Seven-win day puts Lopez in elite club
Paco Lopez became only the third jockey in track history to post seven victories on a single program when turning the trick Saturday. Lopez joins Luis Saez, who did it twice in 2018, Tyler Gaffalione, who won seven races here on July 4, 2017, and Hall of Famer Jerry Bailey, the first to accomplish the feat on March 11, 1995. Included among Lopez’s seven wins was a wire-to-wire tally astride Hear My Prayer in the $75,000 Melody of Colors Stakes.
Lopez is currently third in the standings for the 2019-20 winter meet with 88 victories, eight less than Luis Saez while still well behind Irad Ortiz Jr. who continues to hold a comfortable lead in quest of the riding title with 115 wins. The Championship meet ends Sunday.
Edgar Prado closed to within one victory of Angel Cordero Jr. on the list of all-time winningest jockeys after guiding The Queens Jules to a popular victory in Sunday’s ninth race. Cordero is currently eighth on that list with 7,057 career wins.
Trainer Christophe Clement moved within two wins of achieving a milestone of his own when sending out Just for One Day to capture Sunday’s second race as the odds-on favorite, giving him 1,998 career victories.
Three allowances featured
Wednesday’s 10-race program will include three allowance races that will comprise half of a Rainbow 6 sequence that offers a $1.9 million guaranteed jackpot.
The best of the three co-features goes as the eighth event, a $53,000 optional-claiming dash to be decided at six furlongs for older horses and which drew a field of seven led by the Grade 3-placed trio of Fast Pass, Quijote, and Sweetontheladies. Whyruawesome, the only member of the field running for the $100,000 price tag, The Tabulator, Dak Attack, and Hide the Demon make up the remainder of the well-matched lineup.
Fast Pass, third in the Grade 3 Smile Sprint here last summer, is coming off a fifth-place finish in the Grade 3 World of Trouble Sprint. The stretch-running 7-year-old veteran will need some pace to run at to be at his best, as will Sweetontheladies, who finished seventh after an unlucky beginning in the World of Trouble.
Quijote is winless in four starts since capturing the Sunshine Millions Sprint here 14 months ago, while Whyruawesome exits a hard-fought, second-place finish when beaten a neck by Vinnie Van Go in the Trust Buster starter allowance stakes on Feb. 17.
◗ All three stakes races originally in the condition book for Friday, the Grade 3 Hal’s Hope, Grade 3 Appleton, and $75,000 Sir Shackleton, have been held over and will now be included on Saturday’s card, which will now feature 10 stakes topped by the Grade 1, $750,000 Florida Derby.