DePaz barn set up for a strong season in New York

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Horacio DePaz felt he was just starting to make an impact in New York when the COVID-19 pandemic put a halt to racing on this circuit last March.

DePaz finished 2020 in New York with 14 winners from 61 starters, including a victory in the Grade 3 Go for Wand with Sharp Starr.

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DePaz, who has been based in the Mid-Atlantic region, hopes to find more success in New York in 2021 and appears to have the ammunition to do that this winter. He sent out his first starter of the year, Devilish Mood, in Friday’s ninth race at Aqueduct and will have one of the favorites in Sunday’s $100,000 La Verdad Stakes in Sharp Starr.

“We had a good Belmont meet after COVID,” DePaz said Friday in between sets of workers. “Saratoga was good, then it quieted down for the Belmont meet, but then we’re picking back up again at Aqueduct. We got good owners, which makes it easier. Hopefully no pandemic hits again and we’ll be all right.”

One of DePaz’s primary owners is Barry Schwartz, who owns Sharp Starr as well as Amundson, who won the Hollie Hughes here in February after winning two races at the 2019 Belmont fall meet.

Amundson was given a break following his seventh-place finish in the John Morrissey Stakes at Saratoga in August and is training toward a potential start in the Hollie Hughes next month.

“Off that race at Saratoga we just gave him a break,” DePaz said. “He tries hard every time. We figured we’d get him ready for the winter. He had his first half-mile last weekend. He’ll move forward off of that.”

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DePaz also has Fed Funds and Singapore Trader to run this winter. Singapore Trader is a half-brother to Grade 1 winner Voodoo Song. DePaz has another member of that family, the unraced 3-year-old filly Voodoo Magic, who is a full sister to Singapore Trader and whom he hopes to start this winter.

“She was precocious and she was coming along nicely, and then she had a setback in the middle of the summer and we weren’t able to move forward,” DePaz said. “She had time off for that. Now she’s just come back.”

DePaz also has a promising 3-year-old New York-bred maiden for Schwartz in Our Man Mike, who has twice finished second in stakes. He was scratched from a recent maiden race due to a splint issue, but should return later this winter or spring.