Cooke Creek. (Delaware Park photo)
Keith McCalmont
Double-ranked veteran Cooke Creek will take on five formidable foes in the Listed $150,000 Queens County, a nine-furlong route for ages 3 and up, on Saturday, December 27 at Aqueduct Racetrack.
The 6-year-old Uncle Mo gelding, trained by Mike Maker for Jay Provenzano’s Flying P Stable, has collected $604,527 on a 27-6-3-4 ledger. Provenzano, who ranks sixth in the 2025 NYRA owner standings with 24 wins [142-24-21-23, $1.4M] hopes Cooke Creek will add to its local totals.
“It’s my backyard. I love racing in New York. I can’t wait for the new Belmont Park to open. I’ve already signed a contract for one of the suites there,” Provenzano said. “I enjoy racing in Kentucky and at Oaklawn, but the money is really good in New York, and I grew up just outside the gates of Belmont.”
Cooke Creek was retired for $40,000 at Churchill Downs in May 2024 after a winning effort and promptly scored a pair of option wins with Jose Ortiz at the helm.
“He looked like a horse that needed to be ridden a certain way. He had a lot of back class and he had put in some really nice efforts,” Provenzano explained regarding the claim. “We looked at him and thought we wanted to get some speed into him. He won the day we took him and had three wins in a row with Jose Ortiz on him.”
The in-form Cooke Creek looked to continue his winning streak against a formidable field in last year’s Grade 2 Lukas Classic at Churchill Downs. He fought bravely at the front but was denied by eventual Group 1 Dubai World Cup winner Hit Show, while 3 1/2 lengths ahead of multiple stakes winner Rattle N Roll, who exited that event to win the Grade 2 Clark.
Cooke Creek was off the board in his next four outings, including a sixth-place finish in the aforementioned Clark and the Grade 3 Louisiana in January at Fair Grounds, before taking a break after falling to 13th in the Grade 3 Razorback Handicap in February at Oaklawn Park.
“He made a valiant effort to lose by a neck to the horse that went on to win the Dubai World Cup. We thought we had something special and every ride we got after that was not his type of ride,” Provenzano said.
Cooke Creek returned to action at Saratoga Race Course in August when finishing sixth in an optional claims race that saw returning rivals Film Star and Full Screen land first and second, respectively, giving veteran Cooke Creek a winning effort on September 28 at Delaware Park’s Battery Park.
Provenzano noted that he called jockey Jaime Rodriguez prior to the nine-furlong Battery Park. Although Cooke Creek was a step too slow from the inside post, Provenzano relished watching his gelding turn every pole into a winner on the muddy and closed track, beating graded stakes winner Awesome Aaron by three lengths, while Gould’s Gold was still a length back in third with multiple graded stakes.
“I told Jaime exactly what I wanted and if you watch the replay you will see Jaime watching and continuing to watch,” Provenzano said. “I told him he doesn’t want to be among horses – I’ve seen all his races, good and bad – and I told him, ‘When you go into that first turn, open the rail and bait. Don’t let anyone get outside you.’ Jaime rode him perfectly.”
Cooke Creek abandoned that effort to take a tough eighth-place finish in the Clark on November 28 at Churchill, where he again left the inside post and hit a rival at the break before fading.
“Last time nothing went his way and sometimes when that happens he doesn’t throw his ‘A’ attempt. Maybe it was just a little too tough for him,” Provenzano said. “He’s a healthy horse and we’ll try to keep his confidence up and figure out our spots. ‘Cookie’ is a neat horse, but he has to do things his way.”
Flavien Prat, the leading rider of the Aqueduct Fall Meet, is called aboard Cooke Creek from the outside pole 6. Prat, who piloted Flying P’s Ole Crazy Bone to victory in the Grade 2, $2.5 million Kentucky Turf Cup Invitational in September at Kentucky Downs, likely won’t need instructions from Provenzano.
“Flavien won the biggest race I’ve ever won this year with Ole Crazy Bone, so you have an extra confidence boost. He’s the winner of the Eclipse Award. What do you say to a guy like Flavien,” Provenzano asked.
Dual Eclipse Award-winning trainer Brad Cox will send out a strong duo in the dual stakes winner Full screen [post 4, Manny Franco] and limited stakes winner Kinetic [post 1, Christopher Elliott].
Sanford Goldfarb, Steven Speranza and Crown Stable’s Full Screen, a 6-year-old Ontario-bred son of Big Screen, was bonded for $100,000 in Saratoga in July. The dark brown gelding, a veteran of 35 starts [6-5-9, $551,543] has since made three optional outings for the current connections, including a six-length local romp over Grade 2-placed Bendoog, here over nine furlongs. The winning effort produced a career-best 100 Beyer Speed Figure for full screen, with a local record of 6-1-3-2.
Godolphin’s Kentucky-based Kinetic returns after a nine-month layoff following a distant fifth in the Grade 3 Essex Handicap on March 22 at Oaklawn Park.
The four-year-old Street Sense colt posted an impressive five-race streak, landing first or second between August 2024 and January 25 this year, when he posted a three-quarter length score in the limited General MacArthur going nine furlongs at Oaklawn Park.
Kinetic, out of the Bernardini mare Collective, is a full brother to the double stakes winner Shared Sense and the double stakes winner Comparative – both of whom were trained by Cox for Godolphin.
St. Elias Stable’s Kentucky-owned breeder Classicist [post 2, Kendrick Carmouche] will try to top the seniors for the third consecutive appearance for Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher.
The Curlin sophomore made a pair of junior outings and finished third here last September in a race that Praetor won by a neck over Sovereignty, who went on to win two-thirds of the Triple Crown.
Classicist, a half-brother to the Pletcher-trained Grade 2-winning turfer Jouster, is perfect in two front-runners going nine furlongs this year and graduated at the Spa in July, with a final nose score over the Grade 2-placed Tuscan Gold on September 13, where he survived an investigation for late drifting.
A strong field also includes Class 2 places Movie star [post 5, Jaime Rodriguez] for conditioner Gustavo Rodriguez and nine-time winner Bourbon Day [post 3, Jose Lezcano] for trainer Linda Rice.
The Queens County is scheduled as Race 8 of 11 on Saturday, December 27. The first post is at 11:20 am Eastern and gates open at 10:30 am.
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