Sunday, August 8, 2010
Contact: NYRA Press office
(518) 584-6200, ext. 4237
VELAZQUEZ WINS FOUR AT
Velazquez, a three-time winner of the coveted Spa riding title, most recently in 2004, started his day winning Races 2 and 4 with a pair of Pletcher-trained first-time starters: Hysterical Cat ($5.40), who took a five-furlong race for 2-year-old New York-bred maidens, and Summer Laugh ($3.40), winner of a 6 ½-furlong race for juvenile fillies.
The 38-year-old jockey picked up his third win of the day in Race 7, a 1 3/16th-mile allowance on the turf, with the Jimmy Toner-trained La Cloche ($11.40), and closed out the card in Race 10 aboard another favorite, Moonwalk Beauty ($5.50), to win a 5 ½-furlong maiden race on the Mellon turf course for trainer Carlos Martin.
Heading into Monday's card, Velazquez leads his closest competitor, Javier Castellano, in victories 23-19. Ramon Dominguez, who has won nine straight meets on The New York Racing Association, Inc., (NYRA) circuit, is in third place with 13 winners.
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