Castellano rallies Therapist to victory in Artie Schiller

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Before he meets his orthopedic surgeon on Monday, jockey Javier Castellano had a consultation with a Therapist on Saturday.

Castellano, who will undergo arthroscopic surgery Monday to clean up debris near his right hip, rallied Therapist from about seven lengths off the pace to win the $100,000 Artie Schiller Stakes by a neck over Valid Point at Aqueduct. It was a head back to Delaware in third.

Following the win, Castellano, who also won an allowance race on Saturday’s card, joked that perhaps he’ll put off his Monday surgery, since the procedure will mean he will miss the remainder of this year following Sunday’s Aqueduct card.

“Doctor, forget about it, I’ll do it next year,” Castellano quipped. Castellano, 43, added that by having this simple procedure now it will likely eliminate the need to have hip-replacement surgery down the road.

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Castellano is named on six mounts Sunday before shutting down for the remainder of the year.

Castellano picked up the mount on Therapist because his regular rider, Irad Ortiz Jr., was committed to ride Delaware for trainer Chad Brown. In the Artie Schiller, Castellano had the late-running Therapist in sixth position, with no one near him down the backside. Rinaldi set the pace, stalked by Valid Point with the trio of Hawkish, Delaware, and Ninety One Assault in the second flight.

Rinaldi, under Nik Juarez, was doing his best to fend off all challengers in the stretch, but approaching the sixteenth pole Valid Point overtook him with his stablemate Delaware right off his flank. Meanwhile, Castellano had Therapist in the outside and in the clear and he rallied by Delaware in the final strides for the win.

“The last sixteenth he felt like he was rolling, he finished strong,” Castellano said. “It looked like the other horses were in slow-motion and I felt my horse moving forward.”

Therapist, a 5-year-old New York-bred gelding by Freud, covered the mile in 1:37.16 over good turf and returned $8.30 as the slight favorite over Delaware. Therapist won for the ninth time in 21 starts for owner/breeder Richard Leahy, who races under the banner Oak Bluff Stables, and trainer Christophe Clement, who is also the co-breeder. Therapist has won eight stakes and increased his career earnings to $653,345.

“He’s the perfect advertisement for the New York-bred program,” Clement told the New York Racing Association publicity department. “He’s very consistent and he can win at a high level against open company.

“He always had a very good turn of foot,” Clement added. “I wasn’t sure if he would get there in time, but he was good enough to do it today.”