Dutrow on hot streak as he nears 2,000 career wins

Trainer Rick Dutrow has won 12 races from 23 starters at four different tracks over the last month. The recent run of success has brought Dutrow to 1,990 career victories.

Since May 24, Dutrow has won five races at Aqueduct, three at Delaware Park, two at Monmouth, and two at Saratoga.

“Horses have been running good, the conditions have been there for us, you know the game,” said Dutrow, who lost three of those winners at the claim box.

Among the success stories is Just for Luck, a 6-year-old New York-bred gelding who has won two straight and three of his last four. Dutrow said he’s not exactly sure what’s fueled the turnaround.

“I can’t come up with it,” Dutrow said. “I think I’ve been better training him because in spots he gives you some weird days, so once he gets close to a race I eliminate the possibility of a weird day by not sending him to the track. It took me a while to learn because I had to scratch him a couple of times when he was in, but now I think we got him.”

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Dutrow said he may look to run Just for Luck in a starter allowance at Saratoga in August.

Another pleasant surprise was the maiden win recorded by Into the Light, a well-bred 3-year-old gelding who had been 0 for 4. Into the Light, the ninth winner out of the Grade 1-winning dam By the Light, won a one-mile maiden race by a half-length after getting beat for maiden $55,000 claiming.

“The first few times that I run him he was blowing us away with how bad he would run,” Dutrow said. “He was training so good, he was so happy, but at the half-mile pole he quits. It was not my plan to stretch him out, the race was there. That’s the only reason I put him in, not because we’re smart, it was just playing the race.”

Meanwhile, Dutrow said Sculcos Folly is still pointing to the $150,000 New York Derby on July 13 at Finger Lakes.

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