Castellano scored aboard his first mount Sunday, guiding the Todd Pletcher-trained
“It’s amazing. I’m so, so happy. I think it’s one of the best moments of my
Castellano praised the work of his agent, Matt Muzikar, and the horsemen who
In the 10TH race, Castellano was able to obtain good stalking position aboard
“The way the race developed I felt
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Castellano entered Sunday’s 13-race program with 3,997 victories after riding
four winners on Saturday’s Gulfstream card, three in graded stakes. He was
victorious in both Grade 1 stakes, guiding Constitution (Tapit) to a triumph in the
$500,000 Donn H. and Mshawish (Medaglia d’Oro) to a nose decision in the $300,000
Gulfstream Park Turf H., as well as visiting the winner’s circle with Sandiva (Footstepsinthesand) following her victory in the $150,000 Suwannee River (G3). All three
winners are trained by seven-time Eclipse Award winner Todd Pletcher.
“It’s a pretty significant milestone. He’s riding great and he’s had a great
career. I think anybody that has stayed in the game this long and has been able
to ride that many winners shows a lot of determination and a lot of commitment
and talent, and he certainly has that,” said Pletcher, the defending 11-time
Championship Meet titlist at Gulfstream.
Castellano, who notched his 3,000th career triumph at Gulfstream Park on February 24,
2013, has dominated the jockey standings during the past three Championship
Meets at the Hallandale Beach track, where he has ridden 100 winners each season
to become only the third jockey to win three consecutive titles, joining Jorge
Chavez (1999-2001) and Jeff Fell (1977-79). He currently has a commanding lead
in the jockey standings this season.
The 37-year-old Maracaibo, Venezuela, native launched his U.S. riding career in
South Florida in 1997, collecting his first win aboard Phone Man at Calder. He
moved on to New York, where he won his first of nine titles there during the
2002-2003 inner-track meeting. He notched his first Triple Crown success aboard Bernardini
in the 2006 Preakness S. (G1) and tasted victory in the 2004 Breeders’
Cup Classic (G1) aboard Ghostzapper, who went on to be named Horse of the Year.
Constitution, who defeated defending champ Lea (First Samurai) by three-quarters of a length in
the Donn, provided Castellano with one of his most important Gulfstream victory
last year while winning the $1 million Florida Derby (G1).
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