Injured Champion Jockey Toledo Progressing, Nearing Return
Injured Champion Jockey Toledo Progressing, Nearing Return
Comeback Race in Sight for Multiple Stakes-Placed 3YO Inveigled
2YO Filly Sharedashenanigans Impressive Debut Winner Saturday
LAUREL, MD – Two months into his recovery from a collarbone injury, champion jockey Jevian Toledo is nearing a return to riding.
The 29-year-old Toledo, a four-time overall leading rider in Maryland, is awaiting medical clearance to get back on horses, which he hopes to receive next week.
“I’m doing good,” Toledo said. “I was supposed to see the doctor [Friday] but he had an emergency, so I have to go back Wednesday morning and see what is next. I’m getting therapy already and the guy from therapy is happy. He said I am doing pretty good, so hopefully I will have good news this week coming up.”
Toledo was injured during the fourth race April 21 at Laurel Park after being unseated when his mount, Jackie A, tripped over fellow rider J.G. Torrealba and Bourbon and Ice, who had stumbled when in tight quarters at the top of the stretch and fell. Both horses walked off the track.
The riders were taken to University of Maryland Capital Region Medical Center. Then a five-pound apprentice, Torrealba was released and returned the next racing day, finishing as the spring meet’s leading jockey. Toledo, tied for second in the standings at the time of the spill, was subsequently sent to R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore.
“The bone was dislocated through the inside, not through the outside, so they had to do surgery and put the bone where it was before. They told me I could not pull anything if I wanted to keep the bone in place,” Toledo said. “Now I’m putting weight on it and I’ve been feeling good, so hopefully that’s a good sign.”
Toledo, who turns 30 Aug. 20, led all Maryland riders in wins at Laurel and historic Pimlico Race Course in 2015, 2017, 2021 and 2022. The 10-time meet champion rode 130 winners in the state last year, finishing third behind Jaime Rodriguez (166) and Jeiron Barbosa (137), and earned a career-high $8.19 million in purses overall.
“I’ve been doing therapy like a month already. I go twice a week, so I’ve been like eight times. It looks like everything’s going good,” he said. “Hopefully after the doctor sees me, he at least lets me start getting on a couple horses to see how I’m feeling and then we’ll decide after that.”
Comeback Race in Sight for Multiple Stakes-Placed 3YO Inveigled
Mark B. Grier’s Inveigled, three times stakes-placed over his home track of Laurel Park, continues to train forwardly for his return to the races.
Unraced since finishing third behind stakes winners Copper Tax and Speedyness in the 1 1/8-mile Federico Tesio April 20, the Jane Cibelli trainee has had three subsequent breezes at Laurel including an easy half-mile in 51.20 seconds Friday.
An Indiana-bred son of multiple graded-stakes winner Enticed that fetched $52,000 at auction last June, Inveigled has raced primarily in Maryland. Third in his September 2023 debut at historic Pimlico Race Course, he graduated by eight lengths second time out in a 5 ½-furlong maiden special weight in October at Laurel.
Inveigled was second to Copper Tax in Laurel’s James F. Lewis III and won an optional claiming allowance in December at Gulfstream to cap his juvenile season, running fourth in the Mucho Macho Man and Holy Bull (G3) to open 2024. Back in Maryland, Inveigled was second behind Copper Tax in the Private Terms prior to the Tesio.
“He hasn’t done a whole lot in the last six weeks or so. We just kind of backed off him a little bit because he ended up getting beat up pretty badly in that last race in the sense that I think the mile and an eighth is a little far for him and he just didn’t finish like I would have liked,” Cibelli said. “I think he’s just danced every dance, honestly. We bought him out of the 2-year-old sale, so he’s been going since he’s a yearling. We took him to Gulfstream and he ran against some tough, tough horses there. He’s never really let us down.”
Cibelli said the next target for Inveigled is the $250,000 Governor’s Stakes for Indiana-bred 3-year-olds going a mile and 70 yards July 31 at Horseshoe Indiana. It is the state’s second-richest race behind the open $300,000 Indiana Derby (G3), also for 3-year-olds, at 1 1/16 miles July 6.
“Really, that’s always been on the horizon. I just felt like having him go into that race having him as fresh and as good as he can be,” she said. “He’d be one of the favorites, I would think, in that spot. We just backed off him a bit and [Friday] was just a nice and easy half-mile. Beginning of next month we’ll start cranking on him and getting him ready.”
2YO Filly Sharedashenanigans Impressive Debut Winner Saturday
Boardshorts’ 2-year-old filly Sharedashenanigans, the first foal out of Grade 1-winning mare Sharing, kicked off Saturday’s Laurel Park program in style with a popular and professional victory in her career debut.
Ridden by Victor Carrasco for trainer Graham Motion, Sharedashenanigans ($3.40) covered five furlongs over a fast main track in 1:00.28 to win the maiden special weight by 1 ¼ lengths as the 3-5 favorite over four rivals.
It was the sixth win from nine starters at Laurel’s summer meet for Motion and second straight with a 2-year-old filly overall after Warming, Sharedashenanigan’s Fair Hill Training Center workmate, captured her unveiling Friday at Aqueduct.
“Thanks to Graham and the whole team behind the horse. Since yesterday when I talked to them, they were very high on her and everybody was telling me that I could not lose,” Carrasco said. “She was doing great, and her workmate won yesterday first time out, too.”
Sharedashenanigans broke alertly and raced in the clear three wide as Pure Majestic and Thunder in Paris dueled through an opening quarter-mile in 22.91 seconds. Carrasco moved up alongside after a half in 47.53 and opened up once straightened for home.
“She was nothing but great. She’s a little filly, but very classy and well-behaved,” Carrasco said. “She broke well. I didn’t have to really rush her much to be on top of the front-runners and as soon as we turned for home and I said, ‘Go,’ she exploded. She was just waiting for competition.”
Sharing earned more than $1 million winning five of nine starts for Motion including the 2019 Selima at Laurel and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1) at Santa Anita, both under Carrasco’s brother-in-law, jockey Manny Franco. In 2020, Sharing won the Edgewood (G2) and Tepin at Churchill Downs and was second in the Coronation (G1) at Royal Ascot.
Boardshorts, managed by former Sagamore Farm president Hunter Rankin, is the nom de course of Oregon coffee billionaire Travis Boersma, who paid $500,000 for Sharedashenanigans last fall. By Into Mischief, her granddam is Sagamore’s 2010 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1) winner Shared Account, also trained by Motion.
Notes: Jockey Jean Alvelo rode two winners Saturday, Bunny Hop ($24.80) in Race 2 and Morning Thoughts ($7) in Race 6 … Both Morning Thoughts and Race 7 winner Princess Lucia ($8.20) are trained by Hugh McMahon … Wilma Flintshire ($8.40) held off Channel Loop in the Race 9 finale to complete the winning 2-3-8-7-1-5 combination in the 20-cent Rainbow 6, which returned $2,001.30 to one single bettor. The Rainbow 6 begins anew Sunday, spanning Races 4-9. The nine-race program, which includes a $1 Jackpot Super High Five carryover of $756.12 in Race 6, begins at 12:25 p.m.