‘I Can Eat Pizza:’ Rider-Turned-Trainer Trujillo Enjoying Career Change
‘I Can Eat Pizza:’ Rider-Turned-Trainer Trujillo Enjoying Career Change
Jockey Lauralea Glaser ‘Riding the Wave’ During Laurel Summer Meet
Stakes-Quality Sprint Headlines Thursday’s Return of Live Racing
Maryland’s First 2-Year-Old Turf Race of 2020 Set for Saturday
LAUREL, MD – For the first time in more than two years, Elvis Trujillo’s name is back in the racing program. But don’t look for it in the usual place.
Trujillo, 36, won 2,102 races as a jockey between 2001 and 2018 but will send out just his third starter as a trainer and first ever at Laurel Park in Friday’s fifth race. The gelding Mystic Times, owned by Ejetero LLC, drew Post 4 of eight in the six-furlong claiming sprint for 3-year-olds and up.
A Maryland-bred son of Tiznow, Mystic Times has a record of 2-3-2 from 15 lifetime starts including a waiver claiming victory for previous trainer Jose Corrales June 5 at Laurel. Corrales, also a former rider, is Trujillo’s uncle.
“He’s a 4-year-old and I think he has a good chance,” Trujillo said. “He is a very good horse.”
A native of Panama who graduated from its famed Laffit Pincay Jr. jockey school in 2000, Trujillo came to Maryland to ride full-time in the fall of 2017 at the behest of Corrales, after spending that summer riding in China.
Trujillo won 28 races over the next four months, including the General George (G3) aboard Corrales-trained Something Awesome, before injuring his ribs and sternum in a three-horse spill March 10, 2018. Once healed, he considered a comeback to riding before ultimately transitioning into a new career.
“After I got hurt, I started training horses with my uncle,” Trujillo said. “Now I’ve got my license and I’m starting on my own. It is very exciting. I’m happy. I am starting my career as a trainer.”
Trujillo launched his career Aug. 9 at Monmouth Park, running second with Confusion Baby Boy and fourth with Eje Gama, both owned by Ejetero. He named Eclipse Award champion Weston Hamilton to ride Mystic Times.
“I was lucky to win a lot of races as a jockey and now I want to try to do the same as a trainer. I am going to try the best I can,” Trujillo said. “I thank God for giving me the opportunity to start again. It’s a different way but it’s good. I’m happy.”
Trujillo currently has eight horses stabled at Laurel Park. In addition to his uncle, he credits his wife, Raquel, with being a major influence in his new undertaking.
“I’m working with my wife. She pushes me a lot to try different things,” he said. “My uncle helps me a lot. I am very thankful to him and to everyone that has helped me get this far.”
Trujillo first came to the U.S. in November 2001, landing in southern California after riding 90 winners in Panama and Mexico City. He rode his first winner on Nov. 28 of that year aboard Britetonzmyday at Hollywood Park, a horse trained by former Eclipse Award-winning apprentice Wesley Ward.
From there, Trujillo spent time riding on circuits in Chicago, Florida and New Jersey, winning meet titles in 2007 at the former Calder Race Course and 2009, 2011 and 2012 at Monmouth Park. His 2,000th career victory came May 9, 2015 aboard first-time starter Matriculate at Santa Anita.
Before making Maryland his home, Trujillo shipped in to ride over the years and won such races as the 2010 Maryland Million Starter Handicap with Northpoint Costas, 2012 Laurel Dash with filly Jazzy Idea, and 2012 Selima with Mystic Love.
In all, Trujillo won 45 career graded stakes, five of them Grade 1, including his breakthrough victory in the 2007 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint aboard Maryfield, on whom he also won the Ballerina (G1). His best horse was Presious Passion, teaming up to win six graded stakes and nearly $1.9 million in purse earnings from 2007-10.
“It’s different. Now I spend more time with the horses and enjoy it more,” Trujillo said. “Before when I was riding you would go ride and go home. Now we have to feed them and take care of them. I get to spend more time with my kids, too. I love it.”
Trujillo, a well-liked and well-respected rider who battled weight issues throughout his career, has enjoyed other benefits of his new job.
“Sometimes I miss riding but I always had trouble with the weights. I couldn’t enjoy it anymore because I had to lose a lot of weight,” he said. “Now, I can eat pizza. I can eat whatever I want.”
Jockey Lauralea Glaser ‘Riding the Wave’ During Laurel Summer Meet
Lauralea Glaser’s riding renaissance is in full swing this summer at Laurel Park.
The 26-year-old is enjoying one of the best stretches of her professional career, one that she voluntarily put on hold for nearly two years before coming back on a limited basis last summer.
Glaser is named in two of nine races when live action returns to Laurel Park Thursday, and two of nine races on Friday. She has won with four of her last seven starters, including a two-win day the last live program Aug. 15.
For the summer meet, which began May 30 following a 2 ½-month pause in live racing amid the coronavirus pandemic, Glaser has six wins, five seconds, three thirds and $148,521 in purse earnings from just 19 starters.
“I’m really just taking as it comes up. I never really know what to expect,” Glaser said. “I’ve had a lot of changes through the spring and the summer and at this moment it’s working out really well. I’m incredibly thankful and grateful for all the opportunities I’ve been given and I’m just riding the wave.”
A native of Bliss, N.Y., a small farming community of little more than 500 residents located about an hour southeast of Buffalo, Glaser grew up with horses. After graduating from Hall of Fame jockey Chris McCarron’s North American Racing Academy she embarked on a pro riding career in Maryland.
Glaser won her first professional race in October 2014 and 58 more over the next three years before deciding to take a break. She didn’t ride a race between Dec. 15, 2017 and July 27, 2019, picking up the first win of her comeback July 27, 2019.
“My whole goal when I started riding races, I started because I love the horses. I love the sport and I wanted to do it because I enjoyed it. It’s a tough game,” Glaser said. “There’s a lot of competitive riders here. There’s been some downs where it gets tight, your luck doesn’t break and you end up riding some horses that you don’t want to ride, and you get a little sour.
“I had to take a little bit of a reality check and ask myself, if I wasn’t enjoying it, why was I doing it?” she added. “So now I’m trying to make more of a conscious effort to do what makes me happy, and I think it’s paying off.”
Glaser never left the racetrack during her hiatus, working in the morning galloping horses for trainers such as Dove Houghton and Greg Wilson. She started working earlier this year for Cal Lynch, and their results together have been noticeable.
Since the summer meet began, Glaser and Lynch have teamed up to win four of 13 races (31 percent) with three seconds and three thirds, a 77 percent top-three strike rate. Glaser is 8-7-5 from 30 mounts in 2020, including 2-2-2 from 11 starters from Jan. 1 to March 13.
“I’ve been working for Cal for a couple months. I started as a salaried galloping job before he even offered me any mounts. That was kind of his pregame plan but as I got going I was getting along with some of the horses and the owner of one of the horses asked if I could ride it so we gave it a shot,” Glaser said. “Just knowing that I’m a consistent face in the barn they can trust that I can be there, he started giving me some opportunities.
“He’s been really helpful with all the advice that he can give me and he’s been really helping in coaching me along,” she added. “Not that I’m new to the scene, riding-wise, but it’s always great to learn. It’s always great to hear from someone else that’s got the expertise, and he’s been really super for that. It’s just been working out and we’re just going along with it.”
Both Lynch and Glaser feel that her success in the afternoon is an extension of the relationship she has forged with her horses every morning.
“I think they know I like them just as much. I try to spoil them,” Glaser said. “I want them to come out here and enjoy training because I think if they’re enjoying it then they run better. I don’t want them coming out here dreading to train. It shouldn’t be a fight. I want them to come out here and have a good morning, just like I want to.”
Stakes-Quality Sprint Headlines Thursday’s Return of Live Racing
Multiple stakes-winning Maryland-breds Cordmaker and Laki, who together own 17 career victories and nearly $1 million in combined purse earnings, are set to square off for the second time in a month in an open stakes-quality allowance that highlights Thursday’s return of live racing to Laurel Park.
The seven-furlong main track sprint for 3-year-olds and up also drew stakes-placed Threes Over Deuces, Arch Cat and Onemoregreattime; Carlos L, a two-time Group 1 winner in Panama making his North American debut; and Eastern Bay, a winner of two straight this year since being claimed by summer meet-leading trainer Claudio Gonzalez.
First post for Thursday’s nine-race card is 12:40 p.m. Post time for featured Race 6 is 3:10 p.m.
Hillwood Stable’s Cordmaker has run fifth in each of his two starts this year after winning five of eight races in 2019, three in stakes, as well as finishing third by two necks in the historic Pimlico Special (G3).
The 5-year-old son of Hall of Famer Curlin pressed the pace and wound up 4 ¾ lengths behind Harpers First Ride in his season debut July 3 going one mile, then cut back to seven-eighths July 25 and again found himself near the lead early before tiring to be beaten 6 ¾ lengths by Arthur’s Hope.
“He’s doing really well. He just got really hot that last time … and it took him a little while to get back together. He’s doing real good. He’s training well, that’s all I can tell you,” trainer Rodney Jenkins said. “The weather’s a little cooler and I think he’ll get in the race a little quicker and not have to use him like he did out of that one hole. I don’t think he’s a horse that you want to rush right up there.”
Xavier Perez will be the third different rider this year aboard Cordmaker, who hasn’t lost three straight races since between May and November 2018.
Hillside Equestrian Meadows’ Laki began his 7-year-old campaign with a victory in the five-furlong Oceanport Centennial Stakes July 3 at Monmouth Park before wheeling back in three weeks to run second as the favorite, a half-length behind Arthur’s Hope and 4 ¾ lengths clear of Threes Over Deuces in third.
Trainer Damon Dilodovico briefly considered shipping to Saratoga for a race the same day but opted to keep Laki over his home track where he has compiled an 8-4-3 record from 16 career starts. Regular pilot and summer meet-leading rider Horacio Karamanos has the call in Laki’s third start off more than an eight-month layoff.
“Both of these races that he’s come out of this year he’s been spectacular. I guess the time off was something he really needed. Bounced out the most recent race very well also, considering how tough of a fight it was down to the wire with Arthur’s Hope,” Dilodovico said. “There was a race we could have gone to in Saratoga this coming Thursday, a non-winners of a graded-stake, which is pretty similar.
“The race here in Maryland is pretty tough. The race up there is going six furlongs and we’re going seven again here,” he added. “The numbers were all very strong coming out of the race, he really ran a solid race. Maybe we can get the job done this time. It’s another tough race, but I guess at that level everywhere you run is going to be tough.”
Along with Threes Over Deuces, second in the seven-furlong General George (G3) Feb. 15, Onemoregreattime exits the same July 25 allowance, where he ran seventh. He was beaten a head by Threes Over Deuces when second in his seasonal debut July 4 after setting the pace in a six-furlong sprint.
Also on Thursday’s card is a 1 1/8-mile maiden special weight for fillies and mares 3 and up scheduled for the Dahlia turf course in Race 3 led by 8-5 program favorite Forty Zip, making her third start for Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey, and Safari Queen, a 4-year-old daughter of Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Animal Kingdom racing for the first time in 13 months.
Thursday’s Race 4 is an optional claiming allowance for 3-year-olds and up sprinting six furlongs featuring Jody Mihalic’s Bull Shark, who returned from a year layoff to win July 23 at Laurel and stay perfect at 3-0 lifetime; Race 5 is a starter-optional claimer scheduled for 1 1/16 miles on the All Along layout that drew an overflow field of 13 including 2019 Maryland Million Turf winner Mr. d’Angelo, third in his season debut July 18 at Laurel; and Race 8 is a optional claiming allowance carded for one mile on the All Along which attracted a dozen females 3 and up, among them multiple stakes winner Dark Artist, 2018 Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship winner Money Fromheaven and 2018 Selima runner-up Shoobiedoobydoo.
Maryland’s First 2-Year-Old Turf Race of 2020 Scheduled for Friday
An overflow field of 16 fillies were entered for Maryland’s first 2-year-old race of 2020 to be contested on Laurel Park’s world-class turf course as part of Friday’s nine-race program.
Ten horses are set to make their career debut in the 5 ½-furlong maiden special weight sprint over the Dahlia turf course layout in Race 6, which has a post time of 3:21 p.m.
Among the first timers are Shamrock Farm’s Lisheen, a bay Into Mischief filly, and Hillwood Stable and Richard L. Golden’s Closertotheheart, a homebred daughter of Great Notion, both trained by Graham Motion; and Norah B Stable’s Hey Babe, trained by Cal Lynch, who captured the first 2-year-old filly race of the season on dirt Aug. 8 with Tiz Ferguson.
Lynch also entered Maxis Stable’s Kewpie Doll, who ran third in her Aug. 2 unveiling in the five-furlong Colleen Stakes on the Monmouth Park turf and will be ridden by Lauralea Glaser.
Juvenile races at Laurel will be run this year without the medication Lasix.
Hey Babe will have the services of jockey Victor Carrasco, the 2013 Eclipse Award-winning apprentice riding for the first time in Maryland since June 27 after moving his tack to Monmouth for its summer meet.
Also named in Race 7 aboard Fitzhugh LLC’s Maryland homebred Lookin Dynamic, Carrascso has not ridden with a right elbow injury since his mount flipped in the starting gate July 17 at Monmouth.
