Sagamore Trainer DePaz Branching Out with Public Stable
Sagamore Trainer DePaz Branching Out with Public Stable
Multiple Stakes Winner John Jones Returns to Work Tab Friday
Rainbow 6 Carryover Reaches $19,242 for Saturday Program
LAUREL, MD – Horacio DePaz, multiple stakes-winning trainer for historic Sagamore Farm since 2015, will also be taking on outside clients as he transitions into running a public stable.
DePaz, 33, currently has 40 horses in training for Sagamore spread between the Glyndon, Md. farm, Laurel Park, Saratoga Race Course and Churchill Downs. The move comes as Sagamore’s Kevin Plank, founder, CEO and chairman of Under Armour, is scaling back his ownership.
“Kevin is on board with the idea. He’s staying involved in racing, but looking to focus more on quality rather than quantity,” DePaz said. “It has been my privilege to work for such a committed owner as Kevin and for a farm with such a rich history and success as Sagamore. I’m excited to be able to continue that relationship while welcoming the opportunity to handle new clients, as well.”
A native of Texas, DePaz got his first racetrack job at Louisiana Downs for trainer Eddie Reese. He also worked for trainers John Servis and Ralph Nicks before spending a year in Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas’ operation.
In 2006, DePaz joined trainer Todd Pletcher as a foreman and exercise rider before being hired as an assistant to Ignacio Correas, Sagamore’s previous private trainer, in 2011. When Correas went out on his own in 2015, Sagamore handed the reins to DePaz.
Among the notable horses DePaz has trained for Sagamore are multiple graded-stakes placed Recruiting Ready, winner of the 2017 Chick Lang at legendary Pimlico Race Course; Ginger N Rye, who won the 2017 Smart N Fancy at Saratoga; 2017 Tremont Stakes winner He Hate Me; and 2017 Arlington-Washington Futurity winner Barry Lee, second in the 2017 Futurity (G3) at Belmont and entered in Saturday’s Amsterdam (G3) at Saratoga.
“Kevin, the entire Sagamore team and I believe in Horacio and his ability to be a very successful public trainer. We are thrilled for him to take this opportunity forward and we are committed to supporting him in his new endeavor,” said Hunter Rankin, president of Sagamore Farm. “He is a rising young star in his profession and we’re proud of everything he’s done for Sagamore.”
Multiple Stakes Winner John Jones Returns to Work Tab Friday
Matt Schera’s John Jones, a stakes winner on both turf and dirt, returned to the work tab with a sharp half-mile breeze over Laurel’s main track Friday morning.
Trained by Lacey Gaudet, John Jones was clocked in 47.60 seconds to rank third of 58 horses at the distance. It was the first work for the 6-year-old Smarty Jones gelding since finishing eighth in an optional claiming allowance June 7 at Delaware Park.
“The track was really good today, but he worked fantastic. We just gave him some time. That last race was a tough race on him. He didn’t have anything go right and kind of got bounced all around, so we wanted him to have time to regroup,” Gaudet said. “We changed a couple things with him and I think it’s led him back to his old form. With the stakes race coming up, we’re glad we waited.”
Gaudet is planning to bring John Jones back in the $75,000 Ben’s Cat, a six-furlong turf sprint for Maryland-bred/sired horses 3 and up Saturday, Aug. 18. John Jones upset the late Mid-Atlantic legend for whom the race is named in the 2016 Mister Diz under the same race conditions – the first career stakes win for both he and his trainer.
John Jones has run three times this year, finishing third in the Jan. 27 Native Dancer and sixth in the March 17 Not For Love, both at Laurel, prior to the race at Delaware. He won six of 13 starts in 2016 including the Mister Diz and Jennings Stakes, but went unraced for 10 months before making his 2017 debut last October.
“He was training well last year but we were always trying to stay patient because he was coming off the layoff, and now I think we did the right thing. Maybe the change in the weather and a little bit of time to regroup has helped him. I couldn’t be happier with him,” Gaudet said. “He was always training great.
“He had a little bit of an attitude about him all winter,” she added. “He just didn’t fare well over the winter. I don’t know if he was just as miserable as us over the long winter but he has really flourished in the later spring and now coming into summer. He’s doing really well. He looks better than he ever has. He put some weight back on that he really needed to get back. I can’t say enough good things about him.”
Rainbow 6 Carryover Reaches $19,242 for Saturday Program
The 20-cent Rainbow 6 went unsolved Friday, growing the jackpot carryover to $19,242.20 for Saturday’s 11-race program.
First race post time is 1:10 p.m.
One horse, long shot Honor N Grace, was live to take down the jackpot heading into the ninth-race finale, won by even-money favorite Enterprise Value ($4.20). Multiple tickets were sold with all six winners, each worth $579.72.
Saturday’s Rainbow 6 sequence spans Races 6-11. Also on the program is the 36th running of the $75,000 Twixt Stakes for fillies and mares 3 and up in Race 5; the annual Crab Feast from 1-5 p.m. on the grandstand apron, and a fundraiser in conjunction with tracks across the country to benefit the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund.
Notes: Trainer Claudio Gonzalez sent out a pair of winners Friday, Army Grey ($3.20) in the fifth race and Rare Eagle ($7.20) in the seventh … Parx-based Jockey Joshua Navarro took Friday’s featured eighth race aboard Top Notch Racing’s Mr. Brix ($6.20), his first time riding back at Laurel since Dec. 18, 2015. Navarro began his career at Laurel in the summer of 2009 and won a career-high 158 races in 2010 while based primarily in Maryland. “It’s nice. This is where I started my career and it’s good to see everybody back again,” Navarro said.
