There was a new sheriff in
town briefly Friday afternoon – Dan Considine and Pine Lake Bloodstock’s Sheriff
Bullock – and that sophomore gelding rode off gallantly into the sunset on a
trip back to Kentucky
after prevailing by three-quarters of a length in Friday’s finale.
Sheriff Bullock was saddled by
Kentucky-based trainer Joan Scott, and as guests of Arlington
Park found out Friday
afternoon, she can float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.
“Yes, this is my first winner
here at Arlington
this summer,” Scott said as she hosed down Sherriff Bullock in the tunnel
immediately after the race, “but it’s also the first horse I’ve brought up here
this year. One for one, can’t do much better than that can you?
Come to think of it, that was also my record at Saratoga
a couple of summers ago.”
When she does come back, Scott
will be a welcome and interesting addition to Arlington’s
trainer colony. After growing up in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia where she
got her first pony at age 8, she showed and trained horses and ponies as a
youngster. As a young adult, she galloped for and worked as an assistant to
trainers like Hall of Famers Bud Delp and Carl Nafzger, as well as other
prominent horsemen such as Dickie Small, Al Stall Jr. and Hal Wiggins. In
that capacity she traveled from California to
New York, New Jersey,
Maryland and Florida
with intermediate stops in Kentucky, Louisiana,
Oklahoma and Illinois,
but she also has worked on farms in England
and France
exercising and breaking horses. She opened her own public training stable
in 2002 and is based in Kentucky during the
summer and Florida
during the winter months.
“Right now, I have about 15
horses in training that ready to run, but you can’t run an operation like mine
without good help,” Scott said the morning after her initial Arlington
success. “My assistant Aldana Gonzalez is invaluable to me. Today,
I’m running a couple of horses at Churchill, but obviously someone has to be at
the barn. The whole secret of this business is to have good help.
I’ll be coming back to Arlington
with other horses, and I’ll be studying the condition book the next few days to
see which of my horses might fit which races.
“Maybe I should quit now so I
don’t screw up my perfect record at Arlington
this season,” she joked, “but I plan to keep coming back all summer long.”
E. T. SCORES A HAT TRICK; TIES INJURED ALVARADO FOR
THE LEAD
Veteran jockey E. T. Baird,
44, born and raised in Chicago, had a riding
triple Friday at Arlington
Park to move into a tie
for the lead with the sidelined Junior Alvarado in the local jockey standings
entering Saturday’s 19th day of the 2011 season.
Alvarado, Arlington’s
riding champion in 2009 and runner-up last season, enjoyed a significant lead
in this summer’s standings before breaking his collarbone in a riding accident
here on May 27. The Venezuelan native, who appeared in the winner’s
circle Friday to accept his jockey of the month award for May, is expected to
be out of action for about six weeks.
Baird, who finished eighth in
last season’s standings after having the lead at the half-way mark of the
session, is currently 10th on Arlington’s
all-time leading rider list.
Friday’s triple for Baird
began in the fourth race on Casner Racing’s Sioux Zen for trainer Eoin Harty,
continued in the eighth aboard Morrie Waud’s Magic Case for conditioner Jan Ely
and concluded in Friday’s finale astride Dan Considine and Pine Lake
Bloodstock’s Sheriff Bullock for trainer Joan Scott.
WORKIN FOR HOPS WORKS SATURDAY; CHURCHILL’S
FIRECRACKER NEXT?
Estrorace’s Workin for Hops,
who won Arlington’s Grade III Hanshin Cup here
May 21, worked a half-mile in 48 flat Saturday morning at Arlington
with assistant trainer Hilary Pridham aboard and then galloped out five eighths
in 1:00.80.
“The horse is still going
good,” said Arlington
head clocker Bobby Belpedio. “He looked real good in that work this
morning.”
Workin for Hops won last
year’s 76th renewal of the $100,000 Arlington Classic and then the 96th running
of the Grade II American Derby as the first two legs of the Mid-America Triple
but was denied a sweep of the series when third behind Donegal Racing’s Paddy
O’Prado in the Grade I Secretariat Stakes on Arlington Million Day.
“We’re not sure yet exactly
where his next start will be,” said trainer Mike Stidham later Saturday
morning, “but we are going to take a look at the (Grade II) Firecracker
Handicap at Churchill (July 4) as well as a $100,000 race up at Indiana Downs.”