Beschizza rides first U.S. winners

Adam Beschizza has been at Fair Grounds before, working as an exercise rider for trainer Mike Stidham in 2009 and for trainer Joe Sharp in 2015. But this year the 25-year-old English rider is back in New Orleans as a full-time jockey, and he had his first three U.S. winners this past racing week. All three horses, including two Sunday, are trained by Sharp, who met Beschizza when Sharp was an assistant to Stidham the year Beschizza came over.

“I was the one who was supposed to show him the ropes,” Sharp said. “We’ve stayed in touch, and this summer when he mentioned he was thinking of coming over, I told him if he was going to do it, he should do it right.”

Sharp and Hilary Pridham, Stidham’s longtime assistant, helped find Beschizza an agent, Liz Morris.

“It’s not an easy sell with someone nobody knows,” Sharp said. “I told him we’d try to give him a little push, and we have.”

Beschizza began riding professionally in 2009 and lost his apprenticeship 2 1/2 years later, he said. He rode 65 winners overseas this year after winning 62 races in 2016.

“America’s a different world compared to any European racing, but I had a decent grounding coming here before,” Beschizza said. “I do have to sharpen up on my dirt racing, but I do see myself fitting in over here.”

◗ The nominal Thursday feature is the seventh of nine races (first post 1 p.m. Central), a first-level allowance race for 3-year-olds and up going six furlongs on dirt. The six-horse field appears well matched, with the talented Illinois-bred Wynn Time of particular interest. Wynn Time steps up in class but has scored eye-catching wins at Arlington and Hawthorne to start his career.

◗ Miguel Mena left Churchill Downs before the end of the meet to ride from the start of the Fair Grounds season, and that choice has paid off. Mena enters Thursday’s card with 10 wins from 36 mounts, five more winners than the next highest total in a jockey colony that gets much deeper this week.