Jockeys

The red-hot Victor Carrasco has won 13 races the last two weekends to jump into a tie with Jevian Toledo for the most wins, 14, at Laurel Park so far this year. Toledo has made 58 starts at Laurel so far in ’22, compared to 38 for Carrasco.

That duo is also one-two when it comes to winning the track’s most lucrative races. Since Jan. 1, Carrasco has won nine allowance, stakes, or high-end maiden races, including three stakes win this past Saturday. Toledo is next with four wins in those races, while six other jockeys have won two each.

Carrasco has a half-dozen mounts in the first two days of the racing weekend but will be at Aqueduct Saturday to ride Grantham for trainer Mike Maker in the G3 Withers. Carrasco won this past weekend’s What A Summer Stakes at Laurel for Maker aboard Time Limit.

Toledo is named aboard 10 horses in the first three racing days of the weekend.

Leading riders by high-end races won

Trainers

Among trainers, Jerry Robb has the jump on everyone. The veteran trainer has won with 10 of 25 starters so far in 2022, giving him a three-win edge on Claudio Gonzalez. Gonzalez has won with seven of 42 runners.

But in the most lucrative races, It’s Mike Trombetta who has the edge. Trombetta has won five allowance, stakes, or high-end maiden races, three more than any other trainer. Robb, Gonzalez, Damon Dilodovico, and Brittany Russell are next with two wins each. Robb has no starters scheduled for the first three days of the racing weekend, while Trombetta just has one. Gonzalez, with a half-dozen, may move up the ladder.

Leading trainers by high-end races won

Horses

Who are the best horses at Laurel at the moment? The list below provides a numerical rating of each horse by the quality of the competition they have faced and how they did against that competition and is limited to horses that have raced at least twice at Laurel since Nov. 1.

1. Cordmaker – 102 – 7yo has won three stakes since the beginning of November
2. Shackqueenking – 100 – Third in three stakes from six furlongs to nine
3. Youngest of Five – 100 – Second or third in three stakes
4. Penguin Power – 99
5. Threes Over Deuces – 99
6. Whereshetoldmetogo – 97
7. Workin on a Dream – 96
8. Bustoff – 96
9. Air Token – 95
10. Galerio – 94

Among current three-year-olds, the list looks like this:

1. Coastal Mission – 80 – Second and third in local stakes
2. Local Motive -78 – Stakes win from three local starts
3. Last Romance – 77
4. Shake Em Loose – 77
5. Buy the Best – 74

And among fillies and mares:

1. Miss Leslie – 94 – Won two local stakes before runner-up effort out of town
2. Kaylasaurus – 94 – First and second in two local stakes
3. Villanelle – 91
4. Artful Splatter – 91
5. Belle of the North – 90