Jockey
Robby Albarado became the fifth rider in Churchill Downs history to reach 900
victories beneath the Twin Spires when he guided Strike Impact to a
front-running triumph in Friday’s sixth race.
A
37-year-old native of Lafayette,
La., Albarado has been riding for
21 years and been a regular at Churchill Downs since 1996. He has won one
leading rider title (Spring 2008) and has a sizable margin in his bid for an
initial Fall title with 14 victories through the first nine days of the 21-day
meet that runs through Nov. 28.
Pat
Day is the all-time win leader at Churchill Downs with 2,482 and is followed by
Calvin Borel (1,030), Don Brumfield (925) and Larry Melancon (914). Albarado
has won 66 stakes at Churchill Downs, second only to Day’s 156.
In
Friday afternoon’s feature race, Steve Mongerson’s Mahindar posted a
wire-to-wire victory in the $55,440 five-furlong turf sprint for fillies and
mares, defeating odds-on favorite West Ocean by 1 ¾ lengths.
Trained
by Tom Amoss and ridden by Borel, Mahindar covered the distance on a firm Matt
Winn Turf Course in :56.81. The victory was worth $33,600 for the 3-year-old
Kentucky-bred daughter of Leroidesanimaux (BRZ) who improved her record to
13-7-1-1 with earnings of $136,375.
Mahindar returned $12.40, $4.60 and $3.60. West Ocean,
ridden by Michael Baze, returned $2.40 and $2.10 with Go for Jan
finishing a neck back in third under Julien Leparoux and paying $3.40 to show.