Melvis Gonzalez is a 7-pound apprentice currently riding at Gulfstream Park, where so many youngsters have kicked off what later turned out to be highly successful careers. But the 24-year-old graduate of the Panama jockey’s school looked like an old veteran winning a mile and one sixteenth test …
Apprentice rider Sara Hess has been at Tampa Bay Downs for less than two weeks, and she’s already become a handicapper’s best friend, compiling an impressive record of 4-2-4 in 14 starts. Of the four victories, two have come aboard First Dudes – the $51 bomber on He’s Side Eyed on the 29th, …
Apprentice rider Sara Hess showed up for the meeting at Tampa Bay Downs last week with 20 winning rides under her belt, and made it 21 with a gutsy effort on Singsational on opening day. She quickly made it 22 by taking He’s Side Eyed wire-to-wire on day 2, holding on gamely to …
Time to Cruise moved up to 23rd place on First Dude’s $200,000 list with a sharp (almost) wire-to-wire performance at Parx Racing on Tuesday. With Mychel Sanchez aboard, the 4-year-old gelding bred in Pennsylvania by Tom and Lori Fackler (Best A Luck Farm), took the lead going to the first quarter in …
Maryquitecontrary, First Dude’s second leading money-winner, went over the $700,000 mark in career earnings Sunday after finishing in a dead heat for second in a $75,000 handicap at Gulfstream Park. The 5-year-old mare owned and bred by longtime Ocala veterinarian Rod Lundock was off last in a field of nine going …
The way Fivefive Six Champ is going, it looks like he may soon become the next addition to First Dude’s $200,000 club. The 5-year-old gelding bred by Tom McCrocklin scored his third victory in a row yesterday in a $31,900 allowance optional claimer at his favorite oval, Mahoning Valley in Ohio, …
It seems only fitting that on the day that Donald J. Trump was winning the 2024 presidential election, Exonerated Prez would finish second in a one-mile race at Mahoning Valley in the Republication state of Ohio, and the stewards would disqualify the winner and put up Exonerated Prez’s number. The 6-year-old …
Fivefive Six Champ went winless for the first 11 races of his career. But, after his latest score at Mahoning Valley, the 5-year-old First Dude gelding has visited the winners’ circle in nine of his last 17. Erik Barbaran was in the irons for Fivefive Six Champ’s ninth score, in …
Sweet Nola pulled the old ‘last to first’ routine under Scott Spieth in a race at a mile and 70 yards over the all-weather track at Presque Isle Downs. Spieth had the 4-year-old First Dude filly in eighth place down the backstretch, about eight lengths off the pace, and she began to move …
It took Orange Theory until her ninth start of 2024 to get her first victory of the season, but when she struck Saturday at Canada’s Century Downs, it turned out to be one of her best career performances. The 6-year-old daughter of First Dude was ridden by Rafael Zenteno Jr., who …