Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Jump for Alex to carry his breeder’s legacy in Winkfield
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Guadalupe Preciado hopes jockey Luis Rodriguez Castro will have an angel on his shoulder when he rides Jump for Alex in Saturday’s $150,000 Jimmy Winkfield Stakes at Aqueduct.
Edward H. Stone, the ownerbreeder of Jump for Alex, died on Jan. 29 at the age of 100. Ten days earlier, Jump for Alex had won a first-level allowance race at Parx.
“The next day I talked to him, he told me how beautiful the race was,” Preciado said. “He was talking perfect. Then one night he went to sleep and he never woke up.”
Preciado said Jump for Alex is the first horse he ever trained for Stone, himself a former trainer who plied his trade mostly on the New England circuit.
Stone won five stakes with the filly Jill’s Layup, and in 2009 he won a stakes at Suffolk Downs with the horse Sundance Richie. Stone’s last recorded starter as a trainer was Tango With Lois, who finished third in a stakes at Suffolk in 2017 when Stone was 98.
Preciado said he thinks Stone sent him Jump for Alex because the colt is a Pennsylvania-bred son of Jump Start. Jump for Alex won his debut on July 14 at Parx, then finished third in a statebred stakes as the favorite at Presque Isle Downs on Sept. 2. He broke poorly that day and did so again in an allowance race at Parx where he finished sixth on Oct. 1.
Following that race, Preciado put blinkers on Jump for Alex, who bobbled at the break of a Nov. 4 allowance and finished third. On Dec. 1, Jump for Alex finished second to Call Paul in the Pennsylvania Nursery before winning an allowance race on Jan. 19.
The second to Call Paul looks better after that horse won last Saturday’s Grade 3 Swale Stakes at Gulfstream Park, Call Paul’s third stakes success.
In his allowance win, Jump for Alex raced between horses down the backside, tipped four to five wide in the stretch, and ran down Thiscatcanjump to win by three-quarters of a length.
“For me, it was very impressive because he closed a lot of ground,” Preciado said. “I like the way he ran that day and the horse has matured a little more, and with each run he’s gotten better and better.”
Jump for Alex, who will run in the name of Edward’s son Richie, has had five jockeys in his first six starts. Rodriguez, who rode him to victory on Jan. 19, will be back aboard Saturday.
The Winkfield, run at seven furlongs, drew a field of seven, with no clear standout. Haikal, a maiden winner on Dec. 15 for trainer Kiaran McLaughlin, and Direct Order, who cuts back to seven furlongs after a sixth-place finish in the Jerome Stakes, could vie for favoritism. Debut winners Joevia and Tikhvin Flew were also entered, as well as Gates of Dawn, fourth in the Jerome, and Family Biz, fourth in a starter allowance on Feb. 1.
Rice down two stakes horses
Sassy Agnes and Blindwillie McTell have combined to win five stakes races for trainer Linda Rice. But one is no longer in her barn and the other is sidelined until spring.
Rice said Sassy Agnes was sold at Monday’s Fasig-Tipton winter mixed sale in Lexington, Ky., after developing a physical problem that required surgery. She will likely become a broodmare, Rice said.
Sassy Agnes, a daughter of Central Banker, won 3 of 7 starts as a 2-year-old: the Lady Finger Stakes and Shesastonecoldfox at Finger Lakes, and the Key Cents at Aqueduct. She finished eighth in the East View Stakes on Dec. 29 in what was most likely her final start.
Blindwillie McTell, who won a division of the New York Stallion Stakes Series in December and the Rego Park in January, suffered an infection of a hind ankle and is getting time off.
Rice said Blindwillie McTell is likely to rejoin her barn in another week or so and could be pointed to the $200,000 Times Square division of the New York Stallion Stakes here on April 20, closing day of the Aqueduct spring meet.
Stonesintheroad eying stakes
Stonesintheroad, a dominant winner of a first-level allowance race for New York-bred 3-year-old fillies at Aqueduct on Sunday, could make her next start in the $100,000 Franklin Square Stakes on Feb. 23, trainer Jeremiah Englehart said.
Stonesintheroad, a daughter of Bustin Stones owned and bred by Team Penney Racing, ran off to a 6 1/4-length victory in a six-furlong race on Sunday, running the distance in 1:11.04 and earning a 75 Beyer Speed Figure. She had won her debut by four lengths on Dec. 23 with a 74 Beyer.
“The owners and the farm were kind of high on her when they sent her to me,” Englehart said. “I did something I don’t normally do. I threw her into a race five days after I worked her five furlongs. She’s really made a nice progression in her works and her races.”
Englehart felt Stonesintheroad won rather easily on Sunday, which is why he is considering running her back in 20 days.
“If she comes out of the race fine and trains well, it’s definitely an option,” he said.