The Spa Spot: Wrapping up Day 11
Wednesday was a busy and newsy day at Saratoga Race Course:
- For the first time this season, leading jockey Ramon Dominguez failed to come up with at least one winner. Dominguez has 21 wins, nine more than Jose Lezcano, who is quietly having a very good meet.
- Only two of the 10 races were won by favorites. So far at the Graveyard of Favorites, 37 favorites have won the 112 races, 33 percent.
- Trainer Tom Bush saddled his first two winners, Unbridled Command in the sixth and Beautiful But Blue in the Fleet Indian.Each one returned $15.
- Apprentice jockey Wilmer Garcia won for the fourth time this season in the first race aboard Count Catamount, who paid $27.60. In the seventh, Garcia jumped off Stay Composed when she went to her knees coming out of the gate. Both Garcia and the horse were OK.
- Hall of Fame trainer Nick Zito had his first winner of the meet in the 10th with Sinorice, who returned $28.
- Agave Kiss, the once-beaten New York-bred, is the 8-5 morning-line favorite in the Grade 1 Prioress, which will precede the Whitney on Saturday. The Lion Heart filly won her first six starts before losing last time out in the Grade 3 Victory Ride. The six-furlong Prioress drew a field of seven 3-year-old fillies.
- On-track attendance was off 13 percent to 13,991 and the on-track handle of 2,228,236 was down seven percent from 2011. The all-sources handle of $13,546,606 was up 24 percent