Tony Dutrow fresh from winter hiatus

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Tony Dutrow’s winter hiatus is over.

From December through March, Dutrow ran only three horses, winning one race and finishing in the money with the other two. Dutrow, who was based at the Payson Park training center in Indiantown, Fla. all winter, said this was by design.

“I thought we’d have our horses fresh and well rested for April through October,” said Dutrow, who maintains an 18-horse stable that ultimately will be based at Belmont Park.

This weekend, Dutrow has brought back several of his top runners from a year ago, including Mo Town, who runs in Sunday’s $100,000 Danger’s Hour at Aqueduct, and Big Handsome, who was to run in Saturday’s Grade 2 Shakertown at Keeneland.

At this time last year, Dutrow was hoping to see Mo Town qualify for the Kentucky Derby. But Mo Town finished seventh in the Wood Memorial. Following a freshening and two disappointing allowance efforts on dirt, Mo Town was switched to the turf. On Oct. 12, he won a second-level allowance at Belmont and six weeks later captured the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby at Del Mar.

Dutrow has big plans for Mo Town in 2018. He is hoping to use Sunday’s Danger’s Hour, at a mile, as a prep for the Grade 1, $750,000 Man o’ War at 1 3/8 miles at Belmont Park on May 12.

“He’s well rested and a mile is not going to hurt him and it gets him going,” Dutrow said Friday from Keeneland. “I believe we’ll have a nice, fresh horse for the big stuff upcoming.

“Mo Town has it to prove, I’m completely aware of that, and I want to see it, but he could be a special horse.”

Get Jets, who won a pair of New York-bred stakes last year, is gearing up for his return in the Elusive Quality Stakes at Belmont on April 28. That, Dutrow said, would be a stepping-stone to the Kingston on May 28.

Dutrow said his emphasis is on quality over quantity and is hoping Mo Town, Get Jets, and Big Handsome can keep things going until his 2-year-olds come in and begin to show themselves.

“I’ve had my 130, 140 horses for years,” Dutrow said. “I want to spend my time with horses of quality. I made that transformation two years ago. With the help of West Point, Woodford, and Team D, I’m able to be where I want to be.”

Carmouche missing fallen friend

It’s impossible not see to see the emotion in Kendrick Carmouche’s eyes when he talks about his friend Jose Luis Flores, the jockey who died last month as the result of injuries sustained in a spill at Parx.

Flores was one of the first people Carmouche met when he left Louisiana to begin riding at Parx several years ago. Two weeks before Flores died, Carmouche was at Parx and the two were in the jockeys’ room when Flores told him that once he reached 5,000 career wins he was going to retire. Flores had 4,650 wins.

Carmouche said he if he could, he would transfer 350 of his 3,047 career wins to Flores’s total.

“It’s something I wanted to do for him because we talked about it two weeks before,” Carmouche, his eyes welling up, said this week. “I know it probably couldn’t happen. … I wanted to do it not only for him but his family, too. That’s what he was waiting to do.”

Carmouche, 34, said he still thinks about Flores when he rides.

“Even when I’m going around there sometimes he pops in my mind,” said Carmouche, who won three of Friday’s first four races at Aqueduct. “It’s very sad that you can lose somebody that close to you in the industry. You just wish you could rewind and bring him back. He was such a good guy, he was a clean rider, never messed with anybody. It’s a very bad loss for me and I’m sure a lot of other people.”

Carmouche said that despite the dangers of his profession, he has no plans to stop riding. But, he is appreciative for every time he comes back safely after a race.

“You got to be really safe with your life and love yourself,” Carmouche said. “I tell all jockeys you got to love yourself. I love myself when I’m on the horse and I want that horse to love me. I want him to make it around there safely every race. Every time I pull up a horse at the end of a race I pet him and I say ‘thank you.’ ”

Cohen, Maragh back to NY

The New York riding colony will welcome two old faces and one new one this spring.

Over the next two weeks, Rajiv Maragh, who spent the winter in Southern California, and David Cohen, who returned from a three-year hiatus to ride at Oaklawn, will begin riding at Aqueduct. Newcomer Reylu Gutierrez, a seven-pound apprentice who has been based at Gulfstream, also plans to base his tack in New York.

Cohen will be represented by Bill Castle, while Maragh reunites with Tony Micallef, who had previously been his agent. Micallef also will book mounts for Gutierrez.