Jaime Rodriguez earns 2,500th lifetime win at Delaware
Toledo, Russell team up for three winners
LAUREL, MD – Multiple graded stakes winner Instant Coffee ended a long drought by taking Saturday’s featured eighth race at Laurel Park, a conditioned allowance with a $55,000 claiming option at 1 1/8 miles.
Making his first start since being purchased by Super C Racing and trainer Jamie Ness’s Jagger Inc. for $110,000 last month at Keeneland, Instant Coffee settled for a loose pocket position as Otello cleared off to make an uncontested lead.
Otello, the first starter for trainer Miguel Clement following the passing of his father, Christophe Clement, carved out fractions of 24.57 and 48.55 seconds while six lengths clear of a chasing Instant Coffee, who was shadowed from the outside by stakes-winner It’s Sizzling Time.
Stakes-winner Otello remained clear after six furlongs in 1:13.59, but jockey Mychel Sanchez eased Instant Coffee off the rail to challenge the leader
Otello tried hard, but Instant Coffee wouldn’t go away, and Sanchez guided his mount home three-quarters of a length better in front after 1:53.17 over a good main track.
Another stakes-winner, Be Better, finished a half-length behind in third after making a wide, sweeping move on the second turn.
Multiple stakes-winner Armando R, Cap Com, It’s Sizzling Time, and stakes-placed Union Fleet completed the order of finish.
“I thought there was going to be a little bit more pace, but I knew [Otello] was going quick, so I didn’t want to force my horse to be closer than where he was,” Sanchez said. “He was going confident and comfortable. Closer to the half-mile pole, I started picking up slowly waiting for the exact moment to squeeze my way between [It’s Sizzling Time and Otello]. Once he saw the hole, he definitely felt like a winner.”
Bred in Kentucky by Sagamore Farm, Instant Coffee is a 5-year-old horse by Bolt d’Oro out of stakes-placed sprinter Follow No One, an Uncle Mo more that is a half-sister to Grade 3-winning turf router Nootka Sound.
Instant Coffee sold for $200,000 as a yearling and began his career for owner Al Gold’s Gold Square LLc and trainer Brad Cox.
A juvenile debut winner at Saratoga over future graded stakes winners Arthur’s Ride, Crupi, Dubyuhnell and Rocket Can, Instant Coffee concluded his 2-year-old season with a rallying victory in Churchill’s Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes.
Instant Coffee wintered at Fair Grounds in preparation for key Kentucky Derby preps, and he stamped himself an early contender for the 2023 Run for the Roses with a Grade 3 win in the Lecomte Stakes.
Instant Coffee finished off the board as the favorite in the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby, however, and was shelved for the remainder of the year after reportedly suffering from some bone bruising.
The Louisiana Derby began a ten-race losing streak with Instant Coffee serving stints with trainers Brittany Russell, Jose D’Angelo and Chad Summers. He finished a well-beaten third in his final start for Gold Square, the Grade 3 Challenger Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs on March 8.
*Jaime Rodriguez earns 2,500th lifetime win at Delaware
Jockey Jaime Rodriguez earned his 2,500th-lifetime victory on Saturday when he guided Hardy Choice to a 2 1/4-length victory in the opening race at Delaware Park.
Rodriguez, 34, won year-end honors in Maryland in 2023 and 2024 and recently notched his seventh Maryland Jockey Club riding title when he edged Mychel Sanchez and Sheldon Russell to win the Laurel Park Spring Meet.
Rodriguez attended the famed Escuela Vocacional Hipica in his native Puerto Rico and rode his first domestic winner when East of Eden prevailed at Belmont Park on May 5, 2010.
Jamie Ness, Rodriguez’s main patron, trains Hardy Choice. Together, Ness and Rodriguez have teamed up to produce 540 winners from 2007 starters, achieving a 26% strike rate.
He enjoyed a career year in 2024, setting lifetime marks in mounts (1,199), wins (272), seconds (210), thirds (190), and earnings ($9,538,475). He placed fourth in the nation in victories and 23rd in purse money. It was the third consecutive season that Rodriguez rode over 200 winners.
Around the track:
Trainer Brittany Russell and jockey Jevian Toledo combined for three winners on Saturday…Sanchez also rode the winner of race two, Opposite the Crowd, for trainer Greg Compton…Royal Spa, second in the Barbara Fritchie Stakes at Laurel on February 15 and the winner of the Heavenly Cause Stakes here on April 12, pulled off a 13-1 upset in Saturday’s Grade 3 Shawnee Stakes at Churchill Downs. Trained by Rodolphe Brisset, Royal Spa scored for jockey Flavien Prat, who captured the riding title at the recently concluded Preakness Meet at Pimlico…Also at Churchill on Saturday, reigning Maryland-bred Horse of the Year Post Time finished a rallying third behind Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan in the Grade 3 Blame Stakes.
