Lezcano comes into Belmont meet with renewed momentum

ELMONT, N.Y. – With the emergence – and now dominance – of brothers Jose and Irad Ortiz as well as Manny Franco in the New York Racing Association jockey colony, some riders were bound to lose business. Jose Lezcano was one of those riders.

That’s why Lezcano chose to forgo riding this winter at Gulfstream Park in South Florida and stayed in New York to ride the Aqueduct winter and spring seasons, hoping to rebuild his business and gain momentum for the summer meets at Belmont Park and Saratoga. It seems to have been a smart move.

At the Aqueduct winter meet, Lezcano won 54 races from 252 mounts, and his purse earnings were $2,619,826, good enough for fourth in the standings in both categories. At the 12-day spring meet, which concluded Saturday, Lezcano won 15 races and his horses earned $915,036, second only to Franco in both categories.

It is off those numbers that Lezcano looks forward to the 48-day Belmont spring/summer meet that begins Friday. It is the Belmont spring meet that best illustrates Lezcano’s plight the last few years. From 2016-18, Lezcano averaged just 14 wins at the Belmont meet. At the three Belmont spring meets prior to that period, Lezcano averaged 38 wins.

“Looking forward to keeping things going the way things are going and hopefully ride for new people,” Lezcano said Saturday, his 34th birthday, which he celebrated by winning the $200,000 Park Avenue division of the New York Stallion Stakes aboard Newly Minted.

Lezcano rode winners for 28 different trainers over the two Aqueduct meets. He rode 15 winners for Jason Servis – a trainer who helped Lezcano out when he rode at Monmouth Park and was leading rider in 2008. Lezcano also rode 13 winners for Linda Rice, including eight during the winter meet at which Rice finished as leading trainer.

Rice said staying in New York this winter could pay dividends for Lezcano moving forward.

“I think it helps any rider, one, riding more races, two, winning more races,” Rice said. “They just get in a zone, they’re back to their ‘A’ game, and I think that’s helpful to anyone. I think winter racing in New York has been very good to a lot of riders. When Ramon Dominguez got his career going in New York, it was the winter in New York. Even Irad and Jose did the same thing.”

Rice said even with the Ortiz brothers returning to New York during the Belmont meet, she will continue to use Lezcano, the regular rider of Voodoo Song, winner of last summer’s Grade 1 Fourstardave at Saratoga.

Last May, after an eight-month split, Lezcano reunited with his agent, Jason Beides, who had represented Lezcano for 12 years before the fall of 2017.

Beides believes having Lezcano ride in New York this winter “is a definite positive” for the spring and summer.

“That was part of the plan to get him back in that winning groove and hopefully get some momentum into this meet versus going to Florida. Out of sight, out of mind,” Beides said.

Lezcano enjoyed success during the winter despite riding part of it with a broken nose, suffered in an incident Dec. 20 at Aqueduct. He only missed a couple of days riding.

“It took me a couple of weeks to feel good. I couldn’t breathe right,” Lezcano said. “My leg was really sore, too. I had a lot of pain in my leg. Now, I’m feeling good, I’ve been running everyday. I feel really good now.”

As of Monday, there were believed to be three open mounts for the upcoming Kentucky Derby. It is likely that Lezcano will forgo any chance he might have to get on one of those horses to ride at Belmont Park that day where he figures to get choice mounts in that track’s three stakes.

Beides said he’s already fielded calls from trainers Chad Brown and Todd Pletcher about Lezcano’s availability at Belmont that day.

“It’s hard to wait around when those guys are calling,” Beides said.

The hope is that the phone keeps ringing.