Emmanuel gets up late to win Carey Memorial

Emmanuel, ridden for the first time by Emmanuel “Manny” Esquivel, got up late over his Mike Maker-trained stablemate Paros to win the $150,000 Carey Memorial on Sunday at Hawthorne.

The 3-2 favorite in a field of 11, Emmanuel raced in mid-pack after breaking from post 10 and benefitted from a fast pace unfolding in front of him in this turf route for older horses. Frosty View sailed out to a clear lead through splits of 22.99 and 45.93 over a firm, dry, fast-playing grass course, with Katie M’lady outside of Paros a few lengths behind the pacesetter.

Esquivel, meanwhile, settled Emmanuel into sixth, biding his time down the backstretch and around the far turn while racing alone, no foe either inside or outside him. Emmanuel began gaining momentum past the three-furlong marker and got seriously engaged as Esquivel split Spellcast and Fearless Soldier at the five-sixteenths pole.

Frosty View held firm past the furlong grounds before switching to his wrong lead and quickly tiring, and even as Paros wore down Frosty View to take the lead, Esquivel and Emmanuel had him measured. The win margin was three-quarters of a length. Out of Deductions finished fastest for third, three-quarters behind Paros.

“He broke the way I was expecting,” Esquivel said. “I got to save the ground and had a perfect trip. They went very quick in front. This stretch is very long. I was comfortable.”

Emmanuel’s $90,000 share of the purse pushed his earnings over $1 million, most of which came during an earlier phase of his career when Todd Pletcher trained him for Siena Farm and WinStar Farm. Old connections entered Emmanuel in a horses-of-racing-age auction in July 2024, when he was purchased for $500,000, his new owners being Case Chambers, Paradise Farms Corp., and David Staudacher. Emmanuel lost his first seven starts for the new connections, but now has won two of his last three, Maker carefully picking listed stakes within Emmanuel’s current scope.

Emmanuel clocked 1:34.03 for one mile and paid $5 to win. The 6-year-old horse is by More Than Ready out of Hard Cloth, by Hard Spun, and was bred by Helen K. Groves Revocable Trust.

Esquivel has mainly ridden this year at Oaklawn, Colonial, and Horseshoe Indianapolis. His lone ride Sunday marked only his second start during a Hawthorne meet that began in March. But he knows this course well. Esquivel grew up in the dormitories on the Hawthorne backstretch. His father was a groom. Esquivel learned to ride at Hawthorne, first aboard stable ponies in shed rows, then galloping as a teenaged exercise rider. The horse beneath him Sunday bearing the same name as his jockey was in good hands.

*** Oeuvre ($2.60) made short work of five rivals in the $75,000 Jean Elizabeth Stakes for Illinois-bred fillies and mares. Oeuvre, ridden by Orlando Mojica for owner-breeder Richard Perkins and trainer Chris Block, won for the 20th time in 41 starts and captured her third Jean Elizabeth. Oeuvre, by Shackleford out of Love This Kitten, by Kitten’s Joy, ran six furlongs over a fast main track in 1:11.01.

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