Churchill jockeys travel near and far for summer

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The bulk of the Churchill Downs riding colony will stay in Kentucky for much of the summer and move two hours westward to Ellis Park, although a few will ride at Saratoga and other tracks. Ellis, which opened its meet Saturday, will run Fridays through Sundays following a four-day holiday weekend to open the 31-day meet.

Julien Leparoux, Florent Geroux, and Shaun Bridgmohan are the only Churchill regulars who intend to ride daily at Saratoga, which runs July 21 to Sept. 4, but other Kentucky jockeys will make spot appearances there and elsewhere.

Leparoux will ride Sunday at Woodbine, then travel to Prairie Meadows, Arlington Park, and Indiana Grand for stakes prior to the Saratoga opening. Geroux will ride at Monmouth, Parx, Arlington, Presque Isle, and Indiana over the next two weeks.

Meanwhile, Corey Lanerie and Brian Hernandez Jr. – the one-two finishers atop the jockey standings at the 38-day Churchill spring meet that ended Friday night – have their share of out-of-town stakes mounts lined up for the next couple of months.

You might need a scorecard to keep track of all the moving parts.

“So many things are bebopping around right now,” said Lanerie’s agent, Lenny Pike Jr. “We’ll ride the Iowa Festival [July 6-8] at Prairie and maybe try to ride earlier in the day at Arlington on the 8th if that’s doable. Sometimes you’d like to be in three places at once if you could be.”

Put Da Blame On Me game

Put Da Blame On Me held off Mines and Magic following a torrid throwdown in the Thursday feature at Churchill and probably stamped her ticket to the biggest race of the Ellis Park meet, the Grade 3, $100,000 Groupie Doll.

With Jimmy Graham riding for trainer Mike Tomlinson, Put Da Blame On Me beat Mines and Magic by a head in the $59,188 allowance at seven furlongs. Both 4-year-old fillies were scratched from the Grade 3 Chicago Handicap five days earlier.

“This filly has really gotten good,” said Mike Bruder, the retired Evansville, Ind., businessman who owns Put Da Blame On Me, a bay daughter of Blame.

Bruder is a longtime horsemen’s representative who calls Ellis his home track. The Groupie Doll, a one-mile race for fillies and mares, is set for its first Sunday running on Aug. 13.

Melancon continues recovery

Larry Melancon visited Churchill Downs twice during the final few days of the meet as the retired jockey continues to recover from a debilitating stroke he suffered March 3 while vacationing in North Carolina.

Melancon is wheelchairbound while undergoing physical therapy, with the primary damage from the stroke being paralysis on his lower left side and a tendency for sensory overload. He speaks clearly and strongly and said part of his inspiration to make a full recovery stems from the outpouring of support he has received from his many friends in the racing community.

“The doctors say if I keep improving, I could be walking again in the fall,” said Melancon, accompanied by his wife, Denise.

Melancon, 61, retired in July 2010 from a riding career that spanned nearly four decades. From nearly 21,000 career mounts, he had more than 2,800 winners and $60 million in mount earnings. He is the fifthleading jockey in Churchill history with 914 wins.

◗ The 200 members of the Arlington Park Racing Club can expect to see their newest acquisition in action soon after the ownership group won a six-way shake for Clever Serve following her victory in the sixth race Thursday at Churchill, a $30,000 maidenclaiming race at a mile. Wayne Catalano is the new trainer.

Clever Serve, a 3-year-old filly by To Honor and Serve, was dropping in for a claiming tag from a series of maiden special weight races. She prevailed by nearly 10 lengths for trainer Neil Howard.

◗ Classic Empire, one of the leading contenders for the July 30 Haskell at Monmouth Park, was scheduled to breeze this coming week at Churchill prior to leaving for Saratoga in the company of other Mark Cassetrained horses.

Scratched as the likely favorite for the June 10 Belmont Stakes with a foot abscess, Classic Empire has been training with a custom-fitted bar shoe at Churchill since June 16. He was second in the May 20 Preakness in his most recent start.

◗ Churchill is normally closed for simulcasting on Mondays and Tuesdays during its offseason but will keep open its second-floor customer-service area inside Gate 17 through the July 4 holiday as the Ellis meet gets under way.