Trainer D'Angelo has four-win day between Gulfstream and Turfway

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Jose D’Angelo capped a recent torrid streak by winning four races Saturday, including three at Gulfstream Park, giving him seven winners for the week (Feb. 23-27). One of those winners was Duel Fuel on Saturday night at Turfway Park, where D’Angelo also has a foothold.

“My best week since I began training in the U.S.A.,” said a jubilant D’Angelo, a 31-year-old native of Venezuela.

D’Angelo began this week with 18 wins at a four-month championship meet that began Dec. 3, trailing only Saffie Joseph Jr. (41), Todd Pletcher (37), and Mark Casse (21).

D’Angelo began training in the United States in June 2019. He is best known for his work with Jesus’ Team, the $1.34 million earner who is scheduled to resume training at Palm Meadows this week after being off since early August.

◗ Saturday at Gulfstream ended a lot better than it started for jockey Jose Ortiz. His mount in the first race, Blue Kentucky Girl, bolted on the first turn and had to be pulled up, and then his mount in the fourth, Thinkaboutit, ducked in very sharply soon after the start of the 6 1/2-furlong race on the main track before somehow being righted by Ortiz and continuing to a distant fifth-place finish.

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It was much smoother sailing afterward, as Ortiz went on to ride four winners, including the star mare Letruska in the Grade 3 Royal Delta and a promising Pletcher trainee, Star Seeking, in a one-mile turf allowance.

◗ Pass the Champagne recently returned to light training for George Weaver at his Palm Beach Downs base after the 4-year-old filly missed time following a Feb. 3 comeback win at Gulfstream.

“We scoped her afterward and found some mucous, so we gave her a couple weeks to clear that up,” Weaver said.

Pass the Champagne was second by a head in the Grade 1 Ashland before getting nine months off following a 12th-place finish in the Kentucky Oaks.

◗ Reinvestment Risk earned a 103 Beyer Speed Figure in winning a 6 1/2-furlong allowance by three lengths Saturday. Trained by Chad Brown, the 4-year-old son of Upstart was racing for just the second time since finishing 10th in the 2020 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, with his only interim start resulting in a distant third-place finish in a Belmont Park allowance last June. The colt was second in both the Hopeful and Champagne at 2.