be running in the Spinster Stakes at Keeneland, held on the day after this year's Preakness Stakes. Thus, Muzikar began booking Gaffalione mounts for Keeneland that weekend.

When McPeek announced that he planned to run the filly in the Preakness at Pimlico instead, seven days ahead of the race, Muzikar wasn't able to get out of his commitments at Keeneland on Saturday. McPeek wound up giving the Preakness call on Swiss Skydiver to Robby Albarado, who won the race.

“What did he expect us to do? Not take business for the Preakness card or at Keeneland and sit there and wait for Kenny McPeek because the world revolves around him?” Muzikar said. “Knocking me and the jockey, he crossed a line.

“Tyler had nothing to do with this whole situation, so I don't like him knocking the jockey. Tyler is the greatest kid and the greatest jock I have had in the 26 years I have been doing this. He did nothing to him.”

Read more at the Thoroughbred Daily News.

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