Diodoro eyes first New York stakes win with Inside Straight
Trainer Robertino Diodoro started out in the province of Alberta in the mid-1990s, racing at Northlands Park and Stampede Park. He extended his reach to Turf Paradise in 2008, Southern California in 2010, and Oaklawn Park in 2015.
On Friday morning, he was at Canterbury Park, where he has raced since 2013. Diodoro has done well at all of those locales and in early June set up a Belmont Park stable that immediately began to win races.
Diodoro is 12 for 38 at Belmont, a 31 percent win average, and is tied for sixth in the trainer standings despite having missed the first five weeks of the meet. On Sunday, he will try to win his first New York stakes when he sends out Inside Straight in the $100,000 Saginaw, a 1 1/16-mile race for New York-breds.
“We knew it was going to be tough, but I’m very happy with how things are going in New York,” Diodoro said. “It’s a team effort. I have a good crew of assistants there. I also have guys watching replays and keeping track of speed figures and things.”
Diodoro has long played the claiming game and constantly has horses moving in and out of his various stables. As of Friday, he said he had 137 horses under his care.
“We’ve lost a lot of horses in New York, but we’ve won some shakes, too,” he said.
Inside Straight is almost as well traveled as Diodoro. In the last year, he has raced at Assiniboia Downs, Northlands Park, Remington Park, Zia Park, Oaklawn, and Belmont.
He won the Grade 2, $750,000 Oaklawn Handicap in his final Arkansas start. Diodoro ran him in the $1.2 million Met Mile on June 10, but he ducked in while leaving the gate, was steadied, and finished last of 12.
“Throw the Met Mile out, it was just garbage,” Diodoro said. “Maybe he was out of his league, but when he ducked in at the gap, the race was over for him.”
Diodoro said Inside Straight came out of the Met Mile well and is ready for the Saginaw.
“We were saying six months ago, ‘One more race and it’s time to give him a break,’ ” Diodoro said. “But he just keeps running big, and three days later, he’s looking for another race. He looks better than ever right now, but he is pretty close to getting a two-, three-, or four-month break.”
Trainer Rick Violette Jr. has two of the eight entrants in the Saginaw. Diversify, who missed by a nose over a sloppy track in the one-mile Commentator on May 29, could go favored. Samraat, 6, will be making his first start since September.
In upper stretch of the Commentator, it looked as though Diversify would go outside the front-running Weekend Hideaway, but when that horse began to drift, Diversify went to his inside. Diversify drifted to the rail at the sixteenth pole, forcing Governor Malibu, who also is entered in the Saginaw, to alter course around him.
Governor Malibu, trained by Christophe Clement, rallied from far back in the Commentator and was beaten only 2 1/4 lengths. He has since finished fourth in the 1 1/2-mile Brooklyn on the Belmont Stakes card.