De Paz finds early success with youngsters, stakes veterans
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – A year ago, Horacio De Paz was high on some of his 2-year-olds that were to debut at Saratoga, only to be severely disappointed.
“Last year, I touted two or three and they still haven’t broken their maidens,” De Paz said Sunday morning in between training part of his 34-horse string at Saratoga.
Naturally, this meet De Paz downplayed his juvenile prospects, and yet he jumped out of the box winning races with 2-year-olds B Yutiful Carly ($73.04) on Saturday and Professor Plum ($38.44) on Sunday.
The two New York-bred winners are part of a larger success story for De Paz, who has won four races from his first seven starters at the meet. Through the first two weeks, he is tied atop the trainer standings with Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen. Furthermore, over the last 10 weeks in New York, De Paz is 13 for 44.
“It’s been great. Hopefully, I can keep it going,” De Paz said after Professor Plum won a statebred maiden special weight Sunday by one length. “Hopefully, that’s not the highlight of the meet. The barn has got quality now. We’ve got numbers, we’ve got horses with conditions, which helps, and we’ve also got some nice little stakes horses that we can take a swing with as well. This year, looking at the roster, it’s completely different than last year.”
Not completely. Horses such as Sounds Like a Plan, Twenty Six Black, and Awesome Czech are New York-breds who have enjoyed prior success at Saratoga. Sounds Like a Plan, a 4-year-old gelding by Twirling Candy, won an open-company second-level allowance race on Saturday, earning a career-best 93 Beyer Speed Figure. He has won five of his last six starts and is likely headed to the $200,000 West Point on Aug. 28.
“He’s just in good form right now – really, really good form,” De Paz, 41, said. “He’s just rattling off the conditions now. He took that step forward. He’s learning to race, too.
“Before, he’d idle a little or wait on horses. Now he’s finishing his races, just maintaining his consistency. That’s what’s impressive to me.”
De Paz got his meet kicked off on July 5 when Twenty Six Black rolled to a 2 3/4-length victory in the Harvey Pack Stakes, the 6-year-old gelding’s eighth win from 20 starts. He is now 3-3-1 from nine Saratoga starts.
De Paz said he will target the Grade 2, $300,000 Troy Stakes against open company here on Aug. 9. Twenty Six Black finished second in last year’s Troy.
“He’ll have to face Reef Runner,” De Paz said, referring to the Grade 1 Jaipur winner based in Florida. “But it’s the logical spot at Saratoga.”
Awesome Czech, a 5-year-old New York-bred daughter of Mendelssohn, is 4 for 5 at Saratoga. She went 2 for 2 here in 2024 and 2 for 3 in 2025. Awesome Czech is entered in Friday’s $150,000 De La Rose Stakes, which came up salty for a listed race.
Awesome Czech raced twice this year, finishing third in an overnight handicap over Gulfstream Park’s Tapeta track in January and sixth in the Grade 3 Gallorette at Laurel Park in May. Since then, De Paz said he had to scratch her from a New York-bred stakes when she tied up, a condition in which a horse develops muscle pain or stiffness.
“She needed that race in Maryland,” De Paz said. “She’s doing great right now, breezing really good, so we’ll see if she takes that step forward from last year.”
De Paz said he thought B Yutiful Carly, a daughter of Greatest Honour, would need a start before being able to win when she debuted on Saturday. Instead, she overcame a slow start with a monster rally that carried her to a three-length victory.
“I thought she’d be competitive and just use that as a race to move forward, but she really kicked in,” De Paz said. “And everything went wrong for her, too. She overcame a lot – very classy filly. Her disposition was always very confident, easy. She just did everything right.”
A likely target for B Yutiful Carly would be the $200,000 Seeking the Ante Stakes, though that isn’t until Sept 4.
As for Professor Plum, a colt by Solomini, his win Sunday caught De Paz a little off guard. He said the colt was playful in the barn and on the way over to the paddock, but “when we threw the tack on him, it’s like he just got in a zone,” De Paz said. “I thought he would be acting up or doing something stupid. No, he was real professional in the post parade, he broke well, got involved, and finished up. I’m glad he turned it up in the afternoon.”
De Paz has more 2-year-olds on the way, but at this point, he’s gun-shy to say much about them. The New York-bred 3-year-olds A Little At First, a winner at Saratoga on June 3, and Twirling Lad, a maiden winner at Aqueduct on June 21, could both show up in the $200,000 Rick Violette Stakes on July 24.
Then there is the filly Striker Has Dial, who won the Skipat Stakes at Laurel in her 5-year-old debut after winning the Endine Stakes in her 4-year-old finale. She is pointing to the Grade 2, $250,000 Honorable Miss on July 26.
“She ran so well fresh, I’m just going to run her fresh and see how it goes,” De Paz said.
So far, everything is going swimmingly for De Paz this summer.