Jockey Ty Kennedy off to a flying start at Ellis Park

While all the attention was on three-time Kentucky Derby winner Calvin Borel finishing third in his first race in five months in Ellis Park’s sixth race Saturday, Ty Kennedy quietly won for his second victory in his first two starts in the state.

Kennedy won aboard Chargin Storm, his only mount on the card. The day before, he won on his only mount on 16-1 Keepinyourchinup, beating the Corey Lanerie-ridden Limonte by a nose on a day when five favorites and two second choices won the other races. He finished fourth in his only mount Sunday.

The question after that Friday race was: Who is Ty Kennedy?

“I don’t know, but he’s a really good rider because he just beat me,” Lanerie said.

It turns out that Ty Kennedy is a 22-year-old from Hiawatha, Kan., and came to Ellis from Prairie Meadows, where he won 22 races to finish 11th in the standings. He said he’d never stepped foot in Kentucky until moving his tack here. The Ellis victories were the 56th and 57th in a career that started in 2014, when Kennedy endured the sort of 0 for 63 streak new riders often face. He has won 25 races this year, after winning 32 all of 2015.

Asked about winning right off the bat, he said, “I never thought that would happen. The horse ran hard, really good for me. I’ve got to give the trainer (Marty Rouck) and owner (John Celletti and Rouck) due credit. I know Kentucky, new guy in town, (it’s often) ‘Well, let’s watch him ride two or three.’ But they put me on this horse and said, ‘Just get along and be happy with him and try to do your best.’ When we crossed the wire (Lanerie) looked over at me and said, ‘What the heck? New in town and already beating me.’

“This is a new group of riders I’m riding with. There are a couple I’ve ridden with before, like Jimmy Graham, I rode with him in California. So far everybody seems really welcoming here and is willing to help. I know I’m still kind of starting out, and these are the kind of riders I want to learn from.”

Kennedy called Hiawatha “a little, small farm town.”

“Racing has been in my family going back three generations,” he said. “My grandmother, uncle, grandfather, they either trained or rode, so I was born into it.”

Kennedy spent part of last season in California, where he won six races at  Santa Anita’s brief fall meet, more than Mike Smith or Drayden Van Dyke. He returned to ride back at Prairie Meadows.

“It kind of seems backward a little bit,” he agreed. “At the time, I just kind of wanted to go back home, see the family. I knew I could do some good in Iowa. We got some good opportunities there. That’s actually the reason why I’m here in Kentucky. Doug Anderson, we got together in Iowa and did really well together, won a lot of races and had a good percentage. He asked me if I wanted to come ride his stable in Kentucky. Well, I’d been to Florida, California, everywhere in between, except in Kentucky.

“If I wasn’t here, I’d probably be in New Mexico. Because I had an offer to go there. But because Doug has been really good to me, I wanted to stick with him and try our opportunities out in Kentucky.”

Kennedy picked up Julio Espinoza, a former leading rider in Kentucky, as his agent. “I really like the way he works,” Kennedy said. “He’s a hard-working agent and really good guy as well. A lot of people I talked to said, ‘If you want to be the best and get to the top, Julio can definitely help you get there.’ But a lot of other people have helped me get to where I am now.

“… Kentucky is one of the hardest places to try to break into. I tip my hat to Julio. He put us on a couple of really good horses, even if the betting public didn’t think they were live. Julio likes to ride live horses. I know whatever he puts me on, there’s a reason why. He told me, ‘Don’t worry about it. Good things will happen if you just ride hard.’ That’s what I did. I rode hard, and the horses ran for me as hard as they could and it paid off. The trainers did a great job with their horses. They had them ready and all I had to do was hang on.”

Kennedy does have family in Louisville. His cousin is Chelsey Moysey, assistant trainer to Buff Bradley. He says that stable helped him out tremendously  the prior winter when he went to Tampa Bay Downs.

Borel had one mount Sunday, dueling for the lead on the Buff Bradley-trained first-time starter Numbers Game before the 2-year-old filly gave way to sixth in the 5 1/2-furlong grass race.

Robby Albarado rode at Canterbury Park Saturday evening and had a good night that came close to being great. Albarado had three seconds in three stakes mounts — but he was a combined three-quarters of a length from sweeping them, each margin closer than the last. 

Albarado lost the Minnesota HBPA Distaff by a half-length aboard Meshell, the $75,000 Brooks Fields by a neck on Go Around and the $200,000 Mystic Lake Derby on Whatawonderflworld by a nose. That race was one by favored One Mean Man, upon whom Albarado had won Arlington’s Grade 3 American Derby and finished a good fourth in Arlington’s Grade 1 Secretariat. But Albarado already was committed to Whatawonderflworld when Louisville trainer Bernie Flint opted to run One Mean Man in the stakes off the two-week turnaround.

Whatawonderflworld ran very well in his first start since finishing second in Turfway Park’s March 12 John Battaglia.

Another Ellis jockey, Francisco Torres, won the HBPA Distaff on Prado’s Sweet Ride.

Jon Court had a two-win day Saturday for the fifth time in the past six riding days, winning the first on Parc Celeste ($8) and third on Alandtom ($26.20). Court also won Sunday’s third race on favored Da Don, whose victory gave owner Chester Thomas’ Allied Racing a meet-leading six victories, with four seconds and a third out of 22 runners.

Closing week reminder: Racing will resume Thursday, Sept. 1, as the makeup for the canceled July 4th card. Ellis runs Friday, Sept. 2, is dark Saturday for the opener of Kentucky Downs, with the Ellis meet closing out with the Sunday, Sept. 3 and Labor Day programs.