Dylan Davis hopes to continue momentum at Aqueduct spring meet
With the exception of the return of turf racing – scheduled to begin April 7 – and one blockbuster card on April 9, Aqueduct’s 15-day spring meet, which begins Thursday and runs through April 24, figures to look very similar to the four-month winter meet that concluded Sunday.
Dylan Davis hopes there are no changes atop the jockey standings this spring after statistics reset on Thursday.
Davis finished the 50-day Aqueduct winter meet with 63 winners, nine more than his brother-in-law Trevor McCarthy to capture his first-ever riding title. Davis put the exclamation point on a sensational meet with a four-win Saturday, a card made up entirely of starter allowance races on what was billed as New York Claiming Championship Day.
:: Want to start playing with a $510 bankroll and have access to free Formulator? Learn more
“It definitely feels great,” Davis, 27, said Sunday. “I feel grateful and honored to get it. Me and my agent Mike [Migliore], we worked very hard from the beginning to get to this point. I always give 110 percent. Definitely have to thank the owners and trainers and grooms on the backside and especially the horses – they’re doing the running. I was lucky to get on good horses and get the job done and looking for more titles now.”
Aqueduct’s spring meet coincides with the final week of the Gulfstream Park winter meet and the three-week Keeneland meet. Thus, the riding colony at this four-week Aqueduct meet should look very much the same as the four-month winter meet.
Davis hopes to ride the momentum of the winter through the Aqueduct spring and into Belmont, when the competition will ratchet up with the return of Irad Ortiz Jr, Jose Ortiz, Luis Saez, Javier Castellano, Joel Rosario, and John Velazquez and include Southern California-based transplants Flavien Prat and Umberto Rispoli. While Prat is likely not to start here until after the May 7 Kentucky Derby, Rispoli is scheduled to start riding at Aqueduct on April 14.
“I’ve always been competitive, especially this year being leading rider,” Davis said. “I have very good stock behind me. The momentum should help me push through April and back at Belmont. Looking for a better year, and to be honest the goal is just to beat my previous year. I just try to keep improving and get winners and try to do better than what I did last year. I got a lot of confidence now and I just want to keep on winning.”
Davis missed last year’s Aqueduct spring meet after suffering a broken collarbone in a spill during the last week of the winter meet. He missed the first month of the 2021 Belmont spring/summer meet as well.
The Aqueduct spring meet is four weeks, with racing conducted Thursdays through Sundays with the exception of Easter Sunday (April 17). There will be 13 stakes worth $2.7 million offered during the session. Six of those stakes will be held on April 9, topped by the Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial for 3-year-olds with Kentucky Derby aspirations, and the Grade 1, $300,000 Carter Handicap for older male sprinters.
There are four turf stakes scheduled at the meet with the first turf races scheduled in the condition book for April 7.
There are eight races scheduled for both Thursday and Friday. Thursday’s card is topped by a second-level allowance/optional claimer where Betsy Blue, trained by Linda Rice, goes for her third consecutive victory of the year.
A daughter of Tonalist, Betsy Blue won a New York-bred second-level allowance here on Feb. 27 and came back 19 days later to win an open company first-level allowance by 3 1/4 lengths.
Betsy Blue is 5 for 6 with a second at Aqueduct and has never been worse than second in five starts over a wet track. There is a chance of rain on Thursday.
Jose Lezcano rides from post 5 in the seven-horse field.
Rossa Veloce, trained by Ray Handal, was third in this condition last out and is one of two in the field being offered for the claiming price.
◗ Rudy Rodriguez captured his fifth Aqueduct winter meet trainer’s title with 33 wins, capping the season with three victories on Sunday’s card. He finished eight wins ahead of Rob Atras.
Two of Rodriguez’s winners were ridden by apprentice Jose Gomez, who won four races on Sunday’s card. In the process, Gomez went from being a seven-pound apprentice to a five-pound apprentice. He will remain a five-pound apprentice until Jan. 14, 2023.
◗ Eddie Brown, a NYRA employee who served many years as the assistant clerk of scales, died last week. He was 85.
Brown, who worked on the track for more than 60 years, began his stint at NYRA working as a valet for many Hall of Fame riders including Steve Cauthen, Angel Cordero Jr., Jerry Bailey, and Pat Day.