OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Ramon Dominguez said it doesn't feel all that long ago when he won his 1,000th career race. It was actually Oct. 8, 2001.
Less than nine years later, the 33-year-old Dominguez is nearing his 4,000th career victory. After winning with three of his seven mounts on Thursday's Aqueduct card, Dominguez had 3,992 career victories. When he does capture his 4,000th victory, he will become the 58th rider to reach that plateau.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Nacho Friend, the third-place finisher to Awesome Act in the Grade 3 Gotham Stakes here March 6, was scheduled to ship to New Mexico on Friday morning to begin preparations for a start in the $800,000 Sunland Park Derby on March 27, trainer Kelly Breen said Thursday.
Breen said he and owner George Hall chose the Grade 3 Sunland Park Derby over the Grade 1, $750,000 Wood Memorial here on April 3 because they thought it would come up an easier spot.
WHO'S HOT
After recording one victory the previous week, in the Grade 2 Mac Diarmida with Presious Passion, jockey Elvis Trujillo led all riders in this power-packed colony with a half-dozen winners last week and extended his winning streak to six programs through Sunday. Trujillo's most important tally came aboard the up-and-coming grass filly Speak Easy Gal, who parlayed a perfect trip into a narrow victory over graded stakes winner Salve Germania.
ARCADIA, Claif. - One day between races at Santa Anita, Mike Smith was sitting on the bench in front of his jocks' room cubicle. His eyes were closed, and his head was swaying, side to side, keeping time to the tune of some internal rhapsody. His valet, former jockey Raul Ramirez, was more amused than concerned.
"What are you doing?" asked Ramirez.
Smith came back to Earth.
"I'm riding Zenyatta," he said.
WHO'S HOT
* It was not pretty, but apprentice jockey Tyler Kaplan accomplished something March 4 that few 16-year-olds would dream about. He won with the first mount of his career, Soldier Betty in race 4.
Kaplan, from Norco, Calif., has been working horses at Santa Anita since mid-December. It was trainer Vladimir Cerin who gave the kid his first shot, with Soldier Betty in a two-turn main-track claimer. Kaplan had a rail trip that got ugly on the far turn, where he had to steady and was shuffled back.
WILL A LONGSHOT FIRE?
Uh Oh Bango looks like the wild card Saturday in the Grade 2, $300,000 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park. He could be a significant pace factor in what will be his first start since December. He also owns the field's best career Beyer Figure, and he exits a race in which he missed by a neck to leading Kentucky Derby prospect Rule.
NEW ORLEANS - As Rachel Alexandra wheeled into the stretch at Fair Grounds Race Course, ready to finish the last quarter-mile of a five-furlong workout Feb. 18, a man on a gray pony stationed toward the finish line signaled subtly to Rachel Alexandra's rider, Dominic Terry. The man pushed his hand toward the ground. Rachel had started her workout - a key workout, the fourth-to-last before her 2010 debut in the March 13 New Orleans Ladies - at a breakneck pace. The meaning of the signal was clear: Slow down.
WHO'S HOT
The Ladies
Safe to say one of the few bright spots this winter has been the deepest female jocks' room in memory.
Rosie Napravnik and Maylan Studart combined to win five races in the March 3 pick-six sequence. Napravnik kicked things off with a daring, rail-skimming ride on Afrikaner ($3.30), who squeezed through the narrowest of openings - one that many "macho" male riders wouldn't go through. She also brought in Slamm'n Lou ($13.20) and Peace Town ($15.40).
A deal to open a casino at Aqueduct is dead again.
New York Gov. David Paterson said in a statement issued Thursday that the state's lottery "has concluded that it cannot issue a gaming license to Aqueduct Entertainment Group," the sprawling partnership whose selection in late January by state government leaders to operate the casino sparked criticism and controversy. As a result, the process of selecting the operator is going to be reopened, Paterson said, a development that will almost certainly add further delays to a process that has been ongoing for nearly nine years.
NEW ORLEANS - Regardless of how little she might be doing, it's always entertaining merely seeing the charismatic filly Rachel Alexandra go through her daily paces during morning training hours.
The trick Thursday at Fair Grounds was seeing her at all.
When Rachel left trainer Steve Asmussen's barn and headed out to the racetrack just before 7 on Thursday morning, Fair Grounds was enshrouded by fog so dense that the finish line could not be seen from the clockers stand at the half-mile pole.
