Jockey Shaun Bridgmohan kept quiet about leading the jockey
standings throughout most of Churchill Downs’ spring meet, but finally was ready to talk
after he clinched his second Churchill Downs riding title on Saturday night.
“I tried something new this year,” Bridgmohan said. “I let
my riding do the talking and I kept my mouth shut. I guess you could say I’m a
little superstitious.”
Bridgmohan, who tied with Calvin Borel for the meet lead at
Churchill Downs at the 2006 fall meet, led the rider standings at the spring
meet through Memorial Day last year. He held a 26-24 lead over Corey Lanerie
before Lanerie won 47 races over the final 19 days of the spring meet and
finished 24 wins ahead of Bridgmohan.
“Last year I started out great, but then I slowed down and Corey was able to
pick up some momentum and went by me,” Bridgmohan remarked. “This year, my
horses ran well consistently throughout the whole meet.”
Bridgmohan, a 34-year-old native of Spanish Town, Jamaica,
is ranked 11th in all-time wins at Churchill Downs with 487.
“I would have to say this is the best meet I’ve had here,” he stated. “The
horses showed up and ran well and a lot of the trainers I ride for had great
meets too and that helped. I also give a lot of the credit to my agent (Lenny
Pike). He did a fabulous job and put me on a lot of good horses.”
Bridgmohan, a winner of more than 2,500 races during his
17-year career, said he had the rider standings in the back of his mind during
the final weeks of the spring meet.
“I was thinking about it a little bit because it was
something I really wanted,” he admitted. “The riding colony here is strong,
like always. We’ve got some very good riders here.”
Bridgmohan, who closed out the meet with 53 victories to earn his first
spring meet title, will ride at Saratoga when the meet begins on July 19. Rosie Napravnik
was second in the standings with 45 wins, the highest for a female rider at
Churchill Downs.
He will be joined at Saratoga by fellow Churchill riders Napravnik, Alan Garcia, Joe Rocco Jr. and Robby Albarado.
The majority of the Churchill Downs jockey colony will remain in Kentucky to
ride at Ellis Park, including Lanerie, Ricardo
Santana Jr., Leandro Goncalves, Dylan Davis, Brian Hernandez Jr., Miguel Mena,
Borel, Norberto Arroyo Jr., Jesus Castanon, Jon Court, Victor Lebron and John
McKee.
Ken and Sarah Ramsey collected their record 19th owners’ title at the
Louisville, Kentucky, racetrack when closing out the spring meet at Churchill with a
single-season record 32 wins. The Nicholasville, Kentucky,
couple now have set their sights on collecting their third leading-owners title
at Saratoga.
“You can tell them to look out at Saratoga,” Ken Ramsey
said. “It’s the 150th anniversary and I’m bringing enough horses up there to win
the owners’ title. I know I’m going to have some competition up there, but I
think you might be talking to the leading owner at Saratoga for the 150th
anniversary meet.”
The Ramseys won the owners title at Saratoga in 2008 and ’09, but Mike Repole’s Repole Stable took home the trophy in
’10-12.
“Repole’s reign is getting ready to come to a screeching
halt,” Ramsey said with a grin.
The Ramseys, the all-time leading owners at Churchill Downs
with 362, won 25 races at Keeneland’s spring meet and shattered the previous
record of 12 wins by an owner during a single meet.
One of the few holes in the resume of the Ramseys is the
absence of a victory in the Kentucky Derby. That
is something they hope to change soon.
“Next year, I’m changing my focus completely and going for
quality over quantity,” Ramsey said. “We’ve got to win this Kentucky Derby.
We’ve got to get our picture taken on the other side of the track (in the
Kentucky Derby Winner’s Circle).
“I’ve sent seven horses to Todd Pletcher and we actually
think five of them are Derby material. They’re working right now and they’ll be
running at Saratoga. We also think we got the best two-year-old colt out of the
OBS sale a few weeks ago (Hip 176). We named him Ichiban Warrior. Ichiban means
No. 1 in Japanese.”
Ichiban Warrior is a bay son of First Samurai and sold for
$155,000 at the OBS June Sale.
The Ramseys may have locked up the owners’ title at Churchill Downs and Bridgmohan secured his second
local riding title with 51 victories going into Sunday’s 10-race card, but the
race for leading trainer is not over yet.
In the trainer standings, Mike Maker and Steve Asmussen entered closing day
tied with 33 wins each, and it ended up coming down to the final race of the
meet. Maker ended up getting the win in that contest to give him a share of the
trainer’s title with Asmussen with 35 wins each.
It was the first spring meet title for Maker, who was the leading trainer at
the Churchill Downs fall meet in 2008 and tied for the meet lead with Asmussen
at the fall meet in 2011.
Asmussen, ranked fourth in all-time Churchill Downs wins
with 478, earned a record 12th training title at the home of the Kentucky Derby
after previously being tied with Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas. His last title
came during the 2011 fall meet, and he now has six at the spring meet.
Though the spring meet at Churchill came to an end
Sunday, fans will have the opportunity to enjoy racing at the home of the
Kentucky Derby sooner than normal at the inaugural Homecoming Meet.
The first September racing meet in the history of Churchill
Downs Racetrack will open on September 6 and continue through September
29. Racing will be conducted on a Friday-through-Sunday schedule during each of
its four weeks and “Downs After Dark” night racing celebrations are scheduled
for September 7 and 28.
The 12 days of racing features eight stakes with total
purses of nearly $1 million. Highlighting the stakes schedule are the
Grade 2, $150,000 Pocahontas for two-year-old fillies; the Grade 3, $150,000
Iroquois for two-year-olds; and the inaugural $175,000 Homecoming
Classic for three-year-olds and up at 1 1/8 miles. The two juvenile stakes are Breeders’ Cup
“Win & You’re
In” Challenge races.
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