Five-win day for jockey Carol Cedeno

Jockey Carol Cedeno has had better days than today, but it’s doubtful she’s enjoyed many better weeks than this one.

Cedeno, who in 2018 set a Delaware Park record by winning seven times in a single day, won five Saturday afternoon at Delaware. The five wins gave her 14 in the last five days on which she’s raced, and she’s won at least two on each of the last four days at Delaware Park.

Cedeno had mounts on all nine of today’s races at Delaware, and she made them count. She took the opener with Always a Queen, rallying from fourth to win going away for trainer Scott Lake and Repole Stable. Always a Queen went off as the third choice in the field of six and paid $7.60 to win.

She followed up in the third race with Dancer’s Melody and in the fourth with Grand Skylark. The latter, trained by Susan Cooney, went off at 10.70-1 and was the longest shot of Cedeno’s five winners today.

In the sixth, the Jamie Ness trainee Baby Bam Bam proved to be her only winning favorite, rallying from sixth to score at 6-5 odds. She earned her fifth win — for her fifth different trainer — in the eighth, scoring aboard Paradise Pride for Rodolfo Sanchez-Salomon.

Cedeno leads all Delaware riders with 14 victories from 39 mounts. Roberto Alvarado, Jr. is second but has just five victories to date. Overall this year, Cedeno has 34 wins from 141 starts, with purse earnings of more than $750,000.