Arindel, trainer Alvarado sweep first 2-year-old races; Ward second each time

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - When entries were drawn over the weekend for the first two juvenile races of the local season, most everybody was predicting the same trainer would win both events. But few, if any, suggested that trainer would be Juan Alvarado, not Wesley Ward, whose barn typically dominates 2-year-old races at this time of year.

Alvarado not only won the first “baby” races of the year, he did so at the direct expense of Ward, sending out Quinoa Tifah to defeat 2-5 Lime in Thursday’s filly division, then coming back to do it again Friday as Gatsby ran down the well-bred and odds-on Golden Pal despite a somewhat eventful trip. Both Quinoa Tifah, by Gemologist, and Gatsby, by Brethren, are Arindel homebreds and were ridden to victory by Emisael Jaramillo.

“This was almost too much fun,” quipped Brian Cohen, son of Arindel owner Alan Cohen, who oversees the local division of the stable with Alvarado spending the majority of his time on the farm in Ocala. “Honestly, we’re just happy to be running right now and to have had the opportunity to be running these 2-year-olds.”

Both Quinoa Tifah and Gatsby had the benefit of getting in plenty of work on the farm before shipping down to receive some additional schooling locally prior to their debuts under the supervision of Cohen and his assistant Heather Smullen.

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“We weren’t really planning on running the filly (Quinoa Tifah) in the early races, she’s more of a longer, athletic type. In fact we hadn’t even named her until a couple of weeks ago. But she was working so fast and Heather loved her, she worked her out of the gate and was talking her up so much we decided to go with her first.”

Cohen felt Gatsby, on the other hand, was more of a 4 1/2-furlong type of horse.

“We had to try to keep him from working too fast and Heather loved him too,” said Cohen. “She said he could come from down inside, in front or behind, and that’s exactly what he had to do today after Wesley’s horse [Golden Pal] came over on him, forcing Emisael to check down the backside. Watching Wesley’s colt work on XBTV and looking over the field, I felt this was a tougher race than yesterday and I told dad we might not win today, but he [Gatsby] won’t disappoint us. And he didn’t.”

Cohen said Arindel currently has 40 2-year-olds in training, all homebreds, and was quick to salute both Alvarado, who is nicknamed Rafa, and Jaramillo for being a big part of the somewhat unexpected success the stable had over the past 24 hours.

“Rafa works so hard up on the farm getting the babies started, and then we have had the advantage of sending them down here this spring where the team gets them schooled at the gate and to work at least a couple of times over the track, which is a big edge,” said Cohen. “I remember Cookie Dough was the first one to run for us in the 2-year-old races a couple of years ago and Genghis the first last year, but because of our stall situation at the time, they both had to ship down the day of the race. And Emisael is so patient and so good with the babies, which you could see from the way he handled the situation out there today.”