Irish Azen, with Tyler Gaffalione on board, stood Nineeleventurbo to win the $ 500,000 Big Ass Fans Tapit Stakes at Kentucky Downs .. (Coady Media)
Jockey Only two wins (65-63) from Hernandez’s record of all time
Kentucky Downs Release
Ellis Park organizes Kentucky Downs Preview Weekend This Saturday and Sunday, an event that was made in 2018 to give horses a place in the state to prepare for the lucrative All-Turf Kentucky Downs Meet. As part of this, the winners of the seven preview stakes deserve a reimbursement berth in the corresponding Graded posts in Kentucky Downs.
It also serves very much as a preview of Kentucky Downs for Jockey Tyler Gaffalione, who was driven on July 19 in Ellis Park in Henderson, Ky, after he had set for four months with ankle fractures. Gaffalione has won the Kentucky Downs that runs Title four of the past five years, including in a draw last year with Irad Ortiz Jr. At nine wins each.
Kentucky Downs runs on August 28, 30 and 31 and 4 September, 6, 7 and 10 in Franklin, KY. Eleven of his 18 interests wear purses worth at least $ 2 million for Kentucky-Breds (and at least $ 1 million for horses bred outside the state).
“That was a kind of our goal to go into this meeting,” said Gaffalione, who has so far won on six of his 13 mounts in Ellis Park, Thursday morning in Churchill Downs between working horses for trainer Brendan Walsh. “We have returned a late start, so we thought Ellis Park (instead of Saratoga) fits the best … to try to rebuild things for Kentucky Downs.”
Since his first meeting in Kentucky Downs in 2017, when he won three races – has Gaffalione on a collision course with the track records. The 30-year-old Jockey will come in the 2025 Kentucky Downs, meets 63 career victories, only two behind profit leader Brian Hernandez of all time, according to Equibase, provider of the official statistics of industry.
“That is quite amazing,” Gaffalione said when he told that stat. “Brian is someone I look at here, especially the last six years where we are in the same corner (in the Jocks room) and have Shane Borel as our valet. I learned a lot from Brian and Corey (Lanerie) and a few of the others.”
He added with a grin: “But I like to follow Brian in races, so it’s logical.”
Another stat: last meeting Gaffalione surpassing Florent Geroux quietly as the profit leader of Kentucky Downs, his mounts on the circuit with $ 14,857,910 for Geroux’s $ 14.1 million. Another big grin.
“I can’t wait to tell Flo,” Gaffalione joked, knowing that Geroux and Hernandez will both try hard to keep their data or to recover. “But no, it is such a great meeting. We were lucky in the past to have had some success. My agent (Matt Muzikar) is doing great. The riders are doing great to prepare the horses and the horses are showing up. It’s a nice place to ride and I look forward to it every year.”
He said he was addicted to Kentucky Downs from the beginning in 2017.
“I was in heaven,” said Gaffalione. “It was obvious that I always wanted to ride. I am a big fan of European racing, and it is closest to the here in the United States. So it was really exciting for me. At that time it was more a smaller song; there was not that many fans.
But first there is Ellis Park. Gaffalione is planned to ride on all seven preview stakes, which are financed with wallet and wallet bred in Kentucky generated in Kentucky Downs and transferred to Ellis Park.
Gaffalione’s Mount in Sunday’s $ 250,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Ladies Turf Mile is the Walsh trained austere, on whom he won the 2023 Kentucky Downs Juvenile Fillies. He will be on board to Nobals, the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner in Santa Anita, for the first time for trainer Larry Rivelli in $ 250,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Turf Sprint closing the map of Sunday.
Four of Gaffalione’s Stakes Mounts this weekend are for Walsh, who last year earned the title of Kentucky Downs trainer in a three -way draw with Steve Asmussen and Joe Sharp over six victories each. (Gaffalione was on for four of the victories of Walsh.)
Zijn andere inzetstapels voor Walsh zijn erwt Patch Stakes Runner-Up Pondering (zaterdag $ 250.000 Kentucky Downs Preview Ladies Turf Sprint), Verstappen (zondag $ 300.000 KD Preview Turf Cup) en hierforagoodtime (zondag $ 400.000, graad 3, graad 3, graad 3, graad 3, graad 3, graad 3, graad 3, graad 3, Grade 3, Grade 3, Grade 3, Grade 3, Grade 3, Grade 3, Grade 3, Grade 3-Pecher for 3-year-old furniture). Gaffalione rides on the rise ($ 250,000 KD Preview Dueling Grounds Derby) for Brad Cox and Green Light ($ 250,000 KD Preview Mint Millions) for Rodolphe Brisset, with both posts on Saturday.
For four months, most Gaffalione has missed since his career started at the end of 2014, so that he hit the entire Triple Crown and more. But the forced hiatus gave more time in his winter house in Florida with his wife, Casi, who had their first child, son Tatum. That long -planned delivery was timed for immediately after Preakness Day, a race that Gaffalione won in 2019 on Will of Will and that he thought he would be driving this year.
“We are very happy to add a new family member,” said Gaffalione. “She is a great mother. I am so proud of her and happy. It’s a great time for all of us.”
Although he has a few trips to ride on Saratoga, there will be none on a day that Kentucky Downs is races, he said. While prominent jockeys and past Kentucky Downs driving champions such as Ortiz, his brother Jose Ortiz and Joel Rosario might miss one, two or three days to ride the closing weekend of Saratoga, Gaffalione and Muzikar’s Late-Summer Business Plan has always been Kentucky Downs-Centric.
“We won’t miss Kentucky Downs,” said Gaffalione. “Where would you rather be?”
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