Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Rodriguez nearing milestone
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – On March 31, 2010, Aegean Breeze splashed her way to a fourlength victory over Aqueduct’s main track at odds of 21-1. It was the first victory for Rudy Rodriguez as a trainer.
Eight years later, and Rodriguez is now closing on career victory 1,000, which could very well occur next Saturday, March 31, at Aqueduct. That day is New York’s Claiming Championships, a card of 10 starter allowance stakes on which Rodriguez said he could have an entrant in every race.
Rodriguez entered Friday’s card at Aqueduct with 994 career victories. Rodriguez, who won 221 races as a jockey over nearly two decades riding, didn’t think he’d achieve this much success in such a short time training.
“When we first started we didn’t think we could get that,” said Rodriguez, who works closely with his brother Gustavo. “We got good people working with us. It’s a big accomplishment, that’s for sure.”
Before Rodriguez sets his sights on New York’s Claiming Championships, he will attempt to win Sunday’s $100,000 Cicada Stakes for 3-year-old fillies. On Thursday, he entered a trio of 3-year-olds led by the multiple stakes winner Strategic Dreams. Rodriguez’s lineup also includes Danyelli and Lezendary.
Strategic Dreams, a daughter of Archarcharch owned by David Wilkenfeld, has won three straight races, including the Gin Talking at Laurel on Dec. 30 and the Ruthless here on Jan. 28. Rodriguez said the layoff until now was by design.
“We were trying to back off a little bit and put some weight on her,” Rodriguez said.
Danyelli finished third behind Strategic Dreams in the Ruthless, then was beaten a neck in an allowance at Laurel going 5 1/2 furlongs on March 11. Lezendary is coming off a 5 1/4-length victory in a Jan. 14 maiden race. Both Danyelli and Lezendary are owned by Ahmed Zayat.
Also entered in the Cicada were Aunt Babe, Gypsy Janie, Shamrock Rose, and Gibby, who was a supplemental nominee from the barn of Scott Lake.
Looking ahead to next week’s Claiming Championships, Rodriguez will have a major player in Control Group in the featured event, the $90,000 Mr. Sinatra. Control Group is coming off victories in the Grade 3 Discovery and the Alex M. Robb Handicap.
Sounds Delicious in Distaff
Sounds Delicious, who rolled to an eight-length victory in last Saturday’s Correction Stakes, will make her next start in the Grade 3, $150,000 Distaff Handicap on April 6, trainer Linda Rice said Thursday.
Rice said Sounds Delicious came out of the Correction “great, really well” and deserves the opportunity at a graded race.
Sounds Delicious, a daughter of Yes It’s True, ran six furlongs in 1:11.25 and earned a careerbest Beyer Speed Figure of 96. She is 5 for 6 in her career.
Rice said she will also point Holiday Disguise to the Distaff. Holiday Disguise, who is 4 for 6, won the Biogio’s Rose Stakes on Feb. 8 before finishing second to Divine Miss Grey in the Heavenly Prize Invitational on March 10.
Startwithsilver, third in the Correction Stakes, will not be pointed to the Distaff. “She needs a little more time,” Rice said.
Meanwhile, Rice said that Just Got Out, who won the Ladies Stakes in January, will be pointed to the Karakorum Elektra, part of the New York Claiming Championships on March 31.
Weekend Hideaway ready
The million-dollar-earning New York-bred Weekend Hideaway is close to making his 8-year-old debut for trainer Phil Serpe.
Weekend Hideaway was entered for the main track in an allowance race at Gulfstream Park on Thursday, but that race remained on the turf so he was scratched.
Serpe said there is an allowance race at Gulfstream on the March 31 Florida Derby Day card that he could run Weekend Hideaway in, or he could look for something in New York in April.
There is an allowance race on April 19 at Aqueduct for which Weekend Hideaway is eligible. There is also the Affirmed Success Stakes on April 27 at Belmont Park. Serpe said his goal is to have Weekend Hideaway ready for a try at a threepeat in the $200,000 Commentator Stakes at Belmont on May 28.
“At 8 years old he’s still turning in good works,” Serpe said Thursday from Florida. “He still looks good.”