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Claudio Gonzalez Secures 13th Training Title At Laurel Park

With no one in position to catch him, Claudio Gonzalez entered the final weekend of Laurel Park's extended summer meet ensured of winning its training title, but the 43-year-old cancer survivor didn't stop there.

Gonzalez sent out Robert D. Bone's 4-year-old gelding Galerio ($3.40) for his third win of the summer and sixth in nine starts dating back to February, holding off late-running long shot Crouchelli for a nose victory in Thursday's featured fourth race.

The entry-level allowance for 3-year-olds and up was the 27th win from 138 starters at the meet for Gonzalez, who will wind up tops in both categories as well as purse earnings, with $979,170 and counting. He has horses entered in two of nine races on Friday's card and four of nine races on Saturday's finale.

Damon Dilodovico was blanked with his only starter Thursday and remains second with 16 wins. Jamie Ness captured Race 7 Thursday with Bustin Hearts ($5.40) to move into a tie for third with Jose Corrales at 15 wins.

Gonzalez has now won 10 of the last 11 meets in Maryland dating back to Laurel's 2017 spring stand and owns or shares 13 titles overall. He has led the state in overall victories three consecutive years (2017-19).

“What can I say? It's a really good feeling because there are a lot of good trainers here with a lot of experience. That's why it feels good, and my whole team feels like me,” Gonzalez said. “They're working hard. They do all the hard work – my assistants, grooms, hotwalkers, exercise riders, blacksmith. Everybody works hard to make sure things go good.”

Gonzalez notched eight multi-win days during the meet, including an Aug. 13 hat trick with a trio of sophomore fillies – Landing Zone, Queen of Tomorrow and Polished Copper. The latter two are among six horses to win at least twice at the meet for Gonzalez, led by Galerio, Eastern Bay and Harpers First Ride with three each.

Laurel's summer meet began May 30 following a 2 ½-month pause in Maryland's live racing amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Gonzalez, who led a truncated winter stand with 40 wins, went 9-for-65 to start the summer before going on an 18-for-73 run since July 18.

“Every day we come and pay attention to every little thing. Little things make the difference sometimes,” Gonzalez said. “That's what I explain to everybody. We have to pay attention to everything and we're going to be OK.”

Three of Gonzalez's wins came in stakes over Labor Day weekend – the $100,000 Deputed Testamony with Harpers First Ride and $100,000 Polynesian with Eastern Bay Sept. 5, and the $100,000 Laurel Dash with Completed Pass Sept. 7.

All three horses are being pointed to stakes over Preakness weekend at Pimlico Race Course – Harpers First Ride in the historic $250,000 Pimlico Special (G3) Oct. 2, and Eastern Bay in the $250,000 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash (G3) and defending champion Completed Pass in the $100,000 Jim McKay Turf Sprint on the Oct. 3 undercard of the 145th Preakness Stakes (G1).

Gonzalez expects to run multiple stakes winner Lebda in the $200,000 Chick Lang (G3) Oct. 1 and has a candidate for the $250,000 Black-Eyed Susan (G2), this year on the Preakness undercard, in 3-year-old filly Fly On Angel, upset winner of the Charles Town Oaks (G3) Aug. 28.

“They're all doing really good. They came back real good. You never know how tough it's going to be, but my horses are going to be ready,” Gonzalez said. “It's special. The Preakness is the biggest race we have here in the Maryland and it would be special to do good that weekend.”

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Trainer Orseno Hoping For ‘Another Miracle’ In Wednesday’s Franklin-Simpson Stakes

Four days after winning the $700,000 RUNHAPPY Turf Sprint with Imprimis, trainer Joe Orseno will try to win another Grade 3 sprint stakes with 15-1 shot Another Miracle in Wednesday's closing-day $500,000 Franklin-Simpson for 3-year-olds.

This will be Another Miracle's third start for Orseno, who received the colt from longtime clients Leonard and Jon Green upon the retirement of Gary Contessa. Another Miracle won a stakes at Saratoga as a 2-year-old and was third in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf.

“Believe it or not, I got Another Miracle because of Imprimis,” Orseno said. “They were talking about where the horses should go. Jon said to his dad, 'Listen, Joe knows what to do. He campaigned Imprimis flawlessly. He knows horses like this.' I think I can campaign any horse, but that was nice and I got him because of that, and I'm OK with that.”

Orseno only had Another Miracle 12 days when he ran in Gulfstream Park's March 21 Texas Glitter Stakes, when Another Miracle missed the break, then hit the gate and generally had a bad trip the rest of the way in finishing seventh.

“It was just a throwout race,” he said. “I told Jon, 'I think I just need to regroup with this horse and get to know him.' We dropped back and gelded the horse, which he needed tremendously.”

Back in July 12 at Monmouth Park, Another Miracle won the $80,000 My Frenchman Stakes.

“He's a different horse,” Orseno said of the son of 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah. “He's very happy now. Listen, he was third in the Breeders' Cup last year so he doesn't have to get too much better to have a good campaign. I'm expecting a big race from him. He loves where he's at at Kentucky Downs. He's a horse who is really thriving.

“He's 15-1 for a reason. There are some quality horses in there. But they're all 3-year-olds. This is the time of the year where some get better. I like to think my horse will get better off one race for me.”

With jockey Paco Lopez serving a suspension, Gerardo Corrales has picked up the mount on Another Miracle. Corrales, in his first year riding at Kentucky Downs, has won four of 13 starts.

Meanwhile, Orseno said he's delighted with how Imprimis came out of his victory. The 6-year-old gelding earned a fees-paid spot in the $1 million Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint at Keeneland with his neck victory over Bombard and Front Run the Fed, who dead-heated for second. Imprimis won last year's Grade 2 Shakertown and was third in last fall's Grade 2 Woodford at Keeneland. He came in sixth in the Breeders' Cup at Santa Anita.

Imprimis had surgery for correct a breathing obstruction and didn't start his 2020 season until Saratoga's Grade 3 Troy Stakes, in which he was disqualified from first to third. The RUNHAPPY Turf Sprint was his second start of the year.

“He looks fantastic,” Orseno said. “Everything says we're leaning and pushing toward the Breeders' Cup. So we'll start to get him ready. He likes Keeneland, and if it's a little soft, it doesn't bother him. And it could be soft on Nov. 7.

“Last year his first race in the Silks Run (at Gulfstream) was just phenomenal, and he came back and won the Shakertown at Keeneland,” Orseno said. “It looked like he was on his way. We got a little sidetracked, took him to Royal Ascot. In retrospect, it probably wasn't the best thing for the horse, but we wanted to try it. It just didn't work. Getting him back off of that was the tough part. So it's really gratifying, especially knowing some of the work we did to him and bringing him back. You never know when you do all that with a horse. You hope and pray he's the same horse. But a lot of them come back and they're not.”

Orseno thinks Imprimis is a better horse this year “all the way around.

“His coat and his weight he's carrying, he's very happy,” he said. “I think it all goes with the time off, what we did and the horse was not getting all his air — and now he's getting all his air and he's very happy.”

Orseno said he'll go into the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint with a good measure of confidence.

“I knew I won the race, but I didn't realize the trip he got until I watched the replay a bunch of times,” he said of the RUNHAPPY Turf Sprint. “For him at the top of the stretch to be where he was and to swing out seven-wide — I know it's a long stretch and you still have a quarter-mile to go — but I think he overcame a lot in that race in running them down. I was really pleased with that.”

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Trainer Chad Brown Finally Going For The Green At Kentucky Downs

With two wins from three starters on opening day and another four horses entered this weekend, Chad Brown – America's champion turf trainer for eight consecutive years – has made a connection this season with Kentucky Downs, the one track in the U.S.A. that runs all its races on grass.

Now that he has a Kentucky division based at Churchill Downs managed by Whit Beckman, the four-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer is better positioned to compete for the exceptional purses offered by Kentucky Downs over its distinctive European-style course.

“I think a lot of it is just stabling at Churchill, the proximity now gives us that option,” Beckman said of running at Kentucky Downs, where an average of $2 million a day is scheduled to be paid out in purses over this six-date meet. “Where focusing primarily on Saratoga and the Northeast in the past, shipping-wise it didn't make a lot of sense. You'd run in Kentucky on Derby Day and be out and back in New York pretty soon afterward. I think just having the string down here at Churchill makes it doable and easy. We're in and out in a day, just like any other race-and-return situation.”

Now the friendly ribbing is that Brown finally found Kentucky Downs, and he didn't waste any time capitalizing. His team pounced on Monday's opening card and collected total of $500,400 with a victory by Juddmonte Farm's Flavius in the $750,000 Tourist Mile Stakes and Head of Plains Partners' Fluffy Socks in a $90,000 maiden special weight race.

“I'm thrilled getting to go to Kentucky Downs,” said Beckman, a Louisville product who never before had the opportunity to go to the track while working for New York-based Todd Pletcher and now Brown. “I thought it was an awesome place. Just such a nice place to race horses, just a different feel from your traditional racetrack dynamics. I loved it down there. I thought it was great.”

Led by Regal Glory, the 9-5 morning-line favorite in the one-mile G3 English Channel Ladies Turf, the Brown barn will be well-represented this weekend. Graded stakes-placed Tapit Today also has a place in the gate for the Ladies Turf; Klaravich Stable's Front Run the Fed looks to be a contender in the deep G3 RUNHAPPY Turf Sprint field; Lady Lawyer is on the also-eligible list for the G3 Real Solution Ladies Sprint and needs a couple of defections to draw into the body of the race.

Brown's rise to the top of the North American trainer's standings table has been fueled by his skill with turf horses. After a five-year run on the staff of the late Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel, Brown opened his own stable in Nov. 2007, managing a total of 10 horses sent to him by prominent owners Ken and Sarah Ramsey and Gary and Mary West. Brown's first graded stakes win came a year later on the turf in the G3 Miss Grillo with Maram, who then gave Brown his first Breeder's Cup win in the Juvenile Fillies Turf.

In 2012, Brown ended the season atop the turf training earnings list, a spot he has maintained in every year since. Last year, his turf horses earned $24.2 million of his all-surfaces total of $31.1 million.

Regal Glory, bred and owned by Paul Pompa, made a substantial contribution to the Brown stable's turf earnings last year, banking $338,834 with a 3-2-0 record from six grass starts as a 3-year-old. The daughter of Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom won the Penn Oaks and completed the Saratoga double of the G3 Lake George and the G2 Lake Placid. She is winless in three starts – two of them G1 races – since the Lake Placid last August. Each of those races was won by another filly or mare from Brown's deep stable of female grass runners. Following a fourth-place finish in the G1 Just A Game at Belmont Park, Regal Glory was shipped to Kentucky in early August and has had five works for Beckman. Jose Ortiz, with two wins and three seconds in five starts on Regal Glory, has the mount.

“She's been training away down at Churchill and we're really happy with her progress and how she's maintaining,” Beckman said. “She's just been up against tough stablemates.”

Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano rode Flavius in the Tourist Stakes and will be aboard Tapit Today for the first time in the Ladies Turf. The 5-year-old Tapit Today, co-owned by William Lawrence and Bradley Thoroughbreds, returned from a five-month layoff to run fourth, beaten 1 ¾ lengths by Nay Lady Nay, in the G3 Matchmaker on July 18 at Monmouth Park. The Kentucky-bred daughter of Tapit is seeking her first stakes victory.

Front Run the Fed enters the RUNHAPPY Turf Sprint off a two-month break in races following his victory in an allowance/optional claimer at on July 5 at Belmont Park. He has been the favorite in his last eight races, winning four, topped by the Better Talk Now in 2019 at Saratoga. This will be his first try in graded-stakes company and first six-furlong race since April 2019 for the off-the-pace runner.

Rabbah Bloodstock's Lady Lawyer, a daughter of Blame bred by Claiborne Farm, started her career in Europe with John Gosden. She was moved to the U.S. to Brown's care this season and has a win and a second in two starts for her new trainer. In her most recent start, she prevailed by a neck in the 5 ½-furlong allowance/optional claimer, her first win on turf. All three of her wins in Great Britain were over artificial surfaces.

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‘All Of Them Started Somewhere, Too’: Natalia Lynch Chasing First Training Victory In Mr. Prospector Stakes

The way Natalia Lynch had it planned out in her mind is that she would spend another year or so working as an assistant trainer before trying to go out on her own. Then owner Al Gold offered to let her train nine horses from Gold Square LLC.

So on Aug. 25, Lynch, known by her nickname “Tally,” officially became a licensed trainer. A day later, she saddled her first starter.

And now on Saturday, with just the fourth starter in her burgeoning career, the 26-year-old Lynch will send out Wendell Fong in the $100,000 Mr. Prospector Stakes that headlines Monmouth Park's 14-race card that day.

“It's very surreal,” she said. “I haven't had time to sit down and process how quickly everything has happened yet. I remember the day I got my trainer's license I was walking out of the office and a trainer said to me `who do you work for?' I looked down at the license and said `I guess myself now.'

“I keep telling myself that this is not any different than what I have been doing for a long time. This is something I have been working for. When Al Gold gave me this opportunity I couldn't turn it down. So my one-year process before going out on my own turned into a two-week plan.”

Lynch, who will be based at Belmont Park, currently has 10 horses overall, eight from Gold Square (one was claimed). The Bethesda, Md. native was enrolled in the nursing school at Towson University when she started galloping horses, originally with the intent of becoming a jockey.

“I ended up not going back to school,” she said. “I started riding and worked my way up. I rode in a few amateur races last year. But my ultimate goal was to be a trainer.”

After becoming an assistant to Brittany Russell, Lynch then worked for Jeremiah Englehart. Most recently she was assisting Ray Handal.

Now she's in a race saddling a horse under her name against the likes of Hall of Famer Jerry Hollendorfer, Kelly Breen, Monmouth Park's leading trainer, and Gregg Sacco, who has multiple Grade 1 winner Mind Control entered in the field of seven 3-year-olds and up going six furlongs.

“It's terrifying to think about at times,” said Lynch. “I just look at it as at some point I hope I'm where they are. And I keep reminding myself that all of them started somewhere, too.”

A 4-year-old son of Flat Out, Wendell Fong (the horse's name is an obscure reference from an episode in the old “Frasier” TV sitcom) will need to re-capture his 3-year-old form if the colt is to become Lynch's first career winner. Robertino Diodoro trained the horse in his last start, when he was fifth in an $80,000 optional claimer at Saratoga on July 23. Jorge Vargas, Jr., who rode the horse his first six career starts and accounted for all three of Wendell Fong's career victories, has the mount.

“He's a really cool horse,” said Lynch. “His last race he was a little bit out of form but I had a thought to give him one more shot in a stakes race. He was running really good in stakes company at Oaklawn and I felt the race at Monmouth Park fit him. We put Vargas back on him because they did so well together when Wendell Fong was a 3-year-old.”

Lynch says she hopes her emotions don't get the best of her when she winds up saddling her first winner – but suspect they will if it comes in Saturday's Mr. Prospector Stakes.

“I don't know if I'll be able to talk after the race if we win it,” she said.

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