Sam David Jr.'s Sunday goes perfectly
You’d have to think trainer Sam David Jr.’s career apex came May 2, 1997, when he sent out Blushing K. D. to win the Kentucky Oaks. But Sunday at Fair Grounds turned out memorably, too.
David entered five horses on the eight-race Fair Grounds card. One of them was an also-eligible and was scratched. The other four came home winners.
“My brother told me I’d won three and had a second once, but I don’t think I’ve ever won four in a day,” David said.
David’s Sunday began in race 2, which Southern Swagg, a horse he owns himself, romped in a low-level claimer. Sweet Confusion won race 4, then David swept the last two on the card. Just Gun It captured a turf-route claimer by nearly seven lengths before Gypsy’s Soulmate slogged out a win in the nightcap.
Marcelino Pedroza Jr. rode all four David winners and added to a huge day himself with a fifth victory in race 1 aboard World War for trainer Ron Faucheux.
David has saddled five straight Fair Grounds winners; his lone starter on Saturday’s card, Martinized, also won. David has 36 horses at Fair Grounds and said a change this year in the rhythm of his racing season created the conditions for this barrage.
“This year we did things a little different, didn’t run quite as hard during the summer,” David said. “We stopped on some of those horses and had owners that were patient enough to do that.”
Martinized and Gypsy’s Soulmate ran for David’s principal client, Earl and Keith Hernandez and John Duveilh, who almost exclusively campaign homebreds.
“They have a good strong band of broodmares and send me 15 Louisiana-bred babies every year,” David said. “It’s really a dream job. At my stage in the game, I don’t have to hustle as much as I used to.”
David, who has been training since the 1970s, is 70 now. He was far from the oldest trainer to win a race Sunday at Fair Grounds.
That distinction went to Howard “Tucker” Alonzo, who celebrated his 85th birthday Sunday by winning his fifth race from 13 starters at this young meet. The Sunday winner was Alliaceous, up late in a Louisiana-bred turf-route allowance while continuing an unexpected run of success for Alonzo, who won just 12 races during all of 2020.
Racing folks attuned to the finer details of the Louisiana circuit might recognize Alonzo’s name from his time training the crack sprinter Bonapaw, who won 12 stakes – including the 2002 Vosburgh for trainer Norman Miller, a former groom for Alonzo – and $1.15 million racing between 1998 and 2005. Bonapaw made 12 starts in 2000 and 2001 while under the care of Alonzo, who also worked 30 years as a water analyst for the city of New Orleans.
Bonapaw was a fluke, a once in a lifetime kind of horse for a trainer like Alonzo, which is no commentary on the man’s horsemanship. Four of his five winners this meet returned from layoffs between 80 and 120 days and the fifth was a first-time starter.
“We had a good break this year after the Evangeline meet and I freshened them all up. They all came in here and were doing good. The first week of the meet I couldn’t get anything in, but everything kind of fell into place after that,” Alonzo said.
Doing horses as a second job for a good chunk of his career has left Alonzo fresh and fit in his mid-80s.
“I feel all right. I come out every morning, regular time. I’m not going to sit home and wait, I’ll tell you that,” he said. “I come out, I mark the board, look at them all, watch them go to the track, make entries, and that’s it. I’m not retiring.”
Alonzo has a first-time starter, Cherokee Takeover, in the ninth race Thursday. His run of Fair Grounds luck could continue.
◗ Five-year-old Brooke Marie, whose victory Saturday in the Pan Zareta marked her first stakes score, will continue racing in 2022, trainer Eddie Kenneally said in a text message. No decision has been made, however, on the mare’s next start.