Jockey Luca Panici continues steady rise in South Florida

Jockey Luca Panici’s steady rise among the leading jockeys in South Florida continued this year with strong showings at Gulfstream Park’s spring and summer meets as well as the Fall Turf Festival at Gulfstream Park West.

Hoping to carry that momentum into the 2016-17 Championship Meet, the 42-year-old rider got off to a strong start with a pair of wins on Saturday’s Opening Day program, including a  44-1 upset by Tormenta de Oro in the $110,000 Claiming Crown Glass Slipper.

 

“It feels good,” said Panici, who also won with 2-year-old colt Classic Rock in the second race. “I have to thank my agent. We had a great meet at Gulfstream Park West, and now we are trying to keep going.”

 

Represented by Kevin Meyocks, brother-in-law of five-time defending Championship Meet leading rider Javier Castellano and the son of Jockeys’ Guild national manager Terry Meyocks, Panici ranked second at the Fall Turf Festival with 33 wins and $761,647 in purse earnings.

 

He was third with 53 wins and fifth with $1.4 million in purses at Gulfstream’s summer meet after finishing the spring stand in the top 10 in both wins (24) and purse earnings ($665,120).

 

“The more you win the more confidence you get, and from the trainers, too. I have more opportunities with the big names,” Panici said. “My agent has done a great job and we work like a team very, very good.”

 

Panici was born in Italy, where his father was the country’s leading jockey in the 1970s and 1980s, and his brother and uncle also rode. He earned more than 500 wins in Europe before first coming to South Florida in January 1997 to gallop for trainers Christophe Clement and Hall of Famer Bill Mott during the Italian offseason.

 

Panici’s first U.S. win came Nov. 25, 2005 at what is now Gulfstream Park West, and after moving back to Italy he returned to South Florida full-time in 2009. His first graded stakes win came with Another Romance in the 2012 Azalea (G3), and he was also the regular rider for multiple stakes-winner Flutterby.

 

Last winter, Panici finished with 14 wins and $451,567 in purse earnings from 252 starts at the Championship Meet, where the jockey’s room is populated by some of the game’s best out-of-town riders such as Castellano, Luis Saez, John Velazquez, Joel Rosario and Julien Leparoux as well as top local riders Paco Lopez, Edgard Zayas and Emisael Jaramillo. 

 

“The life of a jockey you have to go day by day. The next race you have to forget the race before,” Panici said. “You turn the page every day, every race. I have pretty good confidence and the experience to know to go day by day. It’s all you can do.”

The Juvenile Showcase program slated for next Saturday’s card at Gulfstream Park attracted 135 nominations for six stakes, including races for colts, geldings and fillies on the main track at six furlongs and a mile on dirt and on turf at a mile.

The one-mile $75,000 Smooth Air collected 18 nominees, including six stakes placed 2-year-olds, three of them stakes winners: Joe Sharp-trained Cool Arrow, Joe Orseno-trained Even Thunder and Henry Collazo-trained Sweetontheladies. Trainer Todd Pletcher, the 13-time defending Championship Meet titlist, is expected to enter undefeated Fact Finding in the Smooth Air.

Even Thunder and Sweetontheladies are also nominated to the six-furlong $75,000 Buffalo Man, which received 20 nominations. Pletcher is gearing up Sonic Mule, a recent impressive allowance winner at Gulfstream Park West, for the Buffalo Man. Trainer Eddie Plesa Jr. nominated impressive debut winner Talk Logistics and stakes-placed Storming My Way.

The $75,000 Hut Hut, a mile stakes for fillies, received 16 nominations, while the $75,000 House Party, a six-furlong sprint for fillies, attracted 21 nominations.

The nominations list for the $75,000 Pulpit, a mile race on turf, includes 26 names, while the $75,000 Wait a While, a mile turf race for fillies, got 34 nominations.

“She’s on vacation for no reason other than to give her a break,” Fawkes said. “She’s had a solid campaign. She deserves a break.”

Curtis Mikkelsen’s homebred filly, who won two Florida Sire Stakes events, the $200,000 Desert Vixen and the $300,000 Susan’s Girl, most recently finished a distant second in the $400,000 Delta Princess (G3).

“I was thrilled. The winner (Doug O’Neill-trained Shane’s Girlfriend) was a buzz saw, no doubt about that. She blew our doors off, but I was thrilled the way she ran – first time on a bullring, a field like that, and she had a lot of dirt thrown at her and she handled it.”

Cajun Delta Dawn earned $483,105 during her six-race campaign, which included four victories.