Velazquez struggling to get his stable stars on the track

Trainer Alfredo Velazquez is blessed with two talented horses in his barn at Parx Racing, but he’s having a profoundly difficult time getting them on the track. While older sprinter Buccherino is recovering from another minor setback, the 3-year-old colt Shane’s Wonder is stuck without a spot for the time being.

In the spring, the 5-year-old Buccherino began slowly working his way back into action after working through another nagging ailment. His monthslong recovery effort culminated in an impressive four-furlong workout in 47.11 seconds on June 3. Velazquez was all but ready to get the four-time stakes winner back in a race, only for him to suffer a hoof injury that has kept him off the track for the last three weeks.

“That’s a freaking shame,” Velzquez said. “He’d been training so good and getting back to it better everyday. What bad luck I have with that horse.”

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With another delay, Velazquez now hopes to get him back on the track in August, optimistically providing a six-week recovery window.

Elsewhere in Velazquez’s barn, Shane’s Wonder has given his trainer a great deal of excitement early in his career, winning the first three starts of his career and finishing second in the $150,000 Chick Lang at Laurel Park in May. The next step is unclear, however, as the trainer scratched the colt from the $100,000 Alapocas Run at Delaware Park and has also failed to find the appropriate fields at Penn National and Laurel.

As always, the sirens are calling from Saratoga, but the trainer is not yet tempted, believing Shane’s Wonder to be a step below the competition in upstate New York.

“I don’t want to go to Saratoga,” Velazquez said. “It’s a bit tough. If I’m going to go, I’d have to really see something from the horse.“

A race in Pennsylvania would be ideal, but Velazquez said he does not want to wait until July 18 to run Shane’s Wonder in the $100,000 Banjo Picker at Parx, where he would be a strong contender against other Pennsylvania-bred sprinters. The trainer may not have many options, however, and may simply have to bide his time.
 

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