Lyapustina perseveres with Tiny Lake
Heard On Thestreet runs down Prado Road
LAUREL, MD – It isn’t unusual for jockeys to travel long distances for significant Grade 1 races.
How many times have we seen Flavien Prat or Irad Ortiz Jr. ride Saturday in New York only to jet out for a classy Santa Anita mount 24 hours later?
It is uncommon for jockeys to trek for one race when said heat is a first-level allowance with a $49,000 purse at 5 ½ furlongs on the turf on a Friday afternoon at Laurel Park.
Jean Alvelo is an uncommon jockey, and Tall Order is a unique horse.
Alvelo, a mainstay at Laurel Park from 2022 through 2024 – he won 73 races here during his first full season – now rides and resides in Puerto Rico, but he can’t resist trainer Gina Perri’s siren song regarding Tall Order.
Alvelo flew in to steer Tall Order, got his picture taken after the tenth race, and will rest comfortably at home tomorrow night.
“Patience” was the word Perri used to describe Alvelo’s relationship with Tall Order, a 5-year-old gelding unbeaten from three starts under the rider. “He waits. [Tall Order] loves Alvelo. Jean knows him well. I fly him out just for this horse. He’s on the plane back tomorrow morning.”
After rallying from off the pace to win his final two starts of 2024, both at the 5 ½ furlong distance over Laurel’s turf course, Tall Order ran once in January, finishing seventh in a second-level allowance over Turfway’s Tapeta surface before being freshened for the remainder of the winter.
“He’s a big horse,” Perri said, “He needs a little break [here and there].”
Although Perri says that Tall Order is a “sweet horse,” it’s possible that he is a bit of a showman at heart. He won those two races at Laurel last year by a neck and a nose, respectively. Today, he powered to the lead in midstretch and outlasted Toolpusher to prevail by a neck in 1:03.08 over firm going.
“He likes to wait until the last second and give us all a heart attack,” quipped Perri, who said that Tall Order will likely try to advance through his remaining conditions in future outings
*Tiny Lake wears down the speeds
There’s a chance the best-kept secret in Laurel Park’s jockey room right now is Tais Lyapustina, who guided Tiny Lake ($12.20) to a rallying victory in the fourth race, a first-level allowance with an optional claiming range of $62,500 to $50,000 for 3-year-olds at 5 ½ furlongs.
The ride pushed Lyapustina’s 2025 slate to 13 victories from 71 starts, good for an 18% strike rate. This enviable record comes on the heels of a banner 2024 that saw her post career-best numbers in wins (31) and earnings ($1,401,427).
In the case of Tiny Lake, a horse that earned his first two victories in close-to-the-pace fashion, Lyapustina improvised. Stepping up in class after a runner-up effort for $40,000, Tiny Lake failed to make the lead as Chesapeake Dream and Anlon threw down hot fractions of 22.27 and 46.28 seconds.
“We thought maybe we would have more speed than some of them in there,” Lyapustina said. “But, we broke, and everybody was right there with me. So, I had to make sure he’s right up close there because otherwise, they’d put too much dirt in his face, and I don’t know if he’ll want to run on after that.”
Undaunted, Lyapustina put Tiny Lake into a steady rhythm while racing four wide, and they moved into contention behind the dueling leaders as the field turned for home.
Anlon eventually put away Chesapeake Dream, and Tiny Lake still had work to do in the upper stretch. Lyapustina persevered, and Tiny Lake collared Anlon under the wire to win by a neck in 1:05.97 over the fast main track.
Chesapeake Dream finished third, 2 ¾ lengths behind the runner-up. Next came Punch It Margaret, Yara’s Quest, Lifting, and Tojo’s Mojo.
“I had to ask him the whole way around just to keep him engaged, keep him engaged, tap him on the shoulder,” Lyapustina added. “At the end, he kicked on again when he turned on for home. I thought I had a good chance to get to them at the three-sixteenth pole. He kept on grinding them down. He was very honest throughout the whole thing. I thought he ran huge.”
Bred in Kentucky by Don Alberto Corporation, Tiny Lake is a gelded son of Omaha Beach. He sold for $200,000 as a yearling and has been claimed twice for $20,000, most recently by High Schticking Thoroughbreds out of a runner-up effort at Laurel on February 15.
Second in his first two starts for High Schticking and trainer Rudy Sanchez-Salomon, Tiny Lake has won three times from seven starts for earnings of $77,100.
“I’m glad he finally got it,” Lyapustina concluded. “He’s been begging to win.”
*Heard On Thestreet runs down Prado Road
Heard On Thestreet captured his second consecutive start when he rallied past odds-on Prado Road in the ninth race, a $49,000 first-level allowance at six furlongs.
Conditioned by Emanuel “Mike” Geralis, Heard On Thestreet received a perfect ride from Jaime Rodriguez. They spied Prado Road as that foe prompted pacesetting Swifty Devil through splits of 22.84 and 46.54 seconds, swung to the outside with a three-wide bid on the turn, and then gamely pushed past the favorite to score by a length in 1:11.36.
“He’s pretty nervous at home,” Geralis said. “He sometimes gets bad in the stall. He seemed to settle down today. I saw Jaime break loose from the pony, and he looked relaxed out there and was good in the gate.”
Bred in Maryland by the late R. Larry Johnson, Heard On TheStreet was claimed for $16,000 by Paterpop Racing out of a third-place finish at Aqueduct last Halloween. He won two of four starts in New York for trainer Fernando Abreu before being transferred to Geralis’s care during the winter.
“He was really good in New York,” Geralis said. “When I got him, he ran well [second in a state-sired allowance on Feb. 7]. The second time, we got checked. The other time, he was on the rail and flattened out. Fernando told me he likes the outside. Fernando got him running. All he did was give me a loaded gun.”
A son of two-time Maryland Million winner Classy Coco, Heard On Thestreet boasts six wins from 21 starts for $224,770 in earnings.
