Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
SANTA ANITA Jockey Espinoza ready for comeback
ARCADIA, Calif. – Jockey Victor Espinoza is nearing a comeback this month from an injury sustained in a training accident at Del Mar last summer.
Espinoza was scheduled to resume working horses at Santa Anita on Saturday and intends to resume riding as early as Jan. 17, his agent, Brian Beach, said Friday. There is a five-day racing week at Santa Anita from Jan. 17-21. Beach said Espinoza’s comeback could occur during that span.
“We want to make sure he is ready,” Beach said. “It will be the last third of the month. His doctor gave him an all-clear sign about a month ago and he’s been working on his fitness. Fitness in the gym and fitness on the back of a racehorse are two different things.”
Espinoza, 46, suffered a fracture of the transverse process of his C-3 vertebra when he was unseated from the stakes winner Bobby Abu Dhabi during a workout at Del Mar on July 22. Bobby Abu Dhabi collapsed and died in the incident.
In the months that followed, Espinoza underwent extensive physical therapy.
Espinoza is best known as the regular rider for the twotime Horse of the Year California Chrome and Triple Crown winner American Pharoah. Outside of racing, Espinoza gained popularity for appearing on the television show “Dancing with the Stars” in 2015.
Moonshine Memories retired
Moonshine Memories, the winner of two Grade 1 races in 2017, was recently retired and will be bred to Justify, the winner of the 2018 Triple Crown.
Trainer Simon Callaghan said Friday that Moonshine Memories left his stable late last year. A 4-year-old by Malibu Moon, Moonshine Memories finished ninth as the 9-5 favorite in the Grade 2 Raven Run Stakes at Keeneland on Oct. 20 in her final start.
Owned by Bridlewood Farm and the Coolmore partnership, Moonshine Memories won 4 of 9 starts and earned $549,065. She was at her best as a 2-yearold, winning the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante and the Grade 1 Chandelier Stakes at Santa Anita in consecutive starts.
Moonshine Memories was seventh in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Del Mar in 2017. Her best finish in a stakes in 2018 was a second in the Angels Flight Stakes at Santa Anita last May.
“She’s a dual Grade 1 winner and fast and precocious,” Callaghan said.
Jockey McDaid retires
Kellie McDaid, the leading Thoroughbred rider at the Los Alamitos night meeting in 2018, has retired from riding.
McDaid, 29, said Friday that she plans to continue as an exercise rider for trainer Bob Baffert at Los Alamitos, but will no longer take mounts. A native of Ireland, McDaid plans to pursue a career as a nutritionist, having completed training in late 2018, she said.
“I think I’ll finish on top and walk out,” she said Friday. “I’ve achieved more than I ever dreamed I would do.
“It’s a tough game to be in mentally, physically, and emotionally. I’m 30 this year. I want to have a new start. Hopefully, I’ll open a business.”
McDaid won 104 races in her career, including six during the daytime Thoroughbred meetings at Los Alamitos in 2018. She won 73 races at the 2018 Los Alamitos night meeting for Quarter Horses and lower-level Thoroughbreds.
All dirt card for Sunday
About a half-inch of rain forecast for Saturday night into early Sunday led Santa Anita officials to card an all-dirt program on Sunday for the first time this meet.
Sunday’s nine-race program is led by the Grade 2 Santa Ynez Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at seven furlongs. Sunday will be the ninth day of the meeting. Through Tuesday, the sixth day of the meeting, Santa Anita had run 57 races, 24 on turf. The track averaged 8.81 runners per race. Turf races averaged a robust 9.38 runners per race.
On Sunday there are 72 horses entered in nine races, an average of eight runners per race.
Plans for Spiced Perfection
Spiced Perfection, the winner of the Grade 1 La Brea Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Santa Anita on Dec. 26, is tentatively scheduled to run in the Grade 2 Santa Monica Stakes for fillies and mares on Feb. 16, trainer Brian Koriner said Friday.
The $200,000 Santa Monica Stakes is run at seven furlongs, the same distance as the La Brea. Koriner said another option is the $100,000 Spring Fever Stakes for Californiabred fillies and mares at six furlongs on Feb. 24. Spiced Perfection has won three stakes against California-breds.
A Smiling Tiger filly owned by Dare to Dream Stable, Spiced Perfection has won 6 of 14 starts and earned $622,405.