Nicks and Sano Tied in Trainers' Race as Gulfstream Summer Meet Heads Toward Wire

HorseracingFLA Staff  Report

Tuesday,  Sept. 15 –With 11 racing days left in Gulfstream Park’s summer meet, Ralph Nicks and Antonio Sano have 23 wins  each and are tied for the lead in the trainers ‘ standings

Live racing will resume Thursday at Gulfstream with ten races and first post of 1:15 p.m.

Nicks  has  four  horses entered on Thursday and three horses entered on  Friday’s ten-race  card.  Sano has two horses entered on Thursday and four entered on Friday.

Sano and Nicks have been in a close race for the past month.  Both continue to pile up Gulfstream wins while, they, most notably Nicks, are also running horses at tracks in northern states.

Stan Gold and Luis Duco each have  11 wins  and are tied for third  place.

Gold leads trainers in earnings with $925,795. Nicks has $767,660 and  Sano has  $519,797.

Gold’s earnings are high because this has been another meet in which he has had multiple stakes winners, including three horses in the Florida  Sire Stakes Series.

Nicks  has 23 wins  in 93  summer meet starts,  for a 24 percTent rate.

He was  based  at Kentucky and midwestern tracks before making Gulfstream  his year-round base last year.   He is seeking his first trainers’  title in  a South Florida meet.

Sano has 23 summer meet wins in  134 starts for a 17 percent rate,

Trainer Antonio Sano

He is a native of Venezuela  who began training in  South Florida in  2010.   In 2011 he led in  wins at the Calder meet and at the Tropical  at Calder meet

Other Standings

Other data from Equibase show the following  for the Gulfstream summer meet:

In the owners’ standings, Jacks or Better Farm has  11 victories followed by Frank Carl Calabrese with ten.

Jacks or better is in Ocala and is owned  and operated  by Fred and Jane Brei. It uses Gold  as its exclusive trainer at Gulfstream  and Gulfstream Park  West (Calder).

Thus, the wins and earnings totals are identical for Gold and for Jacks or Better.

Tyler Gaffalione has what appears to be a comfortable lead in the jockeys’ race with 59 victories, followed by Eddie Castro with 48. Harry Hernandez has 36, and Jonathan Gonzales is fourth with 35.

Perfect Step is the only horse with four victories  in the meet. She is four for four, including a win on  Sept.  11 in the $75,000 Hard Worker Stakes at five furlongs on turf.

Trainer  Peter Walder and  owners Anthony Newman  and  Aventura Stable could have a chance to run the 6-year-old Perfect Step  again  before the summer meet ends on Oct. 3.

Four horses have three summer meet wins.  They are Focus on  Me,  Metaphorically,  Miss Darla and Live in Joy.

The 2-yesr-old  filly Ballet Diva leads in  earnings with $26,2140.  She is in the Gold-Jacks or Better barn  and has  two wins  and  a third place finish in three starts–all in stakes.

After the end of  its  summer meet, Gulfstream will hold  its  40-day Gulfstream Park West meet at Calder from Oct.7 through  Nov.  28 with racing Wednesdays through Sundays.

Nicks and Sano Tied in Trainers' Race as Gulfstream Summer Meet Heads Toward Wire