Mychel Sanchez rides two winners
LAUREL, MD—Jockey Mychel Sanchez earned his second victory on Friday’s Laurel Park program when he guided Rowsie Express to a game front-running score in the featured eighth race, a $49,000 first-level allowance for fillies and mares at 1 1/8 miles.
“I thought it was going to play out like that,” Sanchez said about the pace scenario, which saw Rowsie Express strut to the lead from her inside post position. “Although the times were a little slow [25.46, 50.40, 1:15.28], I never really had a breather like I wanted to because they were [on me] all the way around. At the half, I had to ask her a lot.”
Rowsie Express shrugged off multiple challenges to earn a half-length victory in 1:55.36 over the fast main track.
Her uncoupled stablemate from the Jamie Ness barn, How Sweet She Is, turned up the heat from in between rivals late on the backstretch. Whocouldaskformo shadowed those two from a three-wide tracking position.
At the five-sixteenths pole, those three were joined from the outside by Paradise Wins, who made a bold bid into contention under jockey Yedsit Hazlewood.
Whocouldaskformo appeared to have momentum, but she drifted out considerably into the path of Paradise Wins, forcing that one to check. Meanwhile, Rowsie Express kept grinding and grinding and grinding on the rail.
“It takes her a little bit to fully get going, but she has fight in her,” Sanchez said. “I was always pretty confident.
Turning for home, she went to the right lead and took off again.”
Whocouldaskformo finished second, 2 ½ lengths ahead of late-running Audibly, but was disqualified and placed behind Paradise Wins in fourth for interference. How Sweet She Is and beaten favorite Reply completed the order of finish. Meg scratched.
Rowsie Express paid $11.20 as the fifth choice in the betting.
“I think the longer, the better because she doesn’t stop. She keeps giving you more and more and more,” Sanchez said about Rowsie Express, who had never raced beyond 1 1/16 miles in her prior 30 starts. “She has that one pace. She’s feisty inside the gate and comes out of the gate running, so it helps her to get close [to the pace].”
Bred in Maryland by Ness’s Jagger Inc., Rowsie Express is a 5-year-old mare by Golden Lad. She made her first three starts for Jagger and Sun Bear Racing before being claimed for $45,000 out of a third-place finish at Laurel on Nov. 7, 2022.
Four starts later, Jagger and Sun Bear Racing reclaimed Rowsie Express for $20,000 and have campaigned her ever since. Overall, Rowsie Express has six wins and $269,083 in earnings.
*Around the track:
Sanchez’s first winner came aboard Icing ($11.20) for trainer Thomas Iannotti IV in the fourth race…Proton, the winner of the $125,000 Laurel Futurity on Sept. 27 for trainer Graham Motion, finished second in the $200,000 Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance Stakes at Del Mar, part of the Breeders’ Cup Friday undercard…Live racing resumes Saturday with an 11-race program. The first post time is 11:45 a.m. ET, and there are two “Value Pick 5” wagers, each with a low 12% takeout rate… The FREE “Laurel Park Handicapping Guide” is available every racing day. See picks, a full-card analysis, trainer stats, trip notes, horses to watch, track bias information, and lots more from The Maryland Jockey Club’s team of analysts. Saturday’s Guide can be found here: Click here to view…Reserve your spot for our weekly “Bubbly Brunch Sundays”. Kick back with friends over delicious brunch favorites and bottomless mimosas in our vibrant Stone Bar Restaurant and Bar. Sunday Brunch begins at 11:00 am ET and the event runs through the final live race…
