Trainer Michael has good start to holiday meet

When Brian Michael was exercising horses on the Kentucky circuit, there was also an active jockey named Michael Bryan.

“People would get pretty confused about it,” recalled Michael, now a trainer with a 12-horse stable at the Thoroughbred Center training facility in Lexington, Ky. “I’d have to tell them, ‘No, I’m too tall to ride races.’ ”

Michael, 47, is the son of the late Russ Michael, a prominent Lexington-area equine insurance agent and owner-breeder who died suddenly in 1988 at age 54 at his Landmark Farm. His son began working with horses at an early age.

“I was galloping horses for my dad and [trainer] Ronnie Warren at Saratoga when I was 14,” Michael said. “I’ve always loved being around them.”

These days, Michael is hoping to expand on a quick start at the Turfway Park holiday meet, where he won with two of his first four starters, most notably You Cheated, a promising Colonel John filly who won a maiden special weight race last Sunday. His stable star is Melaleuca, a turf-sprint specialist with nearly $200,000 in career earnings.

“I’ve got a pretty good outlook for the rest of the winter at Turfway,” Michael said. “I’ve picked up some new horses and clients. I’ve got some wily veterans sitting on some good races, including a horse named Infinite Midnight we got from Chad Brown that ought to do well around here. We’d like to win some more.”

By chance, one of Michael Bryan’s longtime riding colleagues, Jamie Bruin, now works as an exercise rider for Michael. Bryan retired from the saddle in 2008 after a couple of comebacks at the end of a career in which he rode more than 1,000 winners; the last was in August 2003 at River Downs (now Belterra Park). Bruin, who retired from race-riding in 2004, said Bryan is now a successful master electrician working in the northern Kentucky area around Turfway.

◗ At least five jockeys who have been active at the holiday meet will move to Oaklawn Park around the first of the year for a meet that begins Jan. 13. They are Didiel Osorio, Jon Court, Channing Hill, Tommy Pompell, and Ty Kennedy.

Meanwhile, Jake Radosevich will move his tack to Sam Houston, which starts Jan. 20, to ride primarily for trainer Eric Reed.

◗ After an unexpected delay, jockey Tyler Pizarro has been cleared by immigration officials to begin riding at Turfway and was scheduled to have his first return mount Thursday night.

Pizarro, 30, was an Eclipse Award finalist for top apprentice in 2007 when competing in his native Canada, where his last mount was Aug. 7, 2015, at Woodbine. He now lives in Lexington, where he has been regularly exercising horses in preparation for a comeback.

◗ John A. Ortiz won his first race as an owner and trainer when Red Charm captured the fifth race Wednesday night for $7,500 maiden claimers under Julie Burke.

Ortiz, 30, has worked in various backstretch capacities since age 16 for such top trainers as Bill Mott, Graham Motion, Barclay Tagg, and Kellyn Gorder. Red Charm was his ninth career starter.

◗ Like most tracks, Turfway will be dark Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 24-25 (Christmas Eve and Christmas). The schedule resumes with a final five-day stretch (Dec. 28 to Jan. 1), followed by four-day weeks in January and February.

◗ Hunka Burning Love and Jocker Justice, both exiting tougher races at Churchill Downs, figure as top contenders in the nominal Saturday night feature at Turfway, a $20,400 allowance for 2-year-olds going a mile. First post for the nine-race card is 6:15 p.m. Eastern, with the feature set for 9:38.

◗ The second and last stakes of the holiday meet, the $50,000 Prairie Bayou, will be run Dec. 17. Eight stakes at the winter-spring meet culminate with the $500,000 Jack Cincinnati Casino Spiral Stakes on March 25.