Jockey Carrasco Cleared for Weekend Comeback
Jockey Carrasco Cleared for Weekend Comeback
Caribou Club May Get Time Off After Futurity Win
Stakes Winner John Jones Returns to Dirt on Friday Card
LAUREL, MD – Jockey Victor Carrasco, out of action since Aug. 7 with an injury to his right foot, will return to ride at Laurel Park this weekend.
Tom Stift, Carrasco’s agent, said the 24-year-old rider received medical clearance to return following a doctor’s appointment on Monday and was back exercising horses Tuesday morning.
Carrasco had been wearing an orthopedic boot to protect his foot since the injury. He is named in eight of 11 races on Saturday’s program including both features, a $42,000 allowance for females 3 and up going 5 ½ furlongs on the Exceller Turf Course in Race 8, and a $45,000 optional claiming allowance at 1 1/16 miles on the Bowl Game Turf Course for females 3 and up.
“He’s good,” Stift said. “He’s running around like a kid again.”
The Eclipse Award-winning apprentice of 2013, Carrasco was hurt when his mount, 2-year-old colt O Dionysus making his first career start for trainer Gary Capuano, dumped him and stepped on his foot as the horses were heading out to the track from the paddock for the 5 ½-furlong maiden race.
O Dionysus, a bay son of Bodemeister, went on to win his debut on Maryland Pride Day Aug. 20 and finished second in a six-furlong optional claiming allowance Sept. 10 on the Laurel Turf Festival program, both under Jevian Toledo.
“One of the first things that we did was take donuts to Gary Capuano’s barn,” Stift said. “Victor really liked the horse. He had been getting on him for quite a while and he really liked him. It’s just one of those things that happens.”
Carrasco’s first ride Saturday will be for the Capuano-trained maiden Lucky in Malibu in Race 3, also at 5 ½ furlongs on the Bowl Game course.
“He probably could have come back a week earlier but the doctor was out of the country and he couldn’t see him until Monday,” Stift said. “He’s all set. He’s been getting on horses and he feels good.”
At the time of his injury, Carrasco was leading the summer meet jockey standings in wins and purse earnings and wound up third with 19 victories and a bankroll of $565,895. Earlier this year he finished second to Trevor McCarthy at Laurel’s winter-spring meet and the Preakness Meet at Pimlico.
Caribou Club May Get Time Off After Futurity Win
Glen Hill Farm president and racing manager Craig Bernick said homebred Caribou Club, an impressive winner of the historic Laurel Futurity Sept. 10, came out of the race well but had yet to look ahead to a subsequent start.
Bernick, grandson of Glen Hill founder Leonard Lavin, said limited options for 2-year-old turf sprinters may have earned the chestnut son of Grade 1 winner City Zip a break though the $100,000 Juvenile Turf Sprint Stakes, contested at about 6 ½ furlongs over Santa Anita’s downhill turf course Nov. 5, is a possibility.
Caribou Club’s dam, Broken Dreams, won the 2011 and 2012 Senator Ken Maddy Stakes (G3) run over the same course and distance as the Juvenile Turf Sprint.
“I think we’re going to see how he comes out of his race. So far he’s come out of his race well. My initial thought was actually to just give him a little bit of time off. I don’t think at this stage in his development he is a two-turn horse and I don’t see a lot out there at 5 ½ or 6 ½ [furlongs]on the turf right now,” he said. “I don’t see a ton of opportunities for him so it might be a good time to take a break, but if he just trains exceptionally he may force us to run him another time or two. There’s the race Breeders’ Cup day at Santa Anita down the hill which his mother was very good at, but I would say right now we’re leaning toward giving him a little bit of time.”
Caribou Club had run twice prior to his stakes triumph, beaten a neck by Futurity favorite Greatbullsoffire in his July 17 debut at Laurel and coming back to be third after a tough trip in a similar maiden special weight event Aug. 11 at Saratoga. He raced for the first time in the Futurity with blinkers on.
One race following the Futurity, Glen Hill homebred Consulting finished third in the Selima for juvenile fillies, also in her third start without a maiden victory.
“We were thrilled for Saturday. We thought that sort of his own issues in the race at Laurel and the race at Saratoga got him beat, kind of lack of focus in the first race and maybe a misjudged race in the second race, to be honest,” Bernick said. “His mother, it took her a few starts as well and then when we put the blinkers on she became a pretty good horse. We tried the same with him. I don’t think Glen Hill Farm had run a maiden in a stake in our history until those two races on Saturday. We’re very happy with how it went.”
For now, Bernick said Caribou Club will stay on the grass at shorter distances, which could change depending on if and how he develops.
“He’s a turf horse; he’s not a dirt horse,” he said. “He matured really quickly as a young horse so he was always one that we liked on the farm. He hasn’t grown as much as we would have hoped or liked but he’s still just 2, so he’ll hopefully continue to stretch out, body-wise. I was always liked him but we’re pretty happy that he won a stake at 2.”
Stakes Winner John Jones Returns to Dirt on Friday Card
Matthew Schera’s John Jones, 43-1 upset winner of the Mister Diz Stakes on grass Aug. 20, moves back to the dirt for his next start in Friday’s featured seventh race, a $45,000 optional claiming allowance at one mile.
Luis Garcia, aboard for the front-running one-length victory over Just Jack and popular 26-time stakes winner Ben’s Cat, gets the return call from trainer Lacey Gaudet from post 6 in a field of 10 that also includes multiple stakes-placed Flash McCaul and Team Tim, also exiting the Mister Diz where he was fifth.
John Jones was entered in the $100,000 Laurel Dash at six furlongs on turf Sept. 10 but failed to draw into the race as the first alternate.
The Mister Diz was John Jones’ first win in three tries on the grass. It was also the first start for his new connections after being claimed for $25,000 out of a fourth-place finish going one mile July 17 at Laurel. He has won his last three starts on dirt at the distance, all at Laurel, dating back to his maiden special weight victory last October.
“It was awesome. Of course we kind of went into the race looking for a big effort. We weren’t really anticipating a win. We knew that he was doing very, very well. When I claimed him the main goal was to run him in that spot, knowing that we would face Ben’s Cat and if we were second to Ben’s Cat, great. But the outcome was even better than we expected,” Gaudet said.
“I didn’t anticipate him showing that much speed, but there wasn’t that much pace in the race anyway so it just worked out that way. I kind of told Luis if he’s there don’t worry about it, just kind of go with it because in his training and his works we know that he can be fast and he kind of likes being in front. The shortening up we thought was going to be a little bit different.”
One of the reasons Gaudet claimed John Jones was because he was by Smarty Jones out of a Polish Numbers mare, sharing similar breeding to Grade 3-placed Concealed Identity, a multiple stakes winner of nearly $450,000 trained by her father, Eddie, and co-owned by her mother, Linda. Among his victories was the 2011 Federico Tesio, earning him a spot in the Preakness Stakes (G1), where he finished 10th.
