Davis's road trip to Florida paying dividends

Jockeys have to make split-second decisions all the time. Dylan Davis made one last month that has him continuing to ride while many of his New York brethren are stuck at home.

For the last two weeks, Davis, a regular on the New York Racing Association circuit, has been riding at Gulfstream Park. On Thursday, he picked up his first victory there when he guided the 3-year-old filly Envoutante to an impressive 6 1/2-length maiden victory.

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“I’m really happy to be riding horses in general,” Davis, who rode at Gulfstream in 2013-14, said Friday by phone from Florida.

If he wasn’t in Florida, Davis said, “I’d be in New York not doing much.”

“To win some races is even better,” he said. “I’m happy Gulfstream is continuing to run.”

Davis rode at Aqueduct on March 15, which turned out to be the final day of the winter meet. On March 19, the day before Davis was named to ride six horses at Aqueduct, NYRA announced it was suspending racing operations indefinitely after a backstretch worker tested positive for the coronavirus. Aqueduct’s spring meet also is canceled, and there is no timetable for when Belmont’s spring meet will open.

Davis was initially going to ride at Laurel, but then that track canceled. On March 20, two hours before NYRA was about to close Aqueduct’s jockeys’ room, Davis picked up his tack. He was talking to his agent, Mike Migliore, who brought up the idea of riding at Gulfstream, where some riders were taking off their mounts. Davis said he would ride there, drove from Aqueduct back to his Long Island home, packed up the family, and headed south.

Davis said he and his wife, Sarah, split up the driving over 21 hours, and Davis made it in time to ride a pick-up mount in the first race on the March 21 card.

Davis went winless with his 39 mounts the first seven days he was at Gulfstream. On Thursday, though, he may have picked up a filly with a future in Envoutante, a daughter of Uncle Mo who won in her first start around two turns. Her final time of 1:43.51 earned her a 90 Beyer Speed Figure, the same figure earned by Swiss Skydiver, who won last Saturday’s Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Oaks under Paco Lopez. Both Envoutante and Swiss Skydiver are trained by Ken McPeek, who has had success with Davis over the years.

On Thursday, Envoutante dueled on the lead for three-quarters of a mile with Assume and pulled away in the stretch.

“She put that horse away into the second turn,” Davis said. “I got her stride going a little more before another challenger came to me. When that happened, she rebroke. She really handled the distance well and she’d didn’t get that tired.”

It remains to be seen how good Envoutante turns out to be and if Davis will get the chance to ride her again. For now, Davis is just happy to be riding at all. Davis said his family is living with a cousin who has a house about 10 minutes from Gulfstream Park.

“If I can continue with her that’s great,” said Davis, noting that he’s ridden some winners for Walking L Thoroughbreds and Three Chimneys Farm, the owners of Envoutante.