Davis ties NYRA record with six wins on single card

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Jockey Dylan Davis rode six winners Sunday at Aqueduct, tying a record for most wins on a single card at a New York Racing Association track held by several other jockeys.

Davis, 23, won the first five races on the card - equaling a feat accomplished by Ramon Dominguez on Feb. 17, 2010 - before finishing third on Tough Old Bird in Race 6. Davis then got his sixth victory on Gorelli in Race 7. He finished second on his last two mounts, including a three-quarter of a length defeat aboard Flipped to favored Comeoncomeoncat in the finale.

“I really thought I was going to get this last one here,” Davis said after the final race. “My eyes widened up, I said ‘Oh boy,’ he was getting there, getting there, it was just not enough. Incredible day, never knew it was going to happen.”

Davis became the first jockey to win six races on a NYRA card - that includes Belmont and Saratoga - since Javier Castellano did it on Nov. 9, 2013 at Aqueduct. Several other jockeys have done it, including Shaun Bridgmohan, Steve Cauthen, Jorge Chavez, Angel Cordero, Ramon Dominguez, Corey Nakatani, Alfred Robertson, Bill Shoemaker, Mike Smith, Ron Turcotte, Rudy Turcotte, Mike Venezia, Jorge Velasquez, and John Velazquez.

“It’s a great bunch to be in,” Davis said.

Davis’ six victories came two weeks after he won five races on Super Bowl Sunday. He has a meet-leading 30 victories, four more than Manny Franco. The Aqueduct winter meet runs through March 25.

“New York is New York; to do the five or six winners, it’s an incredible feat,” said Davis, the son of former jockey Robbie Davis. “With the big guys coming back, hopefully I’ll have enough momentum to carry through a little better than I did last year.”

None of Davis’ six winners were favorites. After winning the first two races on Mo Flash ($9.80) and Crimson Frost ($6.80), Davis guided Nine Route ($14.60) to a front-running upset in the $100,000 Gander Stakes.

Davis won Race 4 on Dead Broke ($7.80) then finished second, beaten a head on Getoffmyback by Morning Buzz. But Davis lodged an objection and the stewards, who had lit the inquiry sign, ultimately disqualified Morning Buzz for interference in deep stretch and elevated Getoffmyback ($6.20) to first. Gorelli, Davis’ last winner, returned $9.90.

In the Gander, Davis was riding Nine Route for the first time. Franco had ridden Nine Route in his prior two races - both wins - but wound up on heavily favored Empire Line after Evaluator, his original mount, scratched.

Davis said that trainer Jeremiah Englehart instructed him to put Nine Route on the lead, which is what he did after a slow start. While Nine Route set moderate fractions, his stalker, Gio d’Oro, was kept several paths away from him in the early stages leaving Nine Route alone.

Davis opened his lead again turning for home as he wound up winning by three lengths. Gio d’Oro toiled, but still held off 1-5 favorite Empire Line for second. Engineers Report finished last of four.

“They told me be aggressive because he’s an aggressive horse, but not too much where he doesn’t have anything to finish,” Davis said. “He did break slow and I let him get into his own stride, then he took control of the race on his own. I got to the point where I could gear him down a little and he listened to me, which was great and then he knew what he had to.”

Nine Route covered the mile in 1:41.25 over a sloppy track and returned $14.60.

Alvarado wins three including Broadway

Junior Alvarado won the other three races on Sunday’s card including the $100,000 Broadway Stakes aboard Startwithsilver, who made an eye-catching last-to-first move to win the stakes for New York-bred fillies and mares by six lengths. Bee Noteworthy, ridden by Davis, finished second.

Startwithsilver is trained by Linda Rice, who also won three races on the card, two with Alvarado and one with Davis.
The win gave Rice and owner Sheila Rosenblum their third victory in the last five runnings of the Broadway. They won this race in 2014 with La Verdad and in 2017 with Hot City Girl. Iris Smith and Rice also own Startwithsilver.

As she did when she won an allowance race on dirt here Jan. 25, Startwithsilver took advantage of a strong pace and came with a devastating late run. She had one horse beat at the quarter pole, then stormed down the extremely sloppy track to win going away. Startwithsilver, a 5-year-old daughter of Jump Start, covered the six furlongs in 1:11.44 and returned $6.80 as the second choice.

“The last time, it was a dry track and I was far back and she was a little hesitant with the dirt at the beginning because it was her first race in awhile running on the dirt,” Alvarado said. “She was very professional [today]. She took the dirt well and when I asked her, she was push-button. I just had to hang on tight.”