Hall of Fame
jockey Edgar Prado had a banner afternoon Thursday at Aqueduct Racetrack, riding
five winners from seven mounts to move into third place in the current New York
Racing Association Inc., (NYRA) jockey standings with 15 wins.
Prado’s first winner came in the
third race aboard Al Gold’s Rule by Night ($6.40), who edged away late to score
in a six-furlong optional claimer for 3-year-olds. In race 5, Prado prevailed by a neck
aboard Vinnies Wild Tale ($6.50), then kicked off the late Pick 3, leading
gate-to-wire atop longshot Eighttofasttocatch ($29.60) in race 7, a 1 1/16-mile
turf allowance.
Prado completed his sweep of the
late Pick 3 – which returned $883 – with a win aboard favored Four Shore ($7.10)
in race 8 and a late-surging grass victory aboard Budget ($14) in race 9.
“It feels great today,” said
Prado. “I had a little bit of a
slow meet in Florida and I wanted to come back here and rebuild my business –
work hard and try to be among the best, like I used to be. I’m glad to have this opportunity back
again so that I can show that I still can ride like I used to.”
The Peruvian-born Prado has won
ten individual meet riding titles at NYRA’s three tracks, and in 2005 finished
atop the NYRA standings for the year with 206 victories. His most recent NYRA title came in the
2008 Belmont Fall meet, during which he rode 33 winners.
Prado is the second jockey to
ride five winners at Aqueduct this year.
On February 17, leading rider Ramon Dominguez recorded five wins on the
first five races of the day’s card.
Eddie Castro holds the national
record for races won on a single card, winning nine races at Calder on June 4,
2005.
“This business goes up and down,
it’s a rollercoaster,” said Prado.
“You don’t know what the next day is going to give to you. I’m very excited that we had a beautiful
day today for a lot of different people and hopefully it will carry into
Belmont.”