Castle Village Farm’s four-year-old gelding Iguazu rallied from well back in the pack to finish a strong second in today’s 7th race at Belmont. Iguazu, normally a front-runner, was pinched back at the break, and at one point was 8th in the 11-horse field. But, under jockey David Cohen’s steady hand, Iguazu moved up on the turn, emerged into the stretch on the rail, passed all but the 2-1 favorite Stylish Fella, and then hung on gamely to the wire, missing the win by only a length and a half.
Castle Village Farm’s four-year-old gelding Iguazu (Smoke Glacken-Green Jeans) is entered in the 7th race on opening day at Belmont, Friday, April 29th. It’s a $10,000 non-winners of two claimer, at 6 furlongs. Iguazu, who won his maiden on February 13th, drew post 3 in a full field and will have jockey David Cohen aboard for trainer Bruce Brown. Post time is 4:10 pm.
Castle Village Farm’s four-year-old colt Rigby (by Speightstown) will try for two wins in a row when he takes on allowance foes in Aqueduct’s 3rd race on Thursday, April 21. C C Lopez will ride for trainer Bruce Brown.
Castle Village Farm posted excellent numbers for the Aqueduct winter meet — from the first of the year through the end of inner-track racing on March 27th. From five starts, we had two wins — one each for Iguazu and Rigby — and two third place finishes, with total earnings of $45,830. That’s a 40% win percentage, an 80% in-the-percentage, and average earnings per start of $9,166. Thanks to trainer Bruce Brown and our go-to jockey David Cohen for the excellent results!
For comparison, the records for some other partnership groups that offer inexpensive buy-ins for the winter meet were as follows:
Drawing Away Stable: 19% wins, 63% ITM, $4,654 per start
Funky Munky: 12% wins, 47% ITM, $3,860 per start
Karakorum: 13% wins, 35% ITM, $3,270 per start
Partingt Glass: 0% wins, 20% ITM, $1,459 per start
Castle Village Farm racing manager Steve Zorn has been named the Thoroughbred Racing New York (TRNY) member of the week. TRNY is a Facebook-based page for those involved in, or fans of, New York racing. You can see all the details at http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=8466519122&topic=23450. Thanks to TRNY administrator Ernie Munick for the honor!
