Semaphore Man

A landmark day for jockey Robby Albarado got even better when he guided Lawrence Carroll’s Bold Start to a 2 ¾-length victory over Semaphore Man in Saturday’s 21st running of the $112,600 Aristides (Grade III) for sprinters at Churchill Downs.

            One race earlier, Albarado became the 56th North American jockey to reach the 4,000-victory milestone when he rode Barbara Hunter’s Keertana ($5.20) to victory in the ninth race at Churchill Downs.

            In his milestone triumph, Albarado split horses in deep stretch on the Matt Winn Turf Course to edge Kiss Mine by three-quarters of a length for the victory.

A 35-year-old native of Lafayette, La., Albarado rode his first winner at age 16 at Evangeline Downs in Louisiana. Albarado, who won his first Churchill Downs riding title at the 2008 Spring Meet, has ridden 812 of his 4,001 winners beneath the Twin Spires, the sixth-largest win total in track history.

Albarado was the regular rider for two-time Horse of the Year Curlin on which he earned his only victory in a Triple Crown race, the 2007 Preakness. Albarado also was the regular rider for 2003 Horse of the Year Mineshaft.

In his career, Albarado has ridden more than 24,000 races with earnings in excess of $149 million.

In the Aristides, Albarado rated Bold Start in third place in the run down the backside just off the pace set by Garifine, who was tracked by Semaphore Man through a first quarter-mile in :21.88. The top three remained unchanged to the head of the lane after a half-mile in :44.73.

In the stretch, Semaphore Man grabbed a brief lead under Jesus Castanon, but was headed at the eighth pole by Bold Start, who drew away to the victory. Knights Cross rallied for third under Corey Lanerie, finishing three-quarters of a length in back of Semaphore Man.

            Bold Start, a 5-year-old Kentucky-bred son of Jump Start out of the Flying Paster mare Dorky, returned $10.80, $5.80 and $4.80. Semaphore Man paid his backers $6.40 and $4.40 with Knights Cross returning $10.40 to show.

Completing the field in order were favored Sok Sok, Grand Sensation, Premium Wine, Success Success, Vicarian, Garifine and Early Return. Cassoulet was scratched.

Bold Start covered the six furlongs on a fast main track in 1:09.04.

The victory was worth $66,321 and increased Bold Start’s career earnings to $528,810 with nine victories in 31 starts. Four of the victories have come on the main track at Churchill Downs.

Racing resumes Sunday with a 10-race card beginning with a 12:45 p.m. EDT post time.

POST-RACE QUOTES – THE ARISTIDES

KEN McPEEK, trainer of BOLD START (winner)

 “He deserves it. He’s been so solid for so long. It seems like he was always knocking on the door but hadn’t quite gotten over it. I’m thrilled he did it here. He’s still got plenty of good races left in him. He loves it here. He’s just rock solid. He always does everything right. We’ve found a little niche with him sprinting. When he was younger I tried him a little long and a little on turf and even then he ran well. We have plenty of options.”

ROBBY ALBARADO, jockey on BOLD START (winner)

“He ran good last time. I think his Churchill record speaks for itself. He excels when he gets here to Churchill. It seems to be that he runs well in the bigger races. Kenny (McPeek) has done a great job getting him ready for today.

Q: Were you confident on the final turn?

“Honestly, I was real confident because he broke so well and put himself into a forward position where he gave himself a chance. . . . It worked out well for us to go 1:09 flat. He’s a good horse.”

Q: On 4,000 career victories:

 “I guess my next goal would be 5,000. That’s kind of the end your career or the retirement number for most jocks. Once you get to that 5,000, you start looking for the way out. I’m not saying that’s my way out, but you set goals for yourself.

“I never thought I’d get to 4,000 so it’s an honor. I’ve got to congratulate all of the owners and trainers who have supported me continuously throughout the years. They stuck by me, and it’s pretty much been the same guys for the last 10 to 15 years.”

JESUS CASTANON, jockey on SEMAPHORE MAN (runner-up)

“I had a good trip.  The horse broke sharp out of the gate and I wasn’t really trying to get ahead of the other one (Garifine), but my horse was running.  He made an easy lead going to the five-sixteenths pole, but the winner had a lot of horse and he just kind of got outrun the rest of the way.

            “He gave me a nice burst at the top of the stretch.  When I asked him to go, he really gave me a nice little kick, but the last sixteenth of a mile he just couldn’t  keep up with the winner.”

COREY LANERIE, jockey on KNIGHTS CROSS (third)

“He ran awesome.  His post position (nine) suited him well.  Last time he was in between speed horses, but today on the outside he broke and got to sit a little off of it with no pressure.  We wanted to sit back a little, or just be wherever he was comfortable, and he really finished up. He was just third best.” 

SHAUN BRIDGMOHAN, rider of SOK SOK (fourth as the favorite)

“He broke good enough and it kind of set up real good.  I was cruising in behind ‘em and they got away from him a little in the turn, so I got after him a little bit.  He ran pretty good.  He hung in there and he tried to come back on them there are the end.”

BUSY MORNING FOR CLASSIC WINNERS: RACHEL ALEXANDRA POSES FOR VOGUE; MINE THAT BIRD GALLOPS – The whole morning Friday was decidedly not business as usual for Kentucky Oaks (Grade I) and Preakness (Grade I) winner Rachel Alexandra at Churchill Downs.
    The first part of the morning was routine: a trip to the track at 6:20 for one time around the main track under exercise rider Dominic Terry.
    Four hours later, the cameras were out and the backdrop was up between Barns 36 and 38 for a photo shoot of Rachel Alexandra by acclaimed fashion photographer Steven Klein.  His images of the Oaks and Preakness winner are set to be published in the August issue of Vogue.  
Klein may be best known for his striking photos of such pop icons as Madonna, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, Britney Spears, Natalie Portman and Justin Timperlake.  His work has appeared in Vogue and W and in ads for Calvin Klein and Dolce and Gabbana.  
    “Done photo shoots before, but first one for Vogue,” said Scott Blasi, the assistant to trainer Steve Asmussen who held the shank on the star filly while Klein shot his images just after noon.  
    Among those looking one were Barbara Banke, the wife of Stonestreet Stables’ Jess Jackson, the filly’s majority owner.
Klein’s session with Rachel Alexandra grew out of a trip to the Preakness by Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour.  
“She was there at the Preakness and was inspired, like so many other women were,” said Carolina Shaw, senior vice president for Public Relations, Family & Brand Communications for Jackson Family Enterprises.
A 10’x16’ plywood wall was erected next to the Asmussen barn to serve as the backdrop for the photo shoot of the Preakness winner, who had to be awakened in her stall when was time for her star turn before the camera.
    There were no photo shoots for Kentucky Derby (Grade I) winner and Preakness runner-up Mine That Bird who quietly went about his business of galloping twice around the main track under exercise rider Charlie Figueroa before the renovation break.
    Trainer Chip Woolley said that co-owners Mark Allen and Leonard Blach may be here on Monday to watch Mine That Bird’s final work before the June 6 Belmont Stakes .
    “They may be coming in Sunday night, I’m not sure,” Woolley said as Mine That Bird walked back to Barn 42 after his morning exercise.
    Woolley said that Mine That Bird would work after the renovation break Monday morning and that jockey Calvin Borel would be aboard. Borel is leaving immediately after the work for a 10 a.m. flight to New York.
    Woolley is scheduled to fly out at 7:15 Tuesday morning with Mine That Bird leaving on Wednesday. “I’ll check in on him Tuesday morning early and then take off,” Woolley said.

WELL-TRAVELED SEMAPHORE MAN MAKES FIRST CHURCHILL STOP ON SATURDAY – In 27 starts during his five-year racing career, Double Bogey Stable’s Semaphore Man has raced at 10 tracks.
    On Saturday in the 21st running of the $100,000-added Aristides (Grade III), Churchill Downs will become the 11th.
    “After he won the Count Fleet (on April 10 at Oaklawn Park), we thought about trying him on the turf in the five-eighths race (the Aegon Turf Sprint on May 1),” trainer Kelly Von Hemel said. “But he was awful tired after that and we gave him a little time.”
    A model of consistency throughout his career, the 7-year-old Semaphore Man has finished worse than fourth only four times in those 27 starts. Two of those came on Polytrack at Keeneland and Turfway Park last year, the worst such finishes since 2005.
“He works good on it in the mornings at Arlington Park, but the afternoons are a different story,” Von Hemel said. “He liked Keeneland better than Turfway, but I don’t think he’d run on it again. If he did it would be at Arlington because he trains well on it.”
Semaphore Man shipped to Arlington after the Count Fleet where Kelly’s father, Don, oversees his training. Semaphore Man shipped to Churchill Downs on May 20 and worked a half-mile here on Tuesday in :49.40 for the Aristides.
While the horse is here, the trainer is not.
“We have six in here that night,” Von Hemel said from his home base at Prairie Meadows where he has 52 horses stabled. “Five of them (run) for me and one for my dad. Lynn (Whiting) will saddle my horse there.”
Semaphore Man will face 10 rivals in the six furlongs Aristides and break from post position six under Jesus Castanon as he tries to give Von Hemel a second sprint stakes victory under the Twin Spires.
    Von Hemel sent out Miss Macy Sue to score in the 2007 Winning Colors, a race in which she ran second last year. A victory by Semaphore Man would tie Von Hemel with his brother Donnie, who has won two Churchill Downs stakes – the 1992 Clark Handicap with Zeeruler and the 1994 Mrs. Revere with Mariah’s Storm.

PRETTY PROLIFIC RETURNS SATURDAY FOR BAKER – One of the more impressive debut winners at Churchill Downs last summer was Tom Walters’ Pretty Prolific, who broke her maiden by 3 ½ lengths going five furlongs on June 22.
    After a brief break, trainer Jim Baker sent Pretty Prolific straight into stakes company and the daughter of Lion Heart ran third in the Grade II Adirondack at Saratoga. Two more stakes tries followed and 2008 closed with a runner-up finish in allowance company on “Stars of Tomorrow II” day on Nov. 29.
    Six months later, Pretty Prolific makes her belated 2009 debut in Saturday’s seventh race.
    “She was a breeze away from running at Oaklawn and we had to take a tiny flake out of her ankle,” Baker said. “I am glad I stopped on her. She has grown and really filled out. She about 100 pounds bigger and she has been working lights out.”
    Three bullet works since May 10 signify Pretty Prolific’s readiness for the six-furlong test.
    “All we need now is a little luck,” Baker said.
    There is one other debut winner from last summer in the field of nine: Ocean Colors, the next-to-last foal of 1988 Kentucky Derby winner Winning Colors.
    Owned by Gainesway Thoroughbreds Ltd. and trained by Steve Asmussen, Ocean Colors romped by 5 ¼ lengths in her five-furlong debut on June 13. Like Pretty Prolific, Ocean Colors raced next in a stake at Saratoga but faded to last in the six-furlong Schuylerville (Grade III) in what was her last start of 2008.
    Ocean Colors ran fourth at Keeneland on April 18 in her 2009 debut.

WOOLLEY JOINS JILL BYRNE FOR ‘GET IN THE GAME’ SEMINAR –Kentucky Derby-winning trainer Chip Woolley Jr. will be Churchill Downs racing analyst Jill Byrne’s guest for Saturday’s “Get In The Game” handicapping seminar. 
    Woolley notched his first Kentucky Derby victory in his first attempt with longshot Mine That Bird, who finished second in the Preakness and is scheduled to run next in the Belmont Stakes, the third jewel of the Triple Crown..
Saturday’s seminar is set for noon (all times EDT) in the paddock and is free with regular track admission.  Admission gates open at 11:30 a.m.

MILESTONE WATCH – Lynn Whiting, who saddled Lil E. Tee to win the 1992 Kentucky Derby, will bid to become the 10th trainer in Churchill Downs history with 300 victories at the track when he sends out Action Seeker in today’s eighth race. Whiting will have another shot at the mark Saturday, if needed, when he sends out Niobrara in the second race.
    Also on Saturday, trainer David Vance, who like Whiting has 299 Churchill Downs victories, can hit the 300 mark with Kiss Mine in the ninth.
    Robby Albarado, seeking to become the 56th North American jockey with 4,000 victories, has six mounts Friday on which to build on his 3,998 career total.

BARN TALK – Calvin Borel, who won 13 races over Memorial Day Weekend, now has 917 career victories at Churchill Downs and is only eight behind Don Brumfield for second place all-time at the track. Pat Day is the all-time Churchill Downs wins leader with 2,482.  Brumfield, a member of racing’s Hall of Fame, was the last jockey to win the Kentucky Oaks, Kentucky Derby and Preakness in the same year.  Brumfield won the 1966 Oaks on Native Street, and took the Derby and Preakness on Kauai King.
General Quarters, who finished 10th in the Kentucky Derby and ninth in the Preakness, returned to Barn 37 late Friday morning after spending a couple of days at Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington. “We just sent him over there to deal with some little issues,” owner-trainer Tom McCarthy said.
    Trainer Gary Thomas said that Golden Yank, fourth-place finisher in last Sunday’s feature race, would likely point to the $300,000 Prairie Meadows Cornhusker Handicap (Grade II) in Iowa on June 27 at 1 1/8 miles.
    Brass Hat, winner of last Saturday’s Louisville Handicap (Grade III), is scheduled to return to trainer Buff Bradley’s barn on Monday. “He’s been at the farm, bucking and playing every day,” Bradley said.

Veteran sprint star Semaphore Man heads the  21st running of the Aristides (GIII) and Ohio invader Slides Choice could emerge as the favorite in the 35th running of the Dogwood (GIII) as Churchill Downs offers a pair of major stakes events on its racing menu for Saturday, May 30.  .  

The $100,000-added Dogwood, which drew a field of nine 3-year-old fillies, will go as the eighth race on the 11-race card.  The $100,000-added Artistides, which drew a field of 11 older sprinters, is scheduled as the as the day’s 10th event.    First post time for the Saturday card is 12:45 p.m. EDT.

Mary Crawford and Gerald Brown’s Slides Choice, a winner of five of six career starts with four of the victories coming in Ohio-bred stakes, will carry top weight of 119 pounds in the Dogwood that is run at a mile on the main track.  Trained by Tim Hamm, Slides Choice will step out of stakes-bed races to face open company for the first time.  She will break from post position six under jockey Corey Lanerie.

Trainer D. Wayne Lukas, who has saddled a record five Dogwood winners, will send out Tweeter for the Marylou Whitney Stable. The chestnut daughter of Unbridled’s Song finished seventh in the Kentucky Oaks (Grade I) behind Rachel Alexandra in her most recent start.  Tweeter will break from post position seven under Miguel Mena.

    The field for the Dogwood, from the rail out, is as follows: Walloon (Jesus Castanon, 117 pounds), Hightap (Shaun Bridgmohan, 117), Affirmed Truth (Calvin Borel, 117), Dave’s Revenge (Tony Farina, 117), Luster (Jamie Theriot, 117), Slides Choice (Corey Lanerie, 119), Tweeter (Miguel Mena, 117), Perfect for You (Jon Court, 117) and Lady’s Laughter (Robby Albarado, 117).

Helen Alexander and Helen Groves’ Acoma won the 2008 Dogwood. The David
Carroll trainee established the stakes record for a mile with a 1:34.56 clocking.

Double Bogey Stable’s veteran Semaphore Man, a two-time winner of the Grade III Count Fleet Sprint Handicap at Oaklawn Park, will make his Churchill Downs debut in the six-furlong Aristides.
    Trained by Kelly Von Hemel, Semaphore Man is a five-time stakes winner who has compiled earnings of $530,210 with a record of 9-6-5 from 27 starts. All nine of his victories have come at Saturday’s six –furlong distance.  Jesus Castanon has the riding call on Semaphore Man, who will carry high weight of 122 pounds and break from post position six.

    Four other stakes winners are in field, including a pair trained by Steve Asmussen, who won the 2003 Aristides with Mountain General. Asmussen will send out four-time stakes winner Sok Sok for Savorthetime Stables and Gallant Bob Handicap winner Premium Wine for the Zayat Stables.  

Sok Sok’s won the Duncan F. Kenner at Fair Grounds two starts back and was fifth to Accredit in the Churchill Downs (GII) on Kentucky Derby Day.  Premimum Wine will make his season debut in the Aristides following a 2008 campaign in which he finished a close third to Bustin Stones in the Carter Handicap (GI) at Aqueduct.  The son of Prime Timber last raced in October.

    Other stakes winners in the Aristides are David Holloway Racing’s Success Success and Lawrence Carroll’s Bold Start. Success Success, winner of the Forego at Turfway Park, races for the team of owner David Holloway and trainer Paul McGee, who won the race in 2000 and 2001 with Bet on Sunshine.  McGee won the inaugural running of the Aristides in 1989 with Bet the Pot.  Bold Start won last summer’s Don Bernhardt Memorial for trainer Ken McPeek.

    Indian Chant won the 2008 Aristides for owner Maggi Moss and trainer Tom Amoss.

    The field for the Aristides, from the rail out, is as follows: Early Return (Brian Hernandez Jr., 118 pounds), Cassoulet (Jamie Theriot, 118), Vicarian (Calvin Borel, 118), Garifine (Miguel Mena, 118), Sok Sok (Shaun Bridgmohan, 118), Semaphore Man (Jesus Castanon, 122), Premium Wine (Larry Sterling Jr., 118), Success Success (Jon Court, 118), Bold Start (Robby Albarado, 118), Knights Cross (Corey Lanerie, 118) and Grand Sensation (Tim Doocy, 120).