From a Maryland Jockey Club release
It’s been a big week for Sagamore Farm trainer Horacio De Paz. He and his wife celebrated the birth of a child earlier this week, and on Friday he will try to saddle the first winner of his career with the 3-year-old filly Ginger N Rye in Laurel’s featured eighth race.
De Paz, recently promoted from assistant trainer and a former exercise rider for Todd Pletcher, says his new position has been “really exciting and I’m looking forward to the new adventure.” De Paz will handle horses for Sagamore at the farm and some currently stabled at Pimlico.
“I got to work for a facility (in Sagamore) that had a bunch of horses, so I got to see firsthand how to manage a bunch of horses and managing a lot of people as well,” he said. “So I think getting that experience and that exposure made this transition not that much of a difficult transition. I worked for Todd (Pletcher) for 4 1/2 years and got to travel around wherever they went so it was really an interesting operation as well.”
Ginger N Rye, a homebred by More Than Ready entered in Friday’s entry-level allowance race at 5 1/2 furlongs on the turf, has not raced since finishing fifth Dec. 26 in the Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship. The filly broke her maiden in her third start across a muddy Laurel track after a troubled sixth-place finish on the turf in October.
“We always thought something of her. We thought she had talent when we ran her last year. She kind of came up with some shins and then we gave her some time off through the winter,” De Paz. “We were always trying to run her on the turf, but for some reason last year her first race came off and then she had a troubled trip. Hopefully, she can put in a good run (Friday). I think our ultimate goal is to try and stretch her out. Her pedigree shows that she is fit to go two turns.”
With his wife and child in the hospital until Saturday, De Paz is “trying to sneak away in the morning for a few hours” and then try to make the race Friday afternoon.
