Sharp stays hot during first two weeks of Saratoga meet
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – After winning his first Churchill Downs training title this spring, Joe Sharp has carried his momentum into the opening two weeks of the Saratoga meet, winning with five of his first 12 starters, including an impressive allowance victory by the promising New York-bred Bosun here Saturday.
Sharp won 20 races during the recently concluded Churchill session, one more than Brad Cox and three better than Steve Asmussen. Sharp also captured the 2024-25 Fair Grounds training crown in relatively easy fashion after sending out 40 winners while sporting a very impressive 26 percent success rate for the meet.
“It’s been one of those meets so far, you couldn’t draw it up on paper the way we’ve started off. It’s been fun. Rosie and the kids have been up here, we’re really enjoying it. I just hope we can keep it going,” said Sharp, referring to his wife, former jockey Rosie Napravnik.
Winning the Churchill title was special for Sharp.
“That’s home. We’d gotten in a good rhythm there the last few years and our numbers have gotten progressively better and everything just aligned,” said Sharp, who has just less than 40 horses stabled locally right now. “We have an ordinary group of solid horses and we just try to keep showing up and getting in the right spots. We also have a great group of people working for us, and it’s nice to see everybody get rewarded for their hard work and years of being loyal.”
Bosun earned a career-best 84 Beyer Speed Figure for his 2 1/4-length allowance win, bouncing back after being a beaten favorite in each of his two previous starts at Aqueduct.
“This race was a repeat of his maiden win at the Fair Grounds,” Sharp said. “Going three-quarters on the Aqueduct turf can be really hard to make up ground. The turns are tight and he’s a big solid horse who takes a little bit to get going. But I had a lot of confidence going into this race because of the configuration of the turf course here versus Aqueduct. Speed doesn’t back up there.”
Sharp is looking forward to getting Ancient World, who is stakes-placed on the main track, a grass start after breezing him four furlongs over the Oklahoma turf course in 48.47 seconds on Sunday.
“That was my favorite work for him ever, so we’re going give him a shot on the grass in the Mahony and hope he runs well to set him up for Kentucky Downs,” Sharp said.
The $175,000 Mahony is a Grade 3 sprint stakes for 3-year-olds on Aug 10.
Bosun was the first of two winners for Sharp in Saratoga on Saturday. The second came about eight hours later across the street at the harness track with a $7,500 claiming pacer named Virgin Honor, who he owns in partnership with Taylor Ortiz, the wife of jockey Jose Ortiz.
“We had horses stabled at the harness track last year and Rosie and I would be over there doing up horses at 1 p.m. and they’d still be trotting around training, and it kind of caught my interest,” Sharp explained. “I kind of dragged Taylor and Jose into it. We’ve got two horses at the moment.
“I’ve been going over there and jogging one or two a day after finishing training here, and Taylor and I both jogged one together at the same time [Sunday]. We had won two races earlier in the meet, but Saturday was the first time we got to be there for a win with the whole family, and it was really a lot of fun.”
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