After Derby, Dominguez gets a break

What do you do after riding in your first Kentucky Derby? If you're Ramon Dominguez, you take a vacation. Not, as the television commercials featuring sports heroes would have you believe, to Disney World. Win or lose, Dominguez has made plans to take a trip to Belgium after the big race.

Dominguez, who has the mount on Tapit in Saturday's Derby, will be serving a seven-day suspension he was issued last fall while riding at Delaware Park. His tentative plan is to resume riding at Delaware on May 10.

"On Sunday morning, I will be leaving for Belgium," Dominguez said. "I will be in Belgium for five days, then I will come back to ride in New York and then I have to serve on one more day, so I will probably be back riding at Delaware on Monday [May 10]."

Dominguez has a commitment to ride Shake You Down in the Bold Ruler Handicap on May 8 at Belmont Park and is permitted to compete in the stakes race. If he doesn't ride in the Bold Ruler, he would be eligible to resume racing on Sunday, May 9.

Jockey Pino leaves Maryland

Mario Pino, who has primarily ridden in Maryland for the past 24 years, is moving his tack to Delaware.

Pino, 42, was Delaware's leading rider in 1979 and 1980. He also recorded his 5,000th career victory on his 41st birthday at Delaware in 2002.

Pino is looking forward to riding more frequently for his brother, Mike, the second-leading trainer at Delaware last season.

"I still live in Maryland, and I have been there a long time," Mario Pino said. "But when you get opportunities, you've got to take them. I rode for Mike down in Maryland, but he didn't have as many horses there as he will here. When we win a race together it's like a double pleasure."

'Redskin' one to catch in LaBelle

Two horses who made brief appearances on the Triple Crown trail, Redskin Warrior and Frisky Spider, head a group of 10 3-year-old sprinters in Saturday's $75,000 Francis "Jock" LaBelle Memorial.

The New York-based Redskin Warrior was regarded highly enough after earning a 105 Beyer Speed Figure in the six-furlong Best Turn that he was included among the 23 individual entries for Pool 2 of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager. His Derby prospects soured when he finished a distant fifth in the one-mile Gotham.

Trainer Jennifer Pedersen, who considered running Redskin Warrior in the Lafayette Stakes at Keeneland on April 4, has put the colt back in a six-furlong sprint, a distance at which he is 2 for 3.

Frisky Spider attracted some attention when he won a pair of seven-furlong allowance races at Gulfstream Park over the winter. He was unable to carry his speed around two turns, however, finishing far back in the Fountain of Youth and the Florida Derby.

Trainer Bob Durso originally planned to run Frisky Spider in the Hallandale Beach at Gulfstream on April 10, but when that race was canceled due to insufficient entries, the LaBelle became the alternative.

Other contenders include the Allen Jerkens-trained Smokume, who flashed high speed in the Grade 3 Spectacular Bid in January, and Matsui, third at 30-1 behind Redskin Warrior in the Best Turn and second in each of his last two starts in Maryland.