Geroux has busy Labor Day weekend schedule

Florent Geroux is looking at a laborious schedule this Labor Day weekend. Kentucky Downs’ defending riding champion will be riding at Saratoga Thursday and Friday, then make a quick trip to Kentucky Downs for Saturday’s opening card, then back to New York to ride Sunday and Monday before driving to his new hometown of Louisville on Tuesday.

He doesn’t get Wednesday off, as Geroux rides at Indiana Grand that day, returning to Kentucky Downs for the Thursday program.

Geroux won 12 races last year, five more than Joe Rocco Jr. and six more than former Kentucky Downs riding champ Julien Leparoux. His meet got jump-started with a five-winning opening day, including going 3 for 3 in stakes.

He is scheduled to ride all 10 races at Kentucky Downs Saturday, which has a first post of 1:25 p.m. Central. But with more than $2.1 million in purses up for grabs — including a quartet of $350,000 stakes — he’s not complaining. He’s just happy his horses got into the overflow fields.

“You’ve got to be lucky to get in and not getting excluded,” Geroux said Friday at Saratoga. “You’ve got to get lucky with the post position. All that. I’m looking forward to a big meet, but it’s not going to be easy. There are big fields. It’s going to be very tough to top what I did last year, winning all those races in one day. Even if I win one or two, the purses are so big that you can’t be greedy and expect to win five or six at a time.”

Geroux’s mounts this year include the old warhorse Regally Ready, the 2011 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner who captured Kentucky Downs’ 2014 More Than Ready Mile. Saturday’s Turf Sprint marks his fourth straight year to run over America’s most unique course.

The French-born rider also picked up the mount on the exciting Caroline Test, a close second against boys in the Ellis Park Juvenile in her second start, for the Exacta Systems Juvenile Fillies.

And among his horses next week is Skychai Racing’s Da Big Hoss in the $600,000 Calumet Farm Kentucky Turf Cup on Sept. 10, a race Da Big Hoss won last  year under Rocco, with Geroux second on California-based Power Ped. Geroux has become Da Big Hoss’ regular rider since, winning four of his last race races, all stakes and most recently Arlington’s Grade 3 American St. Leger. 

Regally Ready was a close fourth in the 2013 Sprint Dash, won the More Than Ready in 2014 and fifth in last year’s More Than Ready. The winner of 20 of 46 starts and $1.8 million, the 9-year-old gelding is 2 for 2 this year, taking a pair of Oaklawn Park allowance races before being sidelined with a foot problem.

“That horse is some kind of cool,” Geroux said. “He can go short, long, turf, dirt. You don’t see that very often.”

Regally Ready, the only horse trainer Steve Asmussen has for Vinery Stables as it winds down its American operation, has been with the trainer so long that he spent most of his first season racing as a 3-year-old at Toronto’s Woodbine racetrack.

“We went to Woodbine when purses were considerably higher there than anywhere else,” Asmussen said at Churchill Downs. “His first turf race here was a 2X (second-level allowance); it was something special. He’s won from five-eighths to 1 1/16 miles, turf, dirt, synthetic.

“He’s as cool of a horse as anybody has ever been around. Anybody who’s ever been on him or rides him falls in love with him. He’s got a great personality. He’s a Breeders’ Cup winner, a multiple Grade 1 winner, 2 for 2 this year. His personality has not changed. It’s just his world and we’re living in it.”

Regally Ready has competed at 16 races, including Meydan in Dubai. 

He’s the Turf Sprint’s 4-1 second choice behind 5-2 Undrafted, a mere kid at age 6. That $1.27 million-earner is a multiple graded-stakes winner, including his historic victory in Ascot’s Group 1 Diamond Jubilee last year (a race in which he finished sixth, losing by only 2 1/2 lengths, this year) and nearly winning the 2014 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Santa Anita.

But Undrafted, owned by former NFL star Wes Welker, is seeking his first win at Kentucky Downs, where a third in the 2014 Turf Sprint by a total of a half-length is one of his nine third-place finishes in a 25-race career (with six victories). He also was second to the highly-regarded Tourist in last year’s More Than Ready Mile.

Ken and Sarah Ramsey are the three-time defending leading owner at Kentucky Downs the all-time winningest owner in Kentucky history and surely hold the record for the most horses run in the commonwealth. Ken Ramsey vowed to have at least one horse for virtually every 2-year-old race at this meet, as well as being in most the other races. But even a power-packed stable has to beat the luck of the draw and get races with more than the 12 capacity starters.

And Ramsey got in only two races for opening day: Shifty Kitten in a $140,000 allowance race and Luck of the Kitten in a $145,000 second-level allowance. He got excluded from a 2-year-old filly maiden race with Wedding Day Kitten and from another allowance race with Regal Kitten.

One thing that will hamper Ramsey’s participation in some spots is that one of his main trainers, Chad Brown, will not be running here. 

“When you’ve got a trainer winning 43 percent of his starts at Saratoga, you shouldn’t tell him where to run your horses,” Ramsey said, chuckling.

Ramsey early on vowed to use Saratoga as a launching pad to Kentucky Downs, and his starts up north back him up. Heading into Friday, he’d run 36 horses at the Spa this year, compared with 64 last year and 50 in 2014. He mentions 10 horses that ran at Saratoga and will make their next start at Kentucky Downs (assuming they can get in the field).

“About everything that has run up here and finished second and third will be running back at Kentucky Downs,” he said.  “I’ve got a primary race I’m pointing for, and a backup race. We left here with a van load of horses about a week ago for Kentucky Downs, and left again (Wednesday) with another.”

Ramsey called Kentucky Downs “made for” the off-spring of his super-sire, Kitten’s Joy. “Brilliant Kitten, Wedding Day Kitten, Collateral Kitten, Shifty Kitten, Regal Kitten and Luck of the Kitten,” he said, rattling off the names of some of his horses. “If it wasn’t for Kitten’s Joys, I might as well stay home. He’s had seven winners already at Saratoga.”

Ramsey will have some non-Kitten horses like Watchyourownbobber for the More Than Ready Mile and either Oscar Nominated or Sir Dudley Diggs for the Dueling Grounds Derby.

West, riders signing definitive book on jockey’s craft Saturday

Gary West, the award-winning turf journalist and handicapper who is part of Kentucky Downs’ stable of analysts, will sign copies of “Ride to Win: Inside the Jockey’s Craft” Saturday starting at noon in the vicinity of the finish line and paddock. West co-authored the book with veteran New Orleans racing writer Bob Fortus, with the book published by JockeyTalk 360. Proceeds from the book benefit the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund. Jockeys will participate as their riding schedules permit, with Brian Hernandez Jr. and Corey Lanerie — both prominent in the book — among those committed to signing, with more expected.

Kentucky Downs has launched a Youtube.com channel. We can’t get a URL until we get enough subscribers, but it will be KentuckyDownsRacing. Meanwhile, just type in Kentucky Downs and find us. Early videos are interviews with Robby Albarado and Dale Romans.

Race: 7 (4:55 p.m. CT). Division: fillies & mares 3yos & up. Distance: mile

pp horse (weight)                  jockey/trainer                   odds

She’s Not Here (125)      Van Dyke/V. Oliver                3-1

Cash Control (125)          Bridgmohan/Cox                  5-2

Susie Bee (125)            Geroux/Maker                         9-2 

Natural Wonder (121)   Castanon/Schu                      30-1

Christi’s Ready (121)     Doyle/Pitts-Blasi                   12-1   

Stormin Elle (s) (125)    Valdivia/Catalano                  15-1

Flying Tipat (121)           Rocco/Romans                    12-1

Secret Someone (125)   Albarado/Stidham                  4-1

Mizz Money (125)          Graham/Flint                        10-1

(s) - $7,500 Supplemental entry

Race: 8 (5:27 p.m. CT). Division: 2-year-olds. Distance: 7 furlongs

pp horse (weight)                  jockey/trainer                       odds

Raising Rumors (122)     Mena/Morse                          8-1

Zunino (120)                    Hernandez/Stidham            15-1

Han Sense (120)             Geroux/Maker                       7-2

Capt. Grider (120)            Van Dyke/Zanelli                 20-1

Ancient Warfare (120)      Lezcano/Casse                     4-1

Parlor (120)                      Cannon/Kenneally               10-1

Preemptive Strike (120)   Rocco/Colebrook                 12-1

Hot Dad (120)                   Lanerie/Maker                     15-1

B Rod Maclean (120)       Villasana/Short                      8-1

Prados Way (122)            Graham/Asmussen                8-1 

Cold Snack Thirty (120)   Fadlovich/McCauley             30-1 

All Right (118)                   Hill/Gorder                           15-1

Race 9 (6:07 p.m. CT). Division: 3yos & up. Distance: 6 1/2 furlongs

pp horse (weight)                  jockey/trainer

Successful Native (125)   Albarado/Maragh                   8-1

Undrafted (125)               Prado/Ward                            5-2

Commute (125)               Lezcano/Casse                       8-1

Almasty (121)                  Court/Cox                              10-1  

Barbados (121)               Graham/Tomlinson                20-1

Hogy (121)                       Rocco/Becker                       12-1

Toowindytohaulrox (121)  Pereira/D’Amato                    9-2

Regally Ready (121)        Geroux/Asmussen                 4-1 

Divine Warrior (118)         Landeros/Bradley                 50-1

Island Town (121)             Hernandez/Wilkes              15-1

Wilbo (121)                       Hill/Hartman                        15-1

Western Elegance (121)   Valdivia/Davis                     30-1

AE 13. Black Bear (121)         Mena/Morse                       30-1

AE-Needs scratch to run

Race 10 (6:38 p.m. CT). Division: 2yo fillies. Distance: 7 furlongs

pp horse (weight)                      jockey/trainer                     

Zyxyz (120)                         Rocco/Sharp                     20-1

Southern Sis (120)              Lezcano/Casse                   8-1

Lady Hansen (120)             Castanon/Maker                10-1

Maluku (120)                       Marquez/Stidham              12-1

Safe With Me (120)             Boyce/Motion                      8-1

Lull (120)                             Hernandez/Clement            5-2

Caroline Test (120)              Geroux/Colebrook             10-1

Macy’s Attitude (120)          Villasana/Short                   50-1

Royal Asscher (120)            Landeros/Casse                20-1

Forest Circle (120)               Albarado/Stidham                6-1

China Grove (120)              Graham/Colebrook               9-2

Grandma’s Princess (122)   Mena/Morse                      15-1 

AE 13. Youngest Daughter (118) Van Dyke/V. Oliver           30-1

AE-needs scratch to run

Family Fun Days 1-5 p.m. Central this Saturday, Sept. 10 and 11 — Petting zoo, face painters, kids bouncy-ball races on course, Dixieland band. Located trackside.

Old Friends Day, Sept. 8 — Tours of Old Friends at Kentucky Downs thoroughbred retirement facility with Old Friends founder (and longtime horseplayer) Michael Blowen. Proceeds from an online BetAmerica handicapping contest on Kentucky Downs card will go to Old Friends.

HBPA College Day, Sept. 11 — The Kentucky division of the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association will give out a laptop after every race to a registered college student.

Source: Ellis Park (Jennie Rees)