Vives to ride winter in New York

Sofia Vives, the Sovereign Award-winning apprentice rider in Canada for 2023 and a finalist for the Eclipse Award as North America’s top apprentice as well, will ride at Aqueduct this winter.

Vives got a jump start on her New York experiment on Thursday, when she won with her first Aqueduct mount, guiding Ariana Rye to a 2 1/4-length victory in a starter allowance for trainer Robert Falcone Jr.

“It’s amazing, it’s something everybody dreams of doing,” said Vives, who also finished seventh aboard Solo Empire, her other mount on the card. “First impression is everything; that was my first one and hopefully it’s going to be a good one.”

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Vives has been based at Woodbine and plans to honor calls there through the end of the month before returning to New York in December.

“This is my first winter that I’m going to ride,” Vives said Friday morning as she completed the eight-hour drive from New York to Toronto. “Last winter, I stopped, I packed it up, and saved the bug in Canada. I thought [New York] would be a good place to start. We had a great season in Parx for the couple of weeks we went. We’re hoping we can ride with the big guys, learn new things and continue carrying on.”

Vives, 22, won 122 races in 2023. Her victory at Aqueduct Thursday was her 83rd of this year. She has won nine stakes, including four aboard Canadian champion sprinter Patches O’Houlihan as well as the $500,000 Woodbine Oaks on Kin’s Concerto.

“I think we did great. We lost the bug a couple of months ago, still been able to win a lot of races, won a bunch of stakes, got on some good horses in Woodbine,” Vives said. “Hopefully, carry this momentum we have up here down to New York and do well with it.”

Vives will be represented by agent Jordan Miller.

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