Carol Cedeño at Belmont (~ RAYMOND)

Jock night started off like any other night… I was over at flickr, looking photos from my contacts, commenting on some photos from the Preakness and looking at some amazing jockey portraits going on over at Raymond’s.

Then I was over at fellow TBA-er Superfecta’s, reading about how there’s still more work to be done before any grand proclamations should be made. The topic of Casino Drive came up, natch, and more specifically the topic of his jock.
At first it seemed like he would get Japanese superstar Yutaka Take, but then another report indicated that they’d actually prefer an American jock.

Nobutaka Tada, the representative for Yamamoto, said he was leaning toward an American-based rider.

“A mile and a half, you need to understand the pace,” Tada said. “American jockeys have an advantage here.”

This made me start to think about who’d I’d like to see on Casino Drive, or on any of them, for that matter. Kent D, who had the mount last out, is clearly spoken for and Denis of Cork is switching from Borel to Albarado.

Denis of Cork, owned by William Warren, worked five furlongs in 1:01 on Monday at Churchill Downs. In the Belmont, he will be ridden by Robby Albarado, replacing Calvin Borel, who rode Denis of Cork to a third-place finish in the Derby.

“I have no issue with Calvin - he has two wins on him and a third in the Kentucky Derby,” said David Carroll, who trains Denis of Cork. “Mr. Warren felt like Robby Albarado’s success at Belmont Park and winning nine Grade 1s there is the way he wanted to go. He wants to give [Denis of Cork] every opportunity and was very adamant that if Robby was available, then that was the way he wanted to go.”

Here’s a run down of the last rider for each of the other known contenders:

Macho Again - Leparoux
Tale of Ekati - Coa / Prado
Anak Nakal - Bejarano
Tomcito - Cornelio
Behindathebar - David Flores
Ready’s Echo - Johnny V
Spark Candle - Chavez

Also from the article:

Top riders yet to commit to a Belmont mount include Garrett Gomez, Edgar Prado, and John Velazquez.

So I guess Ready’s Echo is not spoken for and maybe Coa is on Tale of Ekati.

In no particular order my fav riders are Albarado, Prado, Bejarano, Cornelio, Castellano, Coa, Alan Garcia, Channing Hill and Carol Cedeño. It’s tough to pick one, I can’t get Castellano’s ride on Pays to Dream in the Dixie out of my head but I also loved Prado’s ride on Tale of Ekati in the Wood, which is closer to Casino Drive’s running style.

Damn, is it too early to make a new poll? Who would you like see on Casino Drive?

Update: for the current jock assignments, check DRF.

Posted by dana on May 19 2008    
Filed Under: Robby Albarado, Alan Garcia, Javier Castellano, Carol Cedeno, TBA, Raymond Haddad, 2008, Channing Hill, John Velazquez, Edgar Prado, Rafael Bejarano, Triple Crown, Belmont, Calvin Borel, Cornelio Velazquez, Kent Desormeaux, International Racing, Belmont Stakes, Racing

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Curlin & Robby Albarado winning the Breeders’ Cup Classic (Charles Pravata)

Curlin is one hell of an impressive horse, or as Swifty just put it on the phone, “Curlin’s got skillz”.

It was easy to dismiss how effortlessly he won his last race, but not here. He ran at least 3 wide the entire race and on command produced another gear to motor past the field and win by 3-4 7 3/4 lengths… effortlessly.

I’m happy to report that Curlin is doing a stellar job of fulfilling my hopes and dreams of making an air tight case for talented horses racing beyond 3. I don’t even care if Jess Jackson is lying through his teeth about doing for it good of the sport… letting him get credit for it is a small price to pay if our stars can stick around longer because of it. But we all know where the real credit goes… thank you Fen-Phen!!

Posted by dana on Mar 29 2008    
Filed Under: Charles Pravata, Dubai World Cup, 2008, Robby Albarado, International Racing, Let Horses Race, Curlin, Racing

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Slew’s Tizzy and Robby Albarado pulling an upset in the Coolmore Lexington (Emily Cathcart)

Slew’s Tizzy is entered in the Commonwealth Turf Stakes this Sunday at Churchill.

I really like this guy and hope that perhaps he’ll like the turf given his penchant for polytrack (and slop!). I didn’t catch his run on the BC under card where he showed, but his last few races prior to that were less than stellar. Hopefully he’s one of those horses that improves with age.

Speaking of which, there’s an interesting discussion going on over at Superfecta about “who would you want to see challenge Curlin next year?”.

I think there are plenty of 3 year olds with potential to blossom in the way Lawyer Ron did this year, don’t you?

Posted by dana on Nov 09 2007    
Filed Under: Robby Albarado, Turf, 2007, Slew's Tizzy, Racing

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Teuflesberg and Robby Albarado win the Grade 2 Woody Stephens (Sarah K. Andrew)

I guess one good thing came out of my afternoon of being hit over the head with the pass-out stick, I didn’t wake up in time to see Teuflesburg get pulled up.

Valerie notes that there was some footage of him hobbling on the track before the outrider could get him. Ugh!! Also, very interesting note about the Jeanine Edwards comment.

Best of luck for his surgery and recovery.

Posted by dana on Oct 06 2007    
Filed Under: Robby Albarado, Sarah K. Andrew, Get Well Soon, :(, Injury, Teuflesburg, 2007, Racing

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Wow, that was one action packed weekend! Fabulous Strike’s fabulous front-running first G1 win, English Channel’s last minute daring push through a hole that he had to make big enough, Unbridled Belle’s unabashed upset and last but not least Curlin & Lawyer Ron’s stretch battle. And that was just today, on one track!

Todd Pletcher’s back and so am I! After unsuccessfully trying my hand at Pick 4’s and 6’s all last weekend, I hit the Hard Spun/Street Sense straight Exacta, the Unbridled Belle/Indian Vale/Ginger Punch Trifecta, the Curlin/Lawyer Ron/Political Force Trifecta and today’s late Pick 4! Finally, a comeback… something I’m sure Todd Pletcher thought today too with his 3 wins.

Dale Romans and Stanely Hough also had two wins apiece today. Ramon Dominguez scored three wins while Johnny V, Robby Albarado & Eibar Coa all had two wins. Last but not least, Smart Strike sired three of today’s winners: Fabulous Strike, English Channel & Curlin!

Two other sire notes on today’s Belmont card… Invasor’s sire, Candy Stripes is the dam’s sire of Tomorrow’s Nano, winner of the 11th. I had never noticed his sire noted anywhere else. The last place finisher of the 5th, a state bred $35000 claiming race was sired by Dubai Millennium. He only had one crop of offspring before he tragically died of grass sickness. I noticed that another one of his offspring, Noble Duty, ran in a low level claimer last weekend and didn’t do so well either. I’m interested to find out how the rest of his cropped has fared.

Since I don’t really wanna to end on such a bummer, I’ll be interested to read all the speculation about what this weekend’s performances might mean for BC performances. I agree with those who think Street Sense didn’t knock himself out to try catch Hard Spun (i.e., Calvin Borel didn’t beat the crap out him the way did in the Travers), not that I think he could have anyway. Since he couldn’t catch him it was a smarter move to save it for the Classic. As for Hard Spun, I wish they would run him in the Dirt Mile instead of the Classic, he won’t get such favorable circumstances in the Classic, and no matter how much I love him I don’t think he can win the Classic. I want to watch the Jockey Gold Cup again to see if Lawyer Ron was all out or saved a little. It’s exciting that it seems somewhat wide open but a bit of a bummer that it’s stacked so heavily towards 3 year olds. Maybe if 3 year olds couldn’t run in the Classic there would be more incentive for them to run as 4 year olds.

Posted by dana on Sep 30 2007    
Filed Under: Indian Vale, Ginger Punch, Unbridled Belle, Fabulous Strike, John Velazquez, Come Back, English Channel, Exacta, BC Classic, Robby Albarado, Stanely Hough, Dale Romans, Trifecta, Ramon Dominguez, 2007, Hard Spun, Street Sense, Belmont, Let Horses Race, Breeding, Wooo!, Curlin, Lawyer Ron, Eibar Coa, Todd Pletcher, Calvin Borel, Breeders' Cup, Invasor, Racing

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