Through the Lens: Closing weekend at Aqueduct's races

All right: This winter was long and brought us plenty of snow in the northeast, and while downhill skiing was still going strong in upstate New York last weekend, I ventured "down south" to the Big A -- and was rewarded by warm weather and excellent racing. 

The large murals at the NYRA entrance welcomed me with dark blue skies, and hard to imagine, some first flowers of spring:

The top floors provide the most stunning views of the race course, especially from the vantage points of the track cameras.

Going into Saturday, Irad Ortiz was leading the meet with 21 wins, but was racing in Charles Town that day for the $1.2 million Classic. That opened the door for Manny Franco to gain some ground, sitting in second with 12 wins. And Manny did gain ground with a four-win afternoon.

Some of the highlights that day were set by Pegasus Red, trained by Gary Contessa, winning with David Cohen. Pegasus Red shows that he is ready while being led to the track, and gets some passion from his connection in the winner's circle. 

David Cohen delivered another win to the Contessa stable on Vip Nation, this time on the inner turf track. They came out of the gate toward the front of the field, and held on for a clear win.

In his fourth win of the day, Manny Franco won the New York Stallion Stakes Park Avenue Division, the only Stakes race of the day, on Baby Boss, trained by Jeremiah Englehart. 

In this late race of the day the sun had already set behind the clubhouse and the temperatures had dropped considerably, but this did not diminish the beauty of the spring day with the sun casting long shadows as it travels through the day. Especially the paddock creates some interesting lighting.

On Sunday, Ortiz was back at Aqueduct to leave his mark. In the third race he was still narrowly beaten by Javier Castellano on Panama Ed, who looked magnificent during the post parade.

But Irad delivered in the next two races, winning on Son of Mine and Major League for the Rudy Rodriguez stable.

The sixth race, on the inner turf track, was won by Kendrick Carmouche on Morrison, trained by Joe Sharp. After the start Kendrick showed patience as he observed the early leader Rockin Jo with Joe Bravo up, before winning comfortably.  

The first Stakes race of the day, the NY Stallion Stakes Times Square Division, was won by the 2-5 favorite Retonova under jockey Trevor McCarthy.

The final Stakes of this Spring Meet, the Memories of Silver, was a competition between two Chad Brown fillies. Significant Form with Ortiz up took a lead from the start and stayed ahead of Wealth Effect with Javier Castellano. This secured Chad Brown the meet title as trainer and with his 24th win of the meet, Ortiz also wrapped up the meet title among jockeys.

So with this sunny weekend, spring racing has finally stepped onto the track in New York with some seriously swishy tails, and we are all ready for Belmont!