What are the odds? At the June 2021 OBS Sale, Impacto didn’t reach his reserve and wound up as a $14,000 RNA. Ironically, at Tampa Bay Downs in his first 2025 start, the now 6-year-old gelding by First Dude won for the seventh time, and the reward was $14,000. …
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 …