Toledo Captures Summer Meet Title; Keefe, Smith Share Trainer Crown
Toledo Captures Summer Meet Title; Keefe, Smith Share Trainer Crown
Savvy Street Wins Sunday Feature, Divining Rod Scratched From Comeback
Mandatory Payouts in Rainbow 6, Pick 5, Super Hi-5
Maryland State Fair Meet Opens Friday at Timonium
Racing Returns to Laurel Sept. 9 for Year-Ending Fall Meet
LAUREL, MD – Jockey Jevian Toledo, Maryland’s leading rider in 2015, closed Laurel Park’s 24-day summer meet with a flourish to clinch his second career riding title on Sunday’s closing day program.
Toledo won 12 races over the final five live racing days, including a riding triple on both Saturday’s Maryland Pride Day program, his 22nd birthday, and Sunday to finish with 29 victories, nine more than runner-up Feargal Lynch.
A native of Puerto Rico, Toledo rode at least one winner on 16 of 24 racing days with nine multi-win days topped by four three-win days including July 16 and Aug. 13. He was first on Sunday with Race and Shine ($16.40) in the second race, Sweet Curls ($14.80) in the third and Boosting ($8) in the fifth.
Lynch had one winner Sunday with Dr. K’eogh ($11.60) in the fourth race. Victor Carrasco, who was leading the rider standings when he suffered a foot injury Aug. 7 and missed the final six racing days, finished third with 19 wins.
“I have to thank God and all the owners and trainers for giving me the opportunity. My agent [Marty Leonard] did a really good job with me,” Toledo said. “All the grooms, they do all the work; I just ride the horse. These are hard races. My agent picked the right horses and I got lucky to cross the wire in front.”
Toledo had 141 wins to lead all riders in Maryland in 2015, including Laurel’s fall meet championship. This year, he finished fourth with 36 wins during Laurel’s winter-spring meet and tied Carrasco for second in the Preakness Meet at Pimlico with 26 wins.
“It’s really good to have another title. It will help me a lot in my career and does a lot for me, too,” he said. “I got lucky sometimes with good trips. Sometimes I was on the right horse but got a bad trip. The last few weeks I got really good trips with my horses and they could run.”
The training title went down to the wire, with Tim Keefe and Hamilton Smith tied at 10 entering the final race after Smith won the fifth with Boosting ($8). Keefe had a chance to take the title outright, but his Path Dependent dead-heated for second in Sunday’s finale.
It was the first training title for Keefe, who turned 49 Aug. 15 and entered the summer stand having gone a combined 9-for-91 at the Laurel and Pimlico meets to open 2016. Last year, he finished third in Laurel’s summer and fall meets and fifth at Pimlico. Keefe posted two-win days on July 2 and July 23.
“I’m very pleased with it. We started out real strong; I wish we would have finished a little stronger than we did but we had a great first part of the meet and we’ve got some really good talent in the barn,” Keefe said. “I’m very fortunate to have some probably some of the best owners in Maryland for which I train, and back in the barn I’ve got great help back there. The behind-the-scenes guys really get everything running and keep it going well for me. I’m lucky, no complaints. I’ve never been in the lead at the end of the meet before so I’m excited about that. If I have to share it with someone I’m thrilled to be able to share it with Hammy. He’s a great trainer, good competitor, places his horses where they need to run and his horses always run big.”
It was the fifth career meet title for the 71-year-old Smith and first since finishing in a three-way tie with Dale Capuano and Gammy Vazquez for Laurel’s 2007 spring meet. He also led Laurel’s 1998-99 winter, 1999 summer and 2000 winter-spring meets. Smith had a pair of two-win days during the meet, on July 23 and Aug. 5.
“I had a good meet, I really did. Some of the better horses ran well, and I’m glad to see them use some of the better races for them. I had a good meet overall. I can’t complain,” Smith said. “It’s a good feeling. You win the title and it gives you a good feeling. I don’t care what anybody says, it does. My hat’s off to him. He had a good meet and so did I. I’m pleased with what I accomplished.”
Savvy Street Wins Feature, Divining Rod Scratched in Comeback
Barbara J. Houck’s Savvy Street came through an opening on the inside to challenge front-running favorite He’ll Pay and sprint clear to win Sunday’s featured eighth race.
Originally carded for 1 1/16 miles on the All Along Turf Course, Savvy Street ($11) ran one mile in 1:37.42 on a muddy main track. Grade 3-placed He’ll Pay was second, followed by Sea of Roses and Sea Raven.
Entered for main track only by trainer Donald Barr, Savvy Street won for the first time since his nose victory over Combat Diver in the Miracle Wood Stakes last February at Laurel. The 4-year-old Street Sense colt didn’t race again for 18 months before his mid-June return at Monmouth Park.
The $45,000 second-level optional claiming allowance for 3-year-olds and up was supposed to mark the 4-year-old debut for Lael Stables’ Grade 3 winner Divining Rod. Third behind Triple Crown champion American Pharoah in the 2015 Preakness Stakes (G1), he had not raced since finishing fifth in the Smarty Jones (G3) last Aug. 29 at Parx.
Divining Rod won the Lexington (G3) prior to his Preakness run and was also third by a head in the Ohio Derby and 1 ¼ lengths in the Indiana Derby (G2) prior to the Smarty Jones. He had been working steadily at the Fair Hill Training Center for his comeback, but was scratched when the race came off the turf following a mid-afternoon thunderstorm.
“Last year, he probably got hurt when we ran him in the mud in Indiana. I didn’t really see it right away but it took a little bit out of him, so I didn’t want to run him back in the mud especially off a layoff. It’s a short field and he might be the best horse in the race, but it’s not what we were looking for,” trainer Arnaud Delacour said.
“He’s ready to go. I’ll have to look and try to find a two-other than on the dirt somewhere,” he added. “Initially I entered him for the dirt but the race didn’t go so I entered him for the turf and thought it would be a good starting point. Hopefully we can find something for him soon.”
Mandatory Payouts in Rainbow 6, Late Pick 5, Super Hi-5
With the close of the summer meet, there were mandatory payouts Sunday in the 20-cent Rainbow 6, 50-cent Late Pick 5 and $1 Super Hi-5 wagers.
The Rainbow 6, covering Races 6-11, had a carryover of $812.53 from Saturday’s program. Tickets with five of six winners returned $411.86.
A total of $21,614 was wagered into the Late Pick 5, which featured a carryover of $6,489.80. Tickets with all five winners were worth $4,251.70.
Due to the dead heat for second in Sunday’s finale, the Super Hi-5 paid $81.70 for tickets with 9-3-6-2-ALL and 9-6-3-2-ALL.
Racing moves to Timonium for the seven-day Maryland State Fair meet which runs Friday, Aug. 26 to Labor Day, Monday Sept. 5 before returning to Laurel Park for the year-ending fall meet that opens Friday, Sept. 9.
