Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Velazquez focused on quality
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – It is more about quality than quantity these days for jockey John Velazquez, but soon his quantity of wins will reach a significant milestone.
Velazquez will soon ride his 6,000th winner in North America, joining just 17 other riders to have accomplished the feat. Velazquez, who will turn 47 years old on Saturday, has 5,996 wins – which includes one victory in Puerto Rico – according to Equibase statistics. Velazquez has only three mounts at Aqueduct Wednesday, two on Thursday, and is named on three horses Friday at Churchill Downs, including Seeking the Soul in the Grade 1 Clark Handicap.
“It seems like it’s getting further away from me,” said Velazquez, who enters the week on an 0-for-13 run since his last victory on Nov. 11. “It’s nothing I actually set out to do . . . . One day when I retire I’ll look back and see I accomplished something. Numbers are numbers. For me, I just want to do the best job I can do.”
Perhaps the most impressive number Velazquez will look back fondly on will be purse money won. He is the all-time leader in that category with $395,309,104.
At the 2013 Breeders’ Cup, Velazquez suffered pretty severe injuries and had to have his spleen removed. Less than three months later, he was back riding and has basically stayed injury free since.
He acknowledges that over the last few years he has concentrated on riding the better races.
“I don’t feel like I need to prove anything to anybody,” said Velazquez, a Hall of Famer and two-time Kentucky Derby winner. “I think that I like to concentrate on winning on some maidens and horses that are going to take me somewhere in the future. That’s what I try to do for the most part.
“I do still ride the lesserquality races for the customers I have – it keeps you busy, keeps you fit – but I try to minimize those.”
Velazquez said he still gets a thrill from winning a race, especially one like the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf aboard Sistercharlie three weeks ago at Breeders’ Cup.
“Winning doesn’t change, man,” Velazquez said. “The fire’s there. The day that I feel that it’s not there I better walk.”
Code of Honor in Remsen drill
Code of Honor, the Grade 1 Champagne runner-up who was forced to scratch from the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile on Nov. 2 due to a temperature, is on schedule to run in the Grade 2, $250,000 Remsen Stakes at Aqueduct on Dec. 1, trainer Shug McGaughey said Monday.
On Monday, Code of Honor was credited with a half-mile work in 49.66 seconds over Belmont Park’s main track.
McGaughey said he had Code of Honor out five furlongs “in 1:01 and change.” The work came just four days after Code of Honor worked three furlongs in 37.23 seconds.
“I thought he worked really good again today. He finished up good,” McGaughey said Monday. “I thought the track was really dead, but I thought he worked really good. I’ll come back and work him solid again next weekend depending on the weather.”
The Remsen is expected to draw Maximus Mischief, the undefeated Parx-based colt trained by Butch Reid who worked six furlongs in 1:12.21 at Parx on Sunday, and Vekoma, winner of the Grade 3 Nashua here.
War Cabinet to try dirt
Before McGaughey ships Code of Honor and the rest of his stable to South Florida for the winter, he will have ample action in the upcoming bevy of stakes being run at Aqueduct.
McGaughey will try War Cabinet on the dirt in Friday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Comely Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/8 miles. A daughter of War Front, War Cabinet has made all five of her starts on turf, winning once.
“She’s worked really good on the dirt. She’ll run that far – whether some of the rest of them will or not I don’t know – so I thought it was worth taking a shot,” McGaughey said. “If we were to catch a sealed track, that would even be better. If we catch a deep, cuppy track, that might not be too good.”
A field of eight was entered Sunday for Friday’s Comely, led by Blamed, the Sunland Park Oaks winner who finished second to Shamrock Rose in the Grade 2 Raven Run Stakes at Keeneland in her first start for Bill Mott. Shamrock Rose came back to win the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint.
Others entered in the Comely include Split Time, Hey Niki, Stronger Than Ever, Alberobello, Indy Union, and Remedy.
The Comely is one of four stakes to be offered on Friday’s 10-race card. The others are the $150,000 Gio Ponti for 3-year-olds on turf, the $150,000 Forever Together for females on turf, and the $100,000 Key Cents for New York-bred juvenile fillies on dirt.