Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Dilodovico juggles two jobs
Few people have as unusual a workday as Damon Dilodovico. As he has done for years, Dilodovico trains a 20-horse stable at Laurel Park in the morning. In the afternoon, he changes hats and works for International Sound, a video production company that handles the Maryland tracks.
On Barbara Fritchie Stakes Day at Laurel last month, Dilodovico was manning the video camera in the winner’s circle during post-stakes interviews. Last Saturday, Dilodovico was on the other side of the lens after sending out Laki to win the $75,000 Not For Love Stakes.
The Dilodovico stable is a family affair. His wife, Christine, “oversees things and is in charge of the staff,” Dilodovico said. He and sons Nicholas and Damon Jr. do a bit of everything around the barn.
Dilodovico’s split schedule has worked out well. Since he began training in 1990, Dilodovico has won 636 races and has an 18 percent win average.
“I’ve worked for International Sound 17 years,” Dilodovico said. “We were a little stable and needed funds. We had two kids and needed insurance.”
Dilodovico said he is not an optimist. “I can always find more reasons why I won’t win a race than reasons I will,” he said. Laki, though, has been a pleasant surprise while winning four straight since finishing 10th in his career debut in November.
Laki is owned by Buck Kalinowski, who operates Hillside Equestrian Meadows, a riding academy in Connecticut. According to Dilodovico, Kalinowski had three clients who wanted to get into racing, so he bought Laki, a Marylandbred son of Cuba, who stands for $1,500. After he bought Laki, the prospective owners changed their minds, so Kalinowski kept the horse himself.
Kalinowski sent Laki to Dilodovico as a 3-year-old in early 2016. He worked him 17 times before he ever ran him.
“Buck is super patient,” Dilodovico said. “I got the horse in early February, and he didn’t run until November. He’s a June foal, and the first thing Buck told me was to take my time, that this was going to be my next big winner.”
Dilodovico said Laki turned a corner over the summer after being gelded.
“This horse was kind of lost, but when we castrated him, he changed pretty quick,” Dilodovico said. “Usually, when you castrate them, it takes a little time before they start to show you what you want. He started training forwardly pretty fast.”
Since being beaten on turf for a $25,000 claiming tag in his debut, Laki has won four dirt races – a $25,000 maiden claimer, a $25,000 starter race, a first-level allowance, and the Not For Love, a six-furlong sprint for Maryland-bred or Maryland-sired runners.
Laki was timed in 1:09.56 last Saturday and earned a 92 Beyer Speed Figure.
“I was nervous because I had been kind of passive in his training after the allowance,” Dilodovico said. “I nominated him, but I really wasn’t training him for it. He came out of the allowance win just the way he went into it, so we decided to run.”
Dilodovico said Laki came out of the race “excellent.” Though he hasn’t made any next-race plans, even Dilodovico would have to say that this glass is half-full rather than halfempty.
Davis collects first stakes win
Katie Davis went down hard in a spill at Laurel Park on March 11. She took off her mounts the next day but dusted herself off and, despite still being sore, came back a week later to win back-to-back races, including the first stakes of her career.
Davis, 25, is the older sister of Dylan Davis and the younger sibling of Jackie Davis, both of whom ride in New York. Their father is Robbie Davis, an elite New York jockey during the 1980s and ’90s who won more than 3,300 races and whose mounts earned in excess of $115 million.
Katie Davis has bounced around since she started out in 2013, riding at venues such as Aqueduct, Indiana Grand, and Delaware Park. Her business has steadily improved since she moved to Maryland last fall, and she is 17 for 107 this year.
In addition to winning her first stakes, she won four races on March 4 – three at Laurel and one at Charles Town. Her previous best had been two in a day. Her agent is Joe Rocco, a winner of 3,700 races himself.
“My agent tells me thing are changing for the better, but I don’t really notice,” Davis said. “I just keep working hard and doing the best I can.”
Rocco said he sees improvement in Davis’s riding and that her upbeat demeanor works in her favor.
“Katie has only ridden a few years and is learning every day,” Rocco said. “She’s got a great personality, and a lot of horsemen have taken a liking to her.”
Davis’s stakes win came aboard Next Best Thing in the Conniver, a seven-furlong stakes for Maryland-bred or Maryland-sired fillies and mares. Next Best Thing is trained by Claudio Gonzalez, the leading trainer at Laurel. In nine mounts for Gonzalez, Davis has a 6-1-1 record.
“The stakes win was something special,” Davis said. “I’ve worked very hard and ridden in a bunch of stakes, but to be on a horse that really had a chance to win was amazing.”
Davis rode at Delaware Park last summer and will participate there again this year even though she will be making Maryland her home base. Laurel will run Fridays through Sundays, while Delaware, which opens June 3, will race Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.
“We’ll travel to other tracks as opportunities present themselves, but I’m trying to find a home on a year-round circuit like Maryland,” Davis said. “I’d like to buy a house, but first I need to find a circuit.”