Zayas, Joseph and Stonehedge Hold Leads in GP Spring/Summer Standings

 HRFLA Staff Report

With twelve race days left in Gulfstream Park's spring/summer meet, Edgard Zayas has a comfortable but not insurmountable lead in the competition for jockey wins.

Meanwhile, data from Equibase show that Saffie Joseph Jr. leads trainers in victories and Gilbert Campbell's Stonehedge LLC leads owners in victories.

Thursday will be the 96th day of Gulfstream's 107-day spring/summer meet, which began on April 4 and will end on Sunday Sept. 27.

Thursday will  be the start of four straight days of racing at Gulfstream will be 12:00 p.m. each day.

NOTE--On Oct. 1, South Florida racing will move eight miles west to Calder in Miami Gardens for the annual 40-day Gulfstream Park West race meet.

This is the seventh and final year in which Gulfstream is scheduled to hold that two-month meet under a lease agreement. Gulfstream has racing at its Hallandale Beach track during the other ten months each year.

Later this week, we will begin a series of articles on the question of where Gulfstream might hold October-November racing in 2021 and future years.

Jockey Standings

Zayas has ridden 124 winners through Sunday, the most recent day of the spring/summer meet.

Miguel Vasquez is second with 112 wins and Emisael Jaramillo is in third place with106.

Leonel Reyes and Cristian Torres are fourth and fifth with 51 and 50 victories, respectively.

Zayas leads in race purses won with $3,534,068.  Vasquez is second with $3,445,988 and Jaramillo is third with $3,133,417.

Gulfstream on Thursday will have nine races  with first post of 12:00 p.m.

Zayas is scheduled to ride in eight Thursday races. Vasquez is scheduled for seven races and Jaramillo is scheduled for four.

In 2019, Gulfstream held separate spring and summer meets, each for three months.

Zayas finished first in wins at both meets. He had a combined total of 136, followed by Jaramillo with 109 and Vasquez with 104.

Trainer Standings

Joseph is in first place with  52 wins through Sunday.

Mike Maker is second with 42 victories. Others in the top five are: Antonio Sano, 39; Todd Pletcher 32; and Ralph Nicks 28.

Joseph led 2019's combined spring and summer  meets with 42 victories.  Sano finished second with 39.

Owner Standings

Stonehedge is in first place with 22 victories through Sunday.

Arindel is second with 18 and Frank Carl Calabrese is third with 17.

Arindel, whose farm is in Ocala, is owned by Alan Cohen, a former managing partner of the Florida Panthers.

Stonehedge's list of winners includes Breeze On By, who won the first two races in this year's male division of the Florida Sire Stakes series for 2-year-olds.

Breeze On on By won the $100,000 Dr. Fager at six furlongs on dirt on Aug. 1 and the $200,000 Affirmed at seven furlongs on dirt on Aug. 29.

The third and final race in the series is the $400,000 In Reality, to be run at 1 1/16 miles on dirt on Sept. 26.

Nicks trains Breeze On By and Jaramillo is that horse's regular jockey.

For Gulfstream's combined 2019 spring/summer meets, Mike Naploi was first in owner wins with 28 and Arindel was second with 27.

Napoli is a former Major League Baseball player, mostly at first base and catcher and as a DH.  He hit 267 career home runs while playing for the Texas Rangers, Cleveland Indians, Los Angeles Angels and Boston Red Sox.

Napoli-trained horses have raced only three times this spring/summer at Gulfstream--with no victories.  He is racing primarily at tracks in northeastern states.