Antongeorgi and Northern Causeway Make a Great Team
Jockey William Antongeorgi III may be Golden Gate Fields’ answer to Gehrig. If that’s the case, Julien Couton is his Wally Pipp.
Couton was injured at Golden Gate Fields on May 27th when a horse he rode named Nassau Gold broke down, tossing Couton to the track, fracturing his vertebrae. Couton has yet to return.
One horse Couton had been a regular rider for is Northern Causeway.
The 3-year-old son of Giant’s Causeway had just finished fourth in the Alcatraz Stakes two weeks before Couton’s injury. Three days after the accident, ‘Causeway needed a rider for an allowance race and trainer Len Kasmerski tabbed Antongeorgi to replace Couton.
Lou Gehrig then hit a home run.
Antongeorgi has ridden the colt four times and after a second place finish in the afore mentioned allowance race, has reeled of three straight wins including the $50,000 Richmond Derby Trial Handicap and the Grade III, $200,000 British Columbia Derby, both at Hastings Park in Canada.
It’s kind of an odd move to go from an allowance win at Pleasanton to a stakes win in Canada, but that’s just what happened.
“From what I understand, the races in Canada were always in their plans,” Antongeorgi said. “This horse is really coming into his own right now.”
The Derby Trial was intended to get the horse ready for the Derby, but the races were run in totally different fashions.
After wiring the field in the Richmond, Antongeorgi laid off the pace in the Derby, and when the running began down the stretch, it was he and fellow GGF rider Russell Baze (on a Washington based horse named Jebrica) that was left to battle the length of the stretch, ending with a neck victory for “Causeway.
“Hopefully this will open the door to the graded stakes level for me, that’s always the kind of jockey I wanted to be, ” Antongeorgi said.
The 24-year-old rider is attempting to make a come back of sorts in the bay area. In 2009, he finished in third place GGF’s winter/fall meeting and won 168 races in the calendar year. But the last two years he has traveled around, going from west to east and back again, looking for a place he wants to call home. He has 94 wins in the last year and a half.
Double Your Pleasure
Identical twin jockeys Pablo and Pedro Flores don’t often get mentioned at Golden Gate Fields but Saturday, they were front and center in a big way.
When the field hit the finish line in the sixth race, Pablo won the race on a horse named Dennika at odds of 60-1. Right behind was his brother on Cinnamon Glow, a 20-1 shot. The $1 brother exacta paid $643.90 and keyed a $1 superfecta of $14,196.60.
Hartman Says Goodbye
Robert Hartman, general manager of Golden Gate Fields for the last six years, will be leaving his job at the end of the summer meet, which is October 2nd. Hartman will be named the chief executive officer of the American Contract Bridge League.