New York Scrappy continued his hot streak by recording his fourth win of the year. This time it was at Saratoga and on turf as the previous three wins this year came on dirt.
Silvestre Gonzalez rode him to victory, and it was a special win for him. Our winningest jockey, Gonzalez has recorded over 800 wins and rode our horses to victory 33 times now. Racking up wins at Aqueduct, Belmont, Parx and Penn National, it was Silvestre’s first ever win at the hallowed grounds of Saratoga.
“I’m very excited. I’m very thankful to come out here to the Spa, beautiful weekend and to get a victory is even a bonus” said Gonzalez in his post-race interview.
It was also back-to-back wins aboard New York Scrappy who has won his last 3 races in a row. “I don’t know what it is about him; he likes my riding I guess,” said Gonzalez. “First time on the turf for me with him and he was as game as could be.”
“I just tried to save all the ground in the turn and just hope that it was going to open up a little bit, I had plenty of horse where I felt comfortable that we could make a move happen.”
The 5 ½ furlong allowance race on the turf had New York Scrappy and Silvestre Gonzalez sit back in fourth down the backstretch. Going into the stretch, Gonzalez found a lane on the inside and was able to make a move to with the fifth race by a neck in 1:01.64.
“Riding for these guys, Ilkay and Matt, they’ve helped throughout my career, the sky’s the limit for them. I’m just glad to be on the ride with them.”
The win marks our seventh straight year with trip to the Winner’s Circle at Saratoga and we’re extremely happy Silvestre’s first Saratoga win came aboard one of our horses.
Off an impressive allowance win, Rockies Balboa could start in the Fountain of Youth.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Dale Romans will be hard on the campaign trail this spring trying to win a Senate seat for the state of Kentucky. He’s also hoping he might be on the Kentucky Derby trail at the same time, a dream that gained some momentum here Thursday when Rockies Balboa ran off to an impressive five-length allowance victory in a race restricted to Florida-breds going seven furlongs on the main track.
Thursday’s one-sided triumph, with jockey Junior Alvarado aboard, was the second in a row for Rockies Balboa. The son of Girvin is owned by a partnership group that includes Charles Monfort, who along with his brother Richard, are the principal owners of the Colorado Rockies baseball franchise.
Rockies Balboa came to South Florida a maiden after three starts but showed off a good deal of promise in his second race when earning a 91 Beyer Speed Figure after finishing a solid second to trainer Todd Pletcher’s well-meant first-time starter Local Knowledge in a maiden special weight dash at Keeneland on Oct. 4.
He’s obviously taken a shine to the local surroundings, having won his maiden by 5 3/4 lengths here to close out his 2-year-old campaign before drawing away in similar fashion when facing statebreds for the first time on Thursday.
“He’s a nice colt, he ran a huge race at Keeneland, he’s got a lot of quality and I believe he can run against open company,” Romans said. “I just talked to Junior about whether he thought he will handle two turns and he said he’s ready.”
As for the possibility of moving Rockies Balboa right up out of statebred allowance company into one of the many upcoming Derby preps on the horizon, Romans left little doubt about his intentions.
“We might try some big boys later. You know me, I like to jump right into the deep water,” Romans said with a laugh while adding that a start in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth here later this month was “very possible.”
“This is the first [and only] horse owned by Charlie Monfort, who owns the Colorado Rockies,” Romans noted. “And he’s really getting to like the game. We’ll see what he wants to do and go from there.”
Sassy Princess scored America’s Pastime Stables’ first win in 2026. The now 5-year-old bay mare by Cario Prince out of Rachel Wall by Blame sat mid-pack in the 2nd Race at Aqueduct on January 16th and then jockey Manny Franco had her excel in the final furlong to score a half-length victory in a time of 1:39.89 for the mile. The Starter Allowance win was the fourth of Sassy Princess’ career and her third win with us. Previously trained by Brendan Walsh, Sassy Princess broke her maiden in March of 2024 at Gulfstream Park. Then this past summer she won a $35,000 Claiming Race at Saratoga and was claimed off us. Sassy’s next win came on November 21st in a $17,500 Claimer at Aqueduct where she scored an 11 3/4 length victory. We partnered with trainer Ilkay Kantarmaci and claimed her back following that impressive win. This was her third start in the Kantarmaci barn after finishing second and fourth in the previous two starts.
The 2025 Horse of the Year for America’s Pastime Stables was Unlimitedpotential. Scoring a stable high 3 wins, 1 second and 3 thirds in 11 starts, Unlimitedpotential took home a stable leading $160,418 in earnings. Luis Saez was the top jockey with 4 wins and Ilkay Kantarmaci was the top trainer with 5 wins. Read More here: https://www.americaspastimestables.com/horse-of-the-year/
America’s Pastime Stables has now reached the Winner’s Circle at 20 different tracks. It was also the 9th track we’ve recorded a victory at this year as Heaven Street recorded the win in Friday’s 2nd race Friday at Meadowlands on October 3rd. Fernando Jara was in the reigns as he also recorded his first victory for us. The plan for the Ilkay Kantarmaci trained 6-year-old colt was to straight for the lead in the 5-furlong turf sprint and never look back. Jara did just that and got Heaven Street out of the gate and right to the front. The first quarter went in 22.36 and the half in 44.77 with a final time of 56.08. Shaking free of the competition midway through the turn, we excelled down the stretch to drew clear to win by 1 3/4 lengths. Congratulations to our partners at Madaket Stables on the win. This is our second win with Heaven Street as he recorded a victory in 2023 for us at Keeneland and it’s his 6th win overall in 33 career starts. The plan now for Heaven Street is to head to Maryland and Laurel Park with trainer Timothy Kreiser.
