Napravnik Magic
Apprentice Rosie Napravnik, favorite of the Bug Boys, pulled off a big upset on Saturday at Laurel when she “guided an apparently hopeless 74-to-1 long shot named Our Peak past seven horses in the stretch to score a stunning victory by a neck in the $85,000 Private Terms Stakes.”
Personnel Matters
Bill Finley doesn’t let jockey Garrett Gomez off easy for his recent firing of agent Jim Pegram, who helped Gomez become one of the West Coast’s hottest jockeys this year after he returned to riding following a two-year absence caused by drug addiction:
Gomez … shows no signs of relapsing into his old bad habits and is sure to be a major star for years to come. He’s got a lot of attributes. Apparently, loyalty isn’t one of them.
Pegram is now working for Kent Desormeaux; Gomez has hired Ron Anderson as his new agent.
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Churchill Downs’ fired starter Roger Nagle says he was let go because he wouldn’t agree to use techniques to load the gate that he considered unsafe. “I don’t give a damn if I have to eat cat food, I’m not going to do something that might get somebody hurt,” said Nagle. Churchill Downs isn’t commenting, which Tote Board Brad finds totally in keeping with the track management’s “brash, arrogant” style.
Bailey’s Final Ride
For a couple of seconds in mid-stretch, it looked as though Jerry Bailey’s career would have a perfect ending, that even-money favorite Silver Tree would win the Sunshine Millions Turf after an ground-saving expert ride. If only he hadn’t been briefly blocked before squeezing daringly through a narrow hole along the rail, because on the outside, longshot Miesque’s Approval was in the clear and charging to the lead. The 48-1 shot beat Silver Tree by three-quarters of a length.
“You’re either a hero or a goat. I guess I’ll go eat hay tonight,” Bailey said after. “I think Silver Tree was probably the best horse … But it didn’t open up in time for me. I played the hand that was dealt me. It just wasn’t enough.”
“Well, it wasn’t exactly the fairy tale ending was it,” said Silver Tree’s trainer, Bill Mott. “But it was close.”
Shut out on both his mounts in the Sunshine Millions, Bailey retired with 5,893 wins in a 31-year career. His last came aboard the filly Shakespearesister in a $33,000 allowance race on Friday at Gulfstream.
More: “I can’t believe how lucky I’ve been … Hell, I never expected to get out of New Mexico” … “There were tears all around until Bailey was asked if it upset him that he did not visit the winner’s circle for the 5,898th time. ‘Yeah, it does,’ he said, stopping in his tracks. ‘I know Silver Tree was probably the best horse in the race.'”
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Lava Man, winless since taking last year’s Hollywood Gold Cup, came back into form to win the Sunshine Millions Classic. “He finally ran like he had been training,” said trainer Doug O’Neill.
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Kentucky Derby winner Giacomo may make his first start in eight months in the Strub Stakes at Santa Anita next Saturday.
Thanks for the Memories
What New England racing fan doesn’t remember Jerry Bailey and Cigar winning the Massachusetts Handicap in 1995 and 1996? And what about Bailey on Arcangues in the 1993 Breeders’ Cup Classic? Lowell Sun racing correspondent Paul Daley writes about great moments from the retiring rider’s career in this week’s Sun column, reprinted with permission here.
It’s a tale often told that things happen in threes.
With Jerry Bailey’s announcement on Wednesday that he will end his riding career in the Sunshine Million races at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 28, the three greatest riders of our generation — Gary Stevens, Pat Day, and now Bailey — will have moved into different facets of the sport they so love within months of each other. Bailey and Stevens will be seen in the broadcasting end of the business while Day will remain immersed in his calling with the Racetrack Chaplaincy Program.
Rather than rehash Bailey’s career statistics, which were formidable enough even in 1995 to get him inducted into the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame, I prefer to remember vignettes from the career of the son of a dentist from Dallas, Texas, who turned 48 years old last August 29.
Bailey Calls it Quits
“He rode the great Cigar to a record-equaling 16 consecutive victories, captured two Kentucky Derbys and won seven Eclipse Awards as the nation’s most outstanding jockey, more than anyone else in history. But yesterday, Jerry Bailey called it quits despite remaining the most dominant jockey in America, if not the world.”
Saying he desired to spend more time with his family and lacked passion for riding on “routine” days, Bailey told reporters on Wednesday that his 32-year Hall of Fame career would end on January 28 at Gulfstream, where he plans to ride three or four races on the Sunshine Millions card. His final race will likely be aboard Silver Tree in the Turf for trainer Bill Mott, a fitting conclusion, given that Mott was responsible for putting Bailey on the horse he’s most associated with, two-time Horse of the Year Cigar.
Like Gary Stevens, who retired last fall, Bailey will take up a new career on TV, joining ABC and ESPN as a racing analyst. He leaves riding with few regrets: “I thought this thing through pretty well,” Bailey said. “I fulfilled everything I wanted to do.” Asked how he’d like to be remembered, Bailey said, “That I gave everybody their money’s worth, and that I always put a horse in position to win if he was good enough.”
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Bailey’s exit from the scene does leave one question: Who will ride trainer Frank Brothers’ talented Derby prospect First Samurai this spring? For next weekend’s Hutcheson at least, Edgar Prado.
Bailey Preps for Retirement
So reports Bill Finley, who writes that jockey Jerry Bailey “is close to reaching an agreement with ESPN and ABC to work as an analyst on racing telecasts for both networks when he does retire.” Bailey denied that he’d reached any deals and said that he would be riding at Gulfstream when it opens on January 4. “I’m going to start riding at Gulfstream,” Bailey said. “I don’t know how long it’s going to last.”
Stevens Ends Riding Career
It was hardly a Hollywood ending, but Gary Stevens’ last ride wasn’t a bad one. The jockey announced his retirement on Friday, citing injuries and difficulty making weight as reasons for ending his successful riding career, in which he won 5,005 races and more than $220 million in purses. On Saturday, he finished second in his final race, aboard the Patrick Biancone-trained Louve Royale. Despite the loss, Stevens told the thousands of fans that gave him a standing ovation at Churchill Downs that he was leaving as “the happiest guy in the world“:
“I’ve absolutely loved what I’ve done for the past 27 years, but I’m not sad about leaving the saddle. I’m walking into a new chapter of my life, and I’m very excited about that.”
Stevens isn’t out of racing entirely. The Hall of Fame rider will begin working for TVG in January as an on-camera analyst.
Michel Lapensee, 1947-2005
Talk to a jockey about the dangers of riding and they’ll point out that they’re the only athletes followed by an ambulance. The statement is both fatalistic joke and stark acknowledgment of fact. No jockey gets through a career without injuries; an unfortunate few are permanently disabled or killed riding. Such was the fate of Michel Lapensee, who died last Friday from injuries he suffered in an accident at Suffolk Downs on October 24.
Hundreds of mourners gathered in a Providence church this morning to remember and honor the 58-year-old rider as a husband, father, colleague, and friend. The ceremony was simple and emotional, a burial mass followed by two eulogists. Lapensee’s niece read from a piece she wrote while her uncle lay in intensive care, in which she touched on the question that must have crossed the minds of many others when they heard the news of Lapensee’s death — “Was feeling at one with an animal … worth this?” She was followed by an old friend of Lapensee, who recalled his humor and graciousness, his love of fishing, and his passion for racing. “I can still hear his voice, from when he broke his maiden at Green Mountain. He was in front of me, yelling, ‘I’m going to win, I’m going to win!'” It was that thrill and joy that kept Lapensee at the track long after most jockeys have retired. Walking away from the sport was “never an option,” Lapensee’s son, Michel Jr., told the Boston Globe.
In his 38-year career, Lapensee won 2,678 races from more than 20,000 starts. “When my dad was working,” said Michel Jr., “he was one with the horse.” Lapensee is best known for riding Playing Politics, who in 1998, at the age of 16, became the oldest horse to ever win a race at Suffolk Downs. “He was the oldest racehorse of his generation and would not have achieved the honor without the help and companionship of one Michel Lapensee,” writes Paul Daley in his remembrance of the jockey.
“Mike got on the horse and gave his best,” said trainer Mario DeStefano. On October 24, Lapensee climbed aboard Mecke’s Money for that afternoon’s ninth race. On the far turn, the six-year-old gelding broke his left front cannon bone and fell, throwing Lapensee. It was a $4,000 claiming race. There was no glory to be had but that inherent in riding a thoroughbred at top speed, in doing his best on the racetrack. Lapensee’s dedication to riding kept him coming back, doing the only work he knew and loved, and in the end, it killed him. Was feeling at one with an animal worth a man’s death? That’s impossible to answer. But the presence of so many this morning testified that a life spent riding was not a life spent in vain.
The Journeyman
Larry Lee Palmer profiles jockey Victor Mercado, injured on Labor Day in an accident at Emerald Downs (Post-Intelligencer):
“Que pasa?” Victor would ask, “How’s it going?” His heroes would nod, stop and joke.
But Victor Mercado never hit the big time. Few do. Maybe his English wasn’t very good. Maybe he never got the right agent, or found a trainer with faith and a long string of horses.
So, like many in his trade, Victor Mercado became a journeyman. He worked anywhere he could get mounts. Soon he had a family. He had obligations. He worked bullrings and county fairs up and down the West Coast. He rode at Tillamook and Walla Walla, Dayton and Kennewick, Playfair and Portland Meadows, even Prescott and Turf Paradise in Arizona when the season turned.
His best years were at Longacres. He was among the top 10 riders for years. The stat sheet says he ranks 26th in victories on a racetrack that doesn’t exist anymore.
Mercado may not ride again. A fund for his support has been started. To donate, send contributions to the Victor Mercado Relief Fund, Washington Mutual, 24A Street, Auburn WA 98002, or call 253-833-8700.
Apprentice Paralyzed
Charles Town apprentice Shannon Campbell was paralyzed from the waist down in an accident on Saturday night (Daily Racing Form). It was an accident at another West Virginia track last year that left jockey Gary Birzer paralyzed and sparked the jockeys’ insurance dispute last fall, which resulted in several tracks raising jockeys’ insurance coverage to $1 million. Charles Town, amazingly, wasn’t among that group. Its insurance remains capped at $100,000 $50,000. Campbell’s colleagues will be meeting with Jockeys’ Guild representatives to discuss setting up a fund to cover her medical bills.
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Jessica Chapel writes and edits in Massachusetts. Railbird is a Thoroughbred horse racing blog published from June 2004 to July 2019. More / Contact
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