Second Maryland title has rider Toledo dreaming bigger

Fall brings out the best in Jevian Toledo.

For the third consecutive year, Toledo topped the rider standings at the Laurel Park fall meet, which began just after Labor Day and continued through the end of the year. His 61 wins helped secure his second overall Maryland riding title.

Toledo rode 144 winners at the three 2017 Laurel meets and the 12-day Pimlico stand. Toledo, 23, also was the winningest rider in Maryland in 2015. Trevor McCarthy won the yearend titles in 2014 and 2016.

“I have had a lot of support from the trainers and owners,” Toledo said. “I’ve got to thank everybody for my success – all the trainers who have helped me, my agent, and all the people who take care of the horses – the grooms and the hotwalkers.

“I hope the opportunities keep coming and that I have even better chances in 2018, that I can keep improving my career.”

Toledo, who has 776 career wins, began riding in the U.S. in May 2013 after winning 32 races in his native Puerto Rico. Originally overshadowed by the more experienced McCarthy and Victor Carrasco, he has long since become their equal.

McCarthy and Carrasco both were badly injured in spills this year, making Toledo’s job a little easier. McCarthy, who dislocated a shoulder in May at Monmouth Park, is just now beginning his comeback at Aqueduct. Carrasco broke his leg in September during a race at Delaware Park and remains sidelined.

“When Victor and Trevor are riding it is really tough,” Toledo said. “But there are a lot of good riders I compete against here. It’s hard because everyone has their own business and a lot of riders come here from out of town, from Philly, from Penn National, from Charles Town.”

Toledo, who is represented by agent Marty Leonard, won two stakes at the fall meet aboard Whirlin Curlin for trainer Gary Capuano. The biggest moment of his career was when he rode Awesome Speed in the 2016 Preakness for Alan Goldberg, finishing ninth. His richest career win came aboard Miss Behaviour in the Grade 3, $500,000 Charles Town Oaks in 2014 for Phil Schoenthal.

“It would be wonderful to find a horse that can take me to the bigger 3-year-old races or the Breeders’ Cup,” Toledo said. “That is my goal.”

Carrasco making progress

Victor Carrasco, the 2013 Eclipse Award-winning apprentice jockey and one of the top riders in Maryland, has been going to physical therapy the past six weeks as he works his way back from a serious fall at Delaware Park in September.

Carrasco was on the lead in a turf race when his mount fell nearing the far turn. Carrasco broke the tibia and fibula in his lower right leg.

“I’m doing good, getting better,” Carrasco said Tuesday. “The first two weeks in physical therapy I was only allowed to flex my ankle and bend my knee to get the stiffness away. Now I am walking, doing weights, squats.”

Carrasco was the leading rider at the Laurel Park summer meet prior to being hurt. He had surgery on his leg the day after the accident and was housebound for a long time.

“It’s been difficult,” he said. “I want to be out there working, getting on horses. But I am doing the very best I can. I’m also trying to take my time. I want to be 100 percent when I come back.”

Carrasco, a 25-year-old native of Puerto Rico, has won 833 races.

Laurel cancels Friday

Laurel Park has canceled its Friday card due to the continuing deep freeze that has gripped the Northeast for more than a week.

The temperature Friday morning in Maryland is forecast to be around 10 degrees, rising to the upper teens in the afternoon. Accuweather is predicting winds of 17 miles per hour, gusting up to 28 mph.

The Laurel Park Friday card, which contains the rescheduled $100,000 Dave’s Friend and $100,000 Thirty Eight Go Go stakes, will be brought back in its entirety, as drawn, on Monday, according to Sal Sinatra, president of the Maryland Jockey Club.

Live racing was not originally scheduled at Laurel on Monday but the track has received permission from the Maryland Racing Commission to alter its schedule.

“It’s going to be very cold and windy Friday, and in the interests of safety we have canceled racing,” Sinatra said. “Saturday’s temperatures are going to be similar to Friday but there might be less wind. We are going to wait to make a decision on that card.”

The Thirty Eight Go Go and Dave’s Friend were originally slated to be run last Sunday as races 8 and 9, but that card was canceled after the seventh due to cold weather and deteriorating track conditions.

Parx: Vince Reed dies

Vince Reed, a longtime racing analyst at Parx, died on Saturday at age 76.

Reed, whose actual name was Anthony Iacovelli, had bouts of light-headedness in the days before his death. He died at the Aria Health Torresdale Campus in Philadelphia after having fallen.

Reed, a Maryland native, worked at WBCB radio station in Levittown, Pa., since 1966, first as the news and sports director and later as a broadcaster. His specialty was high school sports.

He was elected to the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame in 2004 and to the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame, Bucks County Chapter, in 2010.

Reed was hired as a mutuel teller at the South Philadelphia Turf Club offtrack betting site in 1992. He went on to host the Philadelphia Park Live television broadcast and the Phonebet account wagering show. He also did on-air work for the TRN Racing Network.

For the last several years, Reed was the paddock handicapper on Parx’s simulcast signal.

Rich Romano, the head of the television department at Parx, worked with Reed for more than two decades.

“When he died, I couldn’t walk down the hallway without someone coming up to me and saying what a shame it was, that he was such a good guy,” Romano said. “That’s how Vince was. He was a gentleman and a professional. Anyone who knew him, loved him.”

Reed is survived by Barbara, his wife of 47 years, two sons, a daughter, and their families.

Viewings will be held Friday from 6-9 p.m. and Saturday from 8-9 a.m. at the James J. Dougherty Funeral Home in Levittown. A funeral mass is scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday at Saint Michael the Archangel Church with burial to follow at Resurrection Cemetery in Bensalem, Pa.