Contact Information:
Bob Roberts (216-662-8600)
June 26, 2008
www.thistledown.com
Four Head Down Thistledown Stretch In Most Competitive Riding Championship
In what continues to be the tightest race for riding honors in Thistledown history, four jockeys are separated by just three winners in the season's opening meeting. In another first, there are two females among the Top 10 riders. The Summit-Thistledown Meeting, which runs 46 days, has just six programs remaining. It will end on July 3.
Jeffrey Skerrett and Weldon Cloninger Jr. lead the pack with 26 winners, followed by Ernesto Oro and Louis Stokes, both at 23 winners. Skerrett and Cloninger shared honors at last year's opening Summit Meeting. Oro and Stokes have never won Thistledown riding titles.
And, closing fast on the leading pack is Luis Gonzalez. He had a saddle double on Monday and now has 21 winners. Sixth in the Summit-Thistle standings at 18 winners is Anne Sanguinetti. Jane Magrell is eighth with 15 winners.
RIDE 'EM & TRAIN 'EM --- Richard Rettele, sixth in the Summit-Thistledown Meeting trainers' derby with 11 winners, is one of the busiest horsemen in North America. Not only is he conditioning a 30-horse stable at Thistledown, but Rettele is a journeyman quarter-horse rider. Last weekend, after making sure his Thistledown barn was in order, Retelle headed for Indiana Downs to ride Saturday night (where he had a second), then headed north to Mt. Pleasant Meadows in Michigan where he rode Senorita Tres to a 1 3/4-length victory in Sunday's $16,155 GLQHA Michigan Bred Derby
"It was easy," said Rettele. "I was sitting, just holding on." At age 67, Rettele is one of the oldest quarter-horse jockeys in North America. "I might be the oldest," he said. "I know there's a guy who's 66, but I don't know anybody older than me."
Senorita Tres has won 10 of 12 starts. She is trained by Rettele's wife, Carol. A native of Kansas, Rettele has a farm in Michigan. His first love is quarter-horse racing, but he knows thoroughbred racing puts the food on the table.
"There's more money in thoroughbred racing," he said. Rettele, who said he has no problem with weight (I'm at 116 pounds), will continue riding until he doesn't feel up to the challenge. Senorita Tres will next race out in Tulsa in a race for $100,000 on July 11.
PETRO MEMORIAL RECAP --- Pyrite Stable's Pay The Man, in a dominating performance, ran her six rivals off their feet to win Saturday's $50,000 J. William Petro Memorial at Thistledown by five lengths. Ohio's champion sophomore filly of 2007, Pay The Man and jockey Andrew Ramgeet went wire-to-wire and set sizzling fractions along the way, running the opening quarter of a mile in 23 seconds and the half-mile in 46 1/5 seconds.
"She ran off with me," said Ramgeet. "I told her, 'Momma, you're going to fast. Settle down.' But she kept going. This filly is something special."
Pay The Man, who ran the Petro's 1 1/16 miles in 1:45 2/5, was winning for the eighth time in 20 career starts. She earned $30,000, increasing her lifetime bankroll to $269,560.
"Nothing bothers her," said Angel Feliciano, Pay The Man's trainer. "Did she go too fast early? She don't care."
Pay The Man broke from the outside No. 7 post in the Petro and tugged Ramgeet to the lead.
"I was worried a little bit because of how fast we went, but I heard the jockey behind me (Willie Martinez on eventual runner-up Casey's Jet) whipping his mount in the turn and I hadn't asked my mount to run yet."
Casey's Jet, winner of last year's Petro, was 6 1/4 lengths clear of third place finisher Cryptohio.
GOLD CUP --- The 41st running of the $100,000 Cleveland Gold Cup goes to the post Saturday. Eighteen Ohio-bred three-year-olds have been nominated, including two Pyrite Stable fillies, Formal Arrangement, winner of the May 17 Tomboy at River Downs and scratched out of last weekend's Petro Memorial for fillies and mares, and Pyrite Gem, third to the boys in last year's Ohio Juvenile at Beulah Park. Other stakes winners among the nominees are Marble Cliff, O'Riain, Perfectly Played, and Type A Personality. Entries for the 1 1/8-mile Gold Cup will be taken Wednesday.
TWO ON A HORSE --- Danny Weiler and Tony Rini, perhaps the best two local riders to ever compete at Thistledown, combined to win Sunday's 12th race at the North Randall oval with the sophomore filly, She's Simply Sweet. Weiler, who won numerous riding titles here in the late 1960's and 1970's, owns She's Simply Sweet in partnership with Jeff Novak and Greg Sweet. Rini, Thistledown's champion rider in 1970, trains She's Simply Sweet. "It's the first time I've won a race at Thistledown for Danny," said Rini. "Is he hard to work for? No. He knows the ropes."
FEED BAG --- J.R. Racing LLC's Hacoda, in winning Monday's first race, joined Ragtime Request and Kinkcachu as the only horses to win three times this season. Jeff Radosevich trains Hacoda, who was ridden by Louis Stokes . . .R and P Racing Stables' Bayazar was a quick winner on Thursday (June 19th) at Thistledown. The four-year-old gelding stepped 4 1/2 furlongs in 52 seconds. Thistledown's track record for the odd distance is 51 2/5 seconds, set by Onion Roll in 1992 . . .Thistledown will be open for evening simulcasting Tuesday through Thursday (June 24-26) this week, as well as Sunday, June 29. Of course, the North Randall oval is open each and ever afternoon for full-card simulcast wagering.