Count Them Again not just another mount for Medellin
Apprentice jockey Erick Medellin experienced one of the most emotional wins of his young career last month with Count Them Again and he will be teaming with the same mare Sunday in the $100,000 La Coneja at Sunland Park.
Count Them Again gave Medellin his richest win when she had her number put up in the $65,000 Bold Ego at Sunland. But the victory was about so much more.
Medellin is close friends with Count Them Again’s owners, Lola Cuellar and her daughter Alexandria Cuellar. The family suffered an unimaginable loss about a week before the Bold Ego, when Lola Cuellar’s daughter and Alexandria’s sister Anita died in an accident on New Year’s Day. She was in her early 20s.
“After the events that happened, the win with the horse that day, it was a special moment for the family,” said Dominic Rivera, the New Mexico-based agent for Medellin.
Rivera and Medellin were traveling to Sunland Park on Friday after spending a few days at Oaklawn. Medellin will move his tack to the Arkansas track this week, but was making a special trip back to Sunland to ride Count Them Again. He was scheduled to fly to New Mexico, but with winter weather engulfing the region and making for flight cancellations, Rivera decided the surest way to get back for the race was to drive Medellin to Sunland.
“He wanted to do everything in his power to make it back to ride the mare,” Rivera said Friday. “It means a lot to him, because it means a lot to the family.”
The La Coneja is for fillies and mares bred in New Mexico. The race will be run over six furlongs, and it drew a full field of 10 including Slammed. She is the probable favorite after winning four consecutive stakes last year at 3.
Count Them Again figures to start as the second choice off her effort at 17-1 in the Bold Ego on Jan. 9. She rallied from off the pace and finished second by a nose. Count Them Again was impeded in the stretch run and had her number put up in the open-company race. Count Them Again, who is trained by Raul Vega, will break from post 4.
Following the race, Medellin will board a flight back to Arkansas. But no doubt a piece of his heart will remain in New Mexico with the Cuellar family and Count Them Again.