7/27/2023

Larry’s Week in Review

This past week was another important week of racing at the Auburn Oval with 2 more Stakes races including the final prep race for the Longacres Mile. However, there are always so many other nuggets of great information or great stories and that’s where Larry the SportsCat comes in with his week in review.

Jockey News “From the Saddle”

Cruz hits career win #800

When Alex Cruz hit the finish line 1 1/2 lengths in front of 2nd place Knightline in the 3rd race last Saturday he would enter the winner’s circle for the 800th time in his career. The big milestone was one that Cruz told us when we caught with him in Sunday and what it meant to hit 800 wins.

Below are all the standings for the jockey’s but a quick review of last week saw the battle at the top of the jockey standings where Alex Cruz pulled within 1 of Luis Negron in the race for the Championship. Cruz finished the week with 4 wins to just 1 for Negron until the 5th race on Sunday where Negron pushed it back to a 2 win lead and in the finale Negron scored again to hold a 3 win lead heading into this coming weekend.

Negron was 1 of 4 riders to triple for the weekend. Joining Negron with 3 wins were Silvio Amador, Isaias Enriquez and Rocco Bowen. Two riders had 2 wins which were Kevin Radke and Jose Zunino. Zunino of course with a monster weekend scoring both of his wins in the two Stakes races. 3 others found the winner’s circle 1 time and were Kevin Orozco, Alexis Valdes and Carlos Montalvo.

Jose Zunino led all riders with the high win percent at 33%, Isaias Enriquez was winning at a 27% clip and Silvio Amador won 25% of the time. Alexis Valdes and Carlos Montalvo also cracked 20% at 20%. Rocco Bowen led the top 4 finishers at 85% going 17 for 20 in the superfecta. Silvio Amador was 2nd for top 4 finishes at 75% at 9 for 12 and Alex Cruz was 17 for 22 scoring a 73% top 4 finish.

Despite sweeping the Stakes last weekend Jose Zunino is 2nd in the Stakes standings to Kevin Radke who has 3 Stakes wins. But Zunino is a beast in the stakes races with a 2-3-2 record from 8 starts for a top 3 finish rate of 88%. Carlos Montalvo also has 2 Stakes wins both aboard Aloha Breeze. The other 3 with a single win include Alex Cruz, Silvio Montalvo and Isaias Enriquez.

Trainer News “From the Barn”

Two trainers tripled last weekend including Jorge Rosales and Blaine Wright. Rosales and Wright are battling for 2nd place with Wright holding on to a 20-19 lead. Meantime, leading trainer Justin Evans was struggling until halfway through the Sunday card when he recorded a pair of wins. This pushed him to 34 wins for the season and a sizzling 29% win rate.  Others with 2 wins included Tom Wenzel who scored both Stakes wins, Frank Lucarelli got wins 14 and 15 and veteran Kay Cooper broke through with a pair of wins on Sunday.

Liz Kowalski and Anne Wisdom both got their 1st wins of the season and in fact Wisdom ran 1-2 in the race she won and were the only 2 entries she had in over the weekend.

Other single winners were Steve Bullock who has had a great 1st half of the season got his 8th win of the year and went 1-2-1 from 5 starts, Candi Cryderman had a dominating win on Sunday with Parker’s Fifteen in a 2-year-old race, Sam Dronen picked up his 2nd win of the year.

Luciano Medina Gabriel got a win and pushed his season total to 9 which puts him in a 4 way tie for 6th. Jeff Metz was 80% in the top 3 with a win going 1-2-1 from 5 starts, Faustino “Coco” Patino and Hilario Perez  also each chalked up a victory.

Tom Wenzel is dominating the Stakes winning 40% of all stakes races. He has a total of 8 starters in the 10 races and has a eye-popping 50% win rate in the most important races of the meet so far. He and Jose Zunino were also a nose away from having another Stake win when Lloyds Logic got nosed out by Clovisconnection in the Irish Day Stakes. Wenzel with his 4 wins has 3 places in the big races and has just 1 off the board finish for an astounding 88% top 3 and top 2 finish rate.

Blaine Wright is 2nd in the standings with 2. Wright has started 13 in the 10 races and has a record of 2-1-3-2 record. He’s winning at 15% and is in the superfecta at 62%

Owner News “From the Owner’s Box”

Leading Owner Justin Evans waited until Sunday but ended up the lone owner with a double last week. Blaine Wright was close as he won 1 and then shared a win with Shawn Sudo. Liz Kowalski and Anne Wisdom each won their 1st win of the season. Luciano Medina Gabriel was another trainer getting a win with his 8th victory of the season.

Other winners included the Jack and Jill Stable, John Parker, Primo Posto Racing, Joe Abrahamson, John and Janene Maryanski and Riverbend stables, Dawn Spillman, Gold Coast Racing III, Carl Petroff, Dan Minardo & Russ Nakagawa, Generoso Tandiama Jr and Santos Rosales, Chad and Josh, Carol Dronen, Horseplayers Racing Club, Luigi Di Pietro and Michael Radovich.

Code Four stables own Our Lyla Grace the winner of the Wa Legislators stakes and Slew’s Crew Racing own Slew’s Tiz Whiz who took the Governor’s Stakes and appears to be prepared to defend his Longacres Mile title.

Closest Finishes

You can’t get a technical closer finish than by a nose. So far this season there have been just 14 races determined by a nose. 13 of the race were between the 2 horses that crossed the finish 1st and 2nd. One race was when 3rd place Stand To nosed out the 4th place horse on May 21st but then there was a double DQ tossing out the 1st and 2nd place finishers moving Stand To up to 1st.

Largest margins of victory (minimum 6 lengths)

So far only 10 winners have won by at least 6-lengths. Only 1 got into double digits and that was Tennessee Moon with Luis Negron on June 3rd. Negron also has the 2nd largest win of 9 3/4 lengths on Prime Example also on June 3rd. Negron is on a season high 3rd time with Above the Stars on May 13th.

Carlos Montalvo is on the list twice with the only horse on the list twice and that’s Aloha Breeze with wins of 8 1/4 and 6 1/4 length wins. Silvio Amador is the other rider with 2 big wins on July 3rd with Unbridled Tiger of 8 1/4 lengths and 7 1/4 on Mo Connelly on June 4th.

Claims

Friday, July 21
7th Race Miss accelerate $8,000 goes to new owner Purple Rose Ranch and trainer Mike Pierce

Saturday, July 22
2nd Race The Third Ring $8,000 was taken by Filos Stable and Marina Cruz for trainer Hilario Perez
7th Race Decimate $3,500 was red tagged by owner/trainer Luciano Medina Gabriel
Famous Rock Star $3,500 goes to owner/trainer Jesus Garcia

Sunday, July 23
1st Race Western Dream $8,000 goes to owner John Parker and the barn of Candi Cryderman
2nd Race Parker’s Fifteen $15,000 was claimed by Joe Crawford, Joe Burke and Constance Woerman and heads to trainer Jose Navarro
9th Race Gold Rush Candy $2,500 was taken by Gloria and Joe Russo and Jaymie Pearman Cruz and will be trained by Pearman Cruz

The Betting Window

The biggest pay-out of the weekend nearly took over the highest pay-out of the season when the 20-cent Jackpot Pick 6 returned to 1 lucky winner $15,675.38 and was just $222.58 short of the high pay-out of $15,897.96 which was also a single pick 6 winner on July 8th.

www.elisportsnetwork.com