Machado’s plan working well

As well as Luan Machado did in Brazil, it still would have been very difficult for the 24-year-old jockey to break into a top winter circuit in the United States. So there’s a method to the madness that has Machado riding at Turfway Park in northern Kentucky.

“He and I agreed that this would be the right time and place for him,” said his agent, Jimmy McNerney.

On McNerney’s invitation, Machado arrived in Kentucky last month from Brazil, where in June he won his home country’s showcase event, the Group 1 Grande Premio Brasil, aboard a colt named Quarteto De Cordas. Now riding for highprofile trainer Wesley Ward and other top outfits, Machado finds himself in a three-way tie atop the jockey standings after eight of 21 programs at the Turfway holiday meet, which runs through Dec. 31.

Machado “has always wanted to ride in the U.S.,” said McNerney, who doubles as the Turfway race-caller. “Riding for Wesley, he’s going to win races, and hopefully that will snowball. More and more people will notice, and by the time we leave here for Keeneland in April he’ll have some name recognition and momentum – at least that’s the plan. That probably couldn’t have happened if he started out at Gulfstream or Fair Grounds.”

From his first 39 mounts, Machado has won eight races, which has him deadlocked with Turfway mainstays Rodney Prescott and John McKee as another four-night race week begins Wednesday at 6:15 p.m. Eastern.

Machado, who actually rode seven races in South Florida in 2015-16 during a brief stay, won his first race in the U.S. on Nov. 30, then recorded a threewin day on Dec. 1.

Blame half-brother has first win

Keros, a half-brother to Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Blame, romped by 10 lengths Saturday night in a six-furlong maiden race.

Keros, a 4-year-old son of First Samurai, was making his third start and his first since being gelded. He is based at the Skylight training center with Tom Drury.

Keros is owned by his breeders, Claiborne Farm and Adele Dilschneider, who campaigned Blame, best known for dealing Zenyatta her only career defeat in their epic clash in the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Classic. Blame, by Arch, has become an established sire at Claiborne.

Liable, the dam of both Blame and Keros, is now 23. Although they were born eight years apart, only one other Liable foal between them ever made the races: Might, a 2008 foal who won 2 of 4 starts.

Goldberry eyes Pan Zareta

Goldberry, winner of the Nov. 30 Holiday Inaugural at Turfway, could make her next start in the Jan. 5 Pan Zareta, a 5 1/2-furlong turf race at Fair Grounds. In the meantime, trainer Marco Castaneda has been turning down sizable private offers to buy Goldberry, a 4-year-old War Chant filly who cost owner Karen Schaeffer just $5,500 as a 2015 yearling.

For Castaneda, the Holiday Inaugural was his first stakes win in 15 years of training. Both he and his wife, retired jockey Bonnie Castaneda, have endured very trying circumstances in recent years while living in Lexington, Ky. Bonnie Castaneda, now 57, is working on a local farm after years of rehabilitation required in the aftermath of serious neck and back injuries suffered in a Turfway spill on Jan. 1, 2012.

COADY PHOTOGRAPHY Goldberry, who won the Holiday Inaugural Stakes in November, might make her next start in the Pan Zareta at Fair Grounds.