The rivalry for leading jockey honors at this Calder Meet continues day-to-day, race-to-race after four months of the session between 18-year-old emerging star Luis Saez and 40-year-old veteran Manoel Cruz and Saez goes into Saturday's card with a tenuous lead of three at 95-92.
Cruz has won the Calder Meet championship three times previously, including last year while Saez is still in his first full year in the saddle since arriving from Panama and losing his apprentice allowance more than a month a ago. There is a big gap after the top two in the standings with apprentice Angel Moreno third in the standings with 51 victories, followed by Luis Jurado fourth at 34 and Eduardo Nunez fifth with 30.
Trainer Steve Dwoskin, who owns the majority of horses in his stable, continues to lead the standings with 22 victories, four more than 11-time Calder Meet leader Bill White with another half-dozen horsemen at least still close enough to the top to bid for the title. David Fawkes is third with 17 winners and Marty Wolfson, Eddie Plesa, Jr. and Chris Gatis are tied for fourth with 16 each.
Calder Connections in Stakes at Monmouth Saturday
Calder-based trainers Marty Wolfson and David Fawkes each have a stakes runner in action at Monmouth Park today and Calder-developed filly star Blind Luck is set for what could be a ‘title match' against Devil May Care in the $500,000 Alabama Stakes (G1) at Saratoga.
Wolfson has been shuttling stakes runners from his powerful Calder stable to run in stakes events at tracks throughout the northeast frequently this summer and will be represented in Saturday's $100,000 Omnibus Stakes at Monmouth by Farnsworth Stable's 4-year-oold filly Speak Easy Gal with former Calder riding champion Elvis Trujillo aboard.
Speak Easy Gal won four straight for Wolfson at Gulfstream Park early this year, including the $150,000 Orchid Stakes (G3) at 12 furlongs. The daughter of West Acre goes into Saturday's 11-furlong turf test in her first start since finishing sixth in the Just A Game Stakes (G1) at Belmont Park on June 5 after setting the pace to mid-stretch in the one-mile test.
Fawkes will send out Alex and Joanne Lieblong and partners' 4-year-old colt Duke of Mischief a half-hour later on the Monmouth card in the $300,000 Philip H. Iselin Handicap (G3) with former Calder champion jockey and defending Tropical Meet titlist Eibar Coa aboard.
Duke of Mischief finished second last out in the Salvator Mile Handicap (G3) on July 31 at Monmouth where Fawkes has campaigned a division with good results this summer in addition to his full complement at Calder. Fawkes has posted nine wins and seven seconds at Monmouth while ranking third on the Calder leader board with 17 victories.
At Saratoga, the ‘Cinderella' story of 3-year-old filly Blind Luck that began at Calder last year with a 13 ¼ lengths debut victory for a $40,000 claiming tag and no takers continues with Eclipse Award honors in her division possibly decided in the famous Alabama Stakes.
A Kentucky-bred daughter of Pollard's Vision, Blind Luck was an $11,000 Fasig-Tipton July Kentucky yearling purchase and made her career debut on June 21 for owner Juvenal Diaz and trainer Jim Hatchett, drawing out to a lengthy score under jockey Luis Arango.
Not long after, California horseman Jerry Hollendorfer led a syndicate to purchase Blind Luck privately and she went on to rank among the nation's best 2-year-old fillies with a pair of Grade 1 victories in California and close-up third-place finish in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) at Santa Anita.
This year, Blind Luck has won four Graded stakes, including the Kentucky Oaks (G1) in a memorable renewal by a nose after rallying from last of 14, and goes into the Alabama after another nose thriller in the Delaware Oaks (G2) last out on July 10.