Yesterday and today: June 20 racing highlights
A.P. Indian, here winning the 2015 Donald LeVine Memorial at Parx Racing, repeated on Saturday. Photo By Barb Weidl/EQUI-PHOTO
From Staff Reports
YESTERDAY’S NEWS: NJ JOCKEYS ENJOY HUGE WEEKEND
A pair of jockeys known for their Monmouth Park exploits enjoyed stellar weekends.
Paco Lopez won nine times over the weekend, with five wins Saturday and four more on Sunday at Monmouth. And while veteran Joe Bravo didn’t win as many races, he scored in three stakes, two graded, at three different tracks.
Lopez, the dominant rider at Monmouth in recent years, has made sure that 2016 is no different. The nine wins give him 36, from 103 starts, during the Monmouth stand. That’s 19 more wins than his nearest competitor, Nik Juarez, and his more than $893,000 in purse earnings is some $400,000 clear of Jose Ferrer, in second.
Saturday and Sunday, the nine wins for Lopez came on a total of 16 mounts, and he registered victories for seven different trainers, including allowance wins for Jason Servis and Terri Pompay.
Bravo, currently fifth in the Monmouth jockey standings with 11 wins, also enjoyed a stellar weekend. The veteran, who has 5,100 wins to his credit, finished the weekend by piloting Donegal Moon to a rallying, upset score in the Grade 3 Pegasus Stakes at Monmouth, but that was just the second biggest win of his weekend. Bravo also guided Bradester to a front-running win in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster on Saturday evening at Churchill Downs, securing that runner a berth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. And, earlier Saturday, Bravo teamed up with A. P. Indian for that runner’s second consecutive win in the Donald Levine Memorial Stakes at Parx Racing.
[su_divider top=”no” style=”double” size=”9″]BY THE NUMBERS
- HANDLE:
- Monmouth Park: $3,771,463
- Parx Racing: $869,807
- Pimlico: $1,547,679
- CLAIMS:
- Monmouth Park: 1
- Parx Racing: 0
- Pimlico: 3
- MULTIPLE WINNERS
- JOCKEYS
- Paco Lopez, 4 wins at Monmouth
- Victor Carrasco, 2 wins at Pimlico
- Hector Caballero, 2 wins at Parx
- TRAINERS
- Jason Servis, 2 wins at Monmouth
- Mario Serey, Jr., 2 wins at Parx
- Juan Vazquez, 2 wins at Parx
- JOCKEYS
LOOK AHEAD: TODAY’S RACING
- Tracks in action today: Parx Racing and Delaware Park.
- Three runners that finished second or third on debut figure to get long looks from the bettors in race five at Delaware Park, a maiden special weight for fillies and mares going six furlongs. Sea View Millie (5-2) was fractious in the gate but rallied late to earn the place, though 11 lengths behind winner Casual Cocktail, in her first career start last month over the strip. The Proud Citizen filly will have Gabriel Saez in the irons. Kim Boniface trainee My Adeline (9-2) finished nicely to be second in her debut, also last month at Delaware, and will have Scott Spieth in the irons. And Gerry Bennett’s Zofia’s Prayer (6-1) finished third in her debut, at Tampa Bay Downs last month, after being sent off as the favorite. That race has produced a next-out winner. Erick Rodriguez will ride.
- The fourth of Parx Racing’s four allowance contests this afternoon is a $52,000, six furlong sprint for three-year-olds and up that have never won two. Among the runners in the field is John Servis trainee Big Louie D (12-1), who showed promise as a juvenile last year, taking two of three starts, including a four-length romp in the Christopher Elser Memorial Stakes. He didn’t make his 2016 debut until Preakness day, when he chased speedy Justin Squared to no avail in the Chick Lang Stakes at Pimlico, finishing fourth before being disqualified to seventh. Servis adds blinkers, regular rider Joshua Navarro remains aboard, and a step forward here would be no surprise. A Fleet Attitude (3-1), most recently sixth in the Lyman Stakes for PA-breds, is the morning line favorite.
