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Laurel Park: Retired Jockey Trujillo Scores Initial Win As Trainer

Ejetero LLC's Voodoo Valley tracked pacesetting Chuck's Dream into mid-stretch, surged to the lead inside the eighth pole and drew off by 2 1/4 lengths to give ex-jockey Elvis Trujillo his first career victory as a trainer in Saturday's second race at Laurel Park in Maryland.

A 5-year-old gelding racing first time for Trujillo, Voodoo Valley ($15.60) ran one mile in 1:39.36 over a fast main track to earn his second career triumph from 22 starts in the claiming event for 3-year-olds and up.

It was the fourth career starter for the 36-year-old Trujillo, who ran sixth with Mystic Times in Friday's fifth race at Laurel. The Panama native was second with Confusion Baby Boy and fourth with Eje Gama in his training debut Aug. 9 at Monmouth Park.

Trujillo was not in the winner's circle for Voodoo Valley's photo, choosing to stay back at the barn with Ejetero's Lady Rozina, who ran fifth in Saturday's fourth race. Trujillo has eight horses stabled on the Laurel backstretch.

“It feels so good, brother. It's amazing. Everybody is watching and everybody is jumping. I am so happy,” Trujillo said. “It's so good. It's good for me, it's good for my family. It's good for everybody.”

Breaking from the far outside, Chuck's Dream was sent to the lead and held it through fractions of 24.10 seconds for a quarter-mile and 47.08 for the half, opening up by as many as six lengths while jockey Luis Garcia kept Voodoo Valley in the clear in second. Voodoo Valley began to gain ground midway around the turn and straightened for home with sights set on the leader, steadily grinding away through the lane to gain the advantage on Chuck's Dream, who held second over Just Chill Out.

Voodoo Valley had not run since running fourth in a 1 1/16-mile claimer Aug. 1 over a muddy Laurel track for previous trainer Jonathaniel Badillo.

“He surprised me today,” Trujillo said. “He was training good an everything, but the last time when he finished fourth he had an issue that we had to figure out and take care of. Thank God he got it done today. He ran great and Luis gave him a great ride.”

A 2000 graduate of Panama's Laffit Pincay Jr. jockey school, Trujillo first came to the U.S. in November 2001, landing in Southern California after riding 90 winners in his home country and Mexico City. He spent time on circuits in Chicago, Florida and New Jersey, winning meet titles in 2007 at the former Calder Race Course and 2009, 2011 and 2012 and Monmouth Park.

Trujillo won 2,102 races and more than $70 in purses between 2001 and 2018. He came to Maryland to ride full-time in the fall of 2017 at the behest of his uncle, Laurel-based trainer Jose Corrales, after spending that summer riding in China. Trujillo won 28 races over the next four months, including the General George (G3) aboard Corrales-trained Something Awesome, before injuring his ribs and sternum in a three-horse spill March 10, 2018. Once healed, he considered a comeback to riding before ultimately transitioning into a new career.

In all, Trujillo won 45 career graded stakes, five of them Grade 1, including his breakthrough victory in the 2007 Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint aboard Maryfield, on whom he also won the Ballerina (G1). His best horse was Presious Passion, teaming up to win six graded stakes and nearly $1.9 million in purse earnings from 2007-10.

Trujillo said he had a lot of help making the career change, including his uncle, his wife Raquel, Badillo and Abel Castellano, the brother of Hall of Famer Javier Castellano who also transitioned from jockey to trainer.

“I feel so good, man,” Trujillo said. “Everybody helped me a lot and supported me so much in making the big change.”

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Ben Perkins Jr., New Farm Team For Four-Win Day At Monmouth

Ben Perkins, Jr. has been training long enough to know that his business is filled with ups and downs. But the veteran conditioner, who has won more than 1,500 career races, hasn't had many down years like he did in 2019.

Of course, he hasn't had many up moments quite like the one he is experiencing now.

Perkins saddled four winners on Sunday's card at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, N.J., after having two on Saturday, and has now won with seven of his past nine starters.

A year ago, the longtime Monmouth-based Perkins was just 2-of-18 at the meet. He's 9-for-19 this year.

“They're in the right spots,” said Perkins. “It kind of all came together at once. Every winner before Amatteroftime won (Sunday's second race) was a maiden, too. We have a bunch of maidens. After not winning races last year this is what we were doing – we were getting them ready.”

In addition to Amatteroftime ($11.40), Perkins clicked with Heir Port ($3.80) in the fourth race and Miss Wild ($3.80) in the sixth. He added an upset on the turf when Joe Bravo roused Reconvene ($20.80) with a prolonged stretch run in the seventh.

This is how hot Perkins is: The only race he lost Sunday was to himself, with Evil Monkey finishing third in the race won by Amatteroftime.

“Last year we had some nice young horses and bought some nice ones but it took some time to get them ready,” he said. “This year, not being able to run anywhere else (because of COVID-19), when we came here I knew we would win a fair amount of races. A lot of them were ready to run in April.”

Perkins won with two of his three starters on Saturday's card – both maidens, including 24-1 shot Jesters Honor – and scored with his only starter last Sunday. That adds up to seven winners the past nine starts.

“They're all bunched up now that we can run them,” he said. “This business is ups and downs. Last year was certainly a down.”

The past week has been a remarkable up – even for someone with more than 8,000 career starters.

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Laurel Park: First Win On ‘The Flat’ For Trainer Madison Meyers

Gordon C Keys' Maryland homebred Grateful Bred, reluctant to first load in the starting gate, took an early lead and put his rivals away for good at the head of the stretch in a stylish front-running maiden special weight triumph Saturday at Laurel Park.

The 3 ½-length victory by 4-year-old Grateful Bred ($43.20) marked the first win at a recognized flat track for trainer Madison Meyers. According to Equibase statistics, Meyers had two previous career victories – a 2016 amateur event at Great Meadow in Virginia and a hurdle race last fall in Aiken, S.C.

“It's great. We've worked hard with this horse, so it feels really good,” Meyers said. “If we can work on the antics a little bit, I think we've got a pretty nice horse.”

It was the second maiden special weight win in as many days over Laurel's world-class turf course for leading Maryland stallion Great Notion, who was represented by Kendama's victory Friday for trainer Arnaud Delacour.

Grateful Bred, making his second career start after rallying to be fourth in a similar turf sprint last October at Laurel, initially balked when approaching the gate and had to be loaded without seven-pound apprentice Charlie Marquez.

Once the doors opened Grateful Bred broke a bit slowly but was intent on the lead and quickly took command, setting fractions of 22.03 and 45.01 seconds. Grafeful Bred turned for home with a commanding six-length lead and sailed to the wire in 1:02.76 for 5 ½ furlongs over the firm All Along layout.

First Law closed to be second by a neck over Josef is Real. It was another half-length back to Our Destiny in fourth.

“The pre-race antics are a little bit worrying at times, and I was hoping for a few more weeks to kind of work with him, but this race came up and he really was telling us that he was ready to run,” Meyers said. “So, we decided just to go for it and it paid off.”

Grateful Bred had three timed works since late May for his seasonal debut, two this month, the most recent a three-furlong move in 38 seconds at the Middletown Training Center in Delaware. He was only beaten 4 ½ lengths in his debut despite a poor break under Laurel's current summer meet-leading jockey Sheldon Russell.

“When he ran here the first time last fall, he was great and went right in [the gate],” Meyers said. “I don't know if he broke so hard that he stumbled or what he did, but he stumbled and Sheldon did a great job just to steady him and he ended up getting up for fourth. We were really impressed with his turn of foot and everything.”

Howling Pigeons Farm's first-time starter First Law is a gelded 3-year-old son of Constitution, the leading second-crop sire of 2020 whose current star is Florida Derby (G1) and Belmont Stakes (G1) winner Tiz the Law.

Seventh as the narrow 5-2 favorite in his turf debut was The Cairo Kid, trained and co-owned by Annette Eubanks. The 4-year-old gelding, unraced at 2 and 3, is a son of Cairo Prince, the No. 1-ranked third-crop sire by stakes winners and graded-stakes winners including recent Ohio Derby (G3) upset victor Dean Martini.

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Serpentine, Love Continue O’Brien’s Dominance Of Oaks, Derby At Epsom

Aidan O'Brien scored his third Group 1 Oaks-Derby double on Saturday at Epsom Downs in the United Kingdom, with Serpentine giving him a record eighth triumph in the Investec Epsom Derby shortly after Love won the Investec Epsom Oaks for the Wizard of Ballydoyle's eighth victory in that classic as well.

Both winners of the mile and one-half British classics campaign for Coolmore partners Michael Tabor, Mrs. John Magnier and Derrick Smith and both were sired by Galileo, who gave O'Brien his first Epsom Derby win in 2001. Serpentine became Galileo's fifth winner of the Epsom Derby.

O'Brien previously won the Oaks and Derby in the same year in 2001 and 2012. This year, because of the coronavirus pandemic, the races were delayed from their traditional date on the calendar and, in another departure from tradition, run on the same afternoon in front of an empty grandstand.

Love, ridden by Ryan Moore, crushed her seven opponents as the favorite, coming from off the pace to win by nine lengths over O'Brien stablemate Ennistymon (also by Galileo). Frankly Darling, the Group 2 Ribblesdale winner at Royal Ascot on June 16 for John Gosden and Frankie Dettori, finished third.

Love, now five for nine, was coming off a victory in the Group 1 One Thousand Guineas at Newmarket on June 7. The Irish-bred Oaks winner was produced from the Pivotal mare, Pikaboo.

Love winning the Investec Oaks under Ryan Moore

Serpentine, one of six runners for O'Brien in the 16-horse Derby field, was a 25-1 outsider whose only previous win came in a June 27 maiden race at the Curragh in his native Ireland – just one week before the Derby.

Ridden by Emmet McNamara, Serpentine darted straight to the lead in a role some suspected as a pacemaker, then opened an insurmountable advantage that was whittled down to six lengths at the winning post.

Andrew Balding-trained Khalifa Sat finished second, with O'Brien-trained Amhran Na Bhfiann third and co-favorites Kameko and English King finishing fourth and fifth, respectively.

Serpentine was produced from Remember When, a Danehill Dancer mare out of Lagrian, herself the producer of Group 1 winners Dylan Thomas, Queen's Logic and Homecoming Queen.

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