Aqueduct: Cohen celebrates return to New York with three-win day
January 28, 2013It was a happy homecoming for jockey David Cohen, who returned to New York for the first time since last fall and won three races on Sunday’s card at Aqueduct, including the $75,000 Cagey Exuberance Stakes aboard Celtic Chant.
Cohen, the seventh leading rider on this circuit in 2012, went 3 for 5 on the card. He won the opener on Irish Lion ($3.90) and the fourth on Quick Money ($11.40) - both for trainer David Jacobson. After finishing fifth in the fifth on Tancredi, Cohen guided Celtic Chant ($10) to a front-running neck victory over 4-5 favorite Delightful Quality in the Cagey Exuberance. Cohen’s bid for a fourth win on the card came up short as he finished third on File Gumbo in the ninth.
Celtic Chant, a 5-year-old daughter of Songandaprayer, won for the eighth time in 22 starts for Waterville Lake Stables, which owns and bred her. She is trained by Chris Englehart.
Celtic Chant ran six furlongs in 1:10.36 and hung on over Delightful Quality, who didn’t change leads until very late in the race.
Cohen had finished second in the Aqueduct inner track standings in two of the last three winters. He decided to move his tack to Kentucky last September shortly after dead-heating for win in the $1 million Travers on Golden Ticket for the Kentucky-based trainer Ken McPeek.
Things didn’t pan out in Kentucky as Cohen won just 11 races combined at the Keeneland and Churchill meets. He won just 5 races from 64 mounts at Gulfstream, including a second-level allowance aboard Golden Ticket on Saturday.
$259 longshot triggers carryover
Earlier on Sunday’s card, Julissa Laredo guided Take the El Train to an upset victory that created a pick-six carryover of $31,203 into Wednesday’s card.
Take the El Train, trained by David Prine, returned $259.50, usurping Firstbellathenkk ($230) as the longest-priced winner of the meet. Laredo also rode Firstbellathenkk.
That wasn’t the only upset on Sunday’s card. Equally as surprising, neither Jose Ortiz nor Irad Ortiz Jr. won a race. In the seven racing days from Jan. 16-26, they combined to win 34 of 63 races run.
* Formal Attire became the sixth racing-related fatality at the meet when he suffered two slab fractures of the right knee in a maiden $16,000 claiming event. He was a 3-year-old gelding by Stanislavsky owned by Dare to Dream Stable and trained by Englehart.