Zayas jumps right back into fray
Edgard Zayas wanted to come back sooner, but his doctor wouldn’t let him. Sidelined nearly eight weeks since being injured in a Gulfstream Park spill, the 23-year-old jockey will make an eagerly awaited return to the saddle Saturday when he rides six races at the south Florida track.
“I’m excited,” Zayas said this week by phone. “I feel really great. I feel like I’ve been ready for the last two weeks, but I didn’t get clearance to ride until Monday. I’ve been getting on four or five horses every morning. I’m anxious to get back racing.”
This was the third time of note that Zayas has been sidelined by injury, and all required layoffs of similar durations: He broke his collarbone in April 2015 and broke his hand in 2014. The latest injury resulted from a ride aboard Shere Khan in the eighth race on May 25. His mount couldn’t avoid a fallen rival, and Zayas went down, fracturing a rib and straining a ligament in his left knee. Surgery was not required for either injury.
Zayas, a native of Puerto Rico, has been a standout on the south Florida circuit ever since developing into an Eclipse Award finalist for top apprentice in 2013. He won his first race in the U.S. on Nov. 17, 2012, at Calder (now Gulfstream West) and has been the leading jockey at all three subsequent meets at that crosstown track (2013-15). He was the leading jockey at the 2014 summer-fall meet at Gulfstream and most recently was fifth with 50 wins at the prestigious championship meet that ended in early April. His career totals stand at 749 wins and $17.1 million in mount earnings.
Foremost among the Zayas mounts for Saturday is E B Ryder, who figures as the horse to beat in the featured 10th of 12 races, a $44,000 allowance at a mile on turf.
Trained by Marty Wolfson, E B Ryder will be dropping into the allowance ranks after competing in a stakes 24 straight times, a remarkable span dating to May 11, 2013, when she won an allowance at Calder. The 6-year-old stretch-running mare will break from post 1 as the final ride of the day for Zayas.
The earlier mounts for Zayas are Howaboutwe (race 1), Legacy Danseur (race 3), Maid on a Mission (race 4), Curlin’s Gem (race 5), and I’m No Secret (race 6).
First post Saturday is 12:45 p.m. Eastern. The four-day week at Gulfstream began Thursday with a jackpot carryover of $68,674 in the 20-cent Rainbow 6, which runs from races 7-12.
The next stakes at Gulfstream are scheduled for Aug. 6 with the Florida Sires series.