HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Lassie My Girl lifted jockey Ricardo Santana Jr. to a milestone 2,000 Thoroughbred wins in North America on Sunday when she rolled to a two-length win over Punchy Girl in the $150,000 Natural State at Oaklawn Park.
It was another three lengths back in third to Caliente Star.
The one-mile race was for fillies and mares bred in Arkansas.
Santana, a 31-year-old native of Panama, is an eight-time title winner at Oaklawn. On Sunday, he settled Lassie My Girl ($11.20) just off pacesetter Punchy Girl, who took the field through fractions of 23.44 seconds for the opening quarter, 47.82 for the half-mile and 1:12.51 for six furlongs. Lassie My Girl moved to the fore in the stretch and went on to cover the distance in 1:38.72.
The race, which ended at the sixteenth pole, was held on a track upgraded to “good.”
Santana was aboard for Byron Brockman and trainer Melton Wilson.
Lassie My Girl, who is a daughter of Double Irish, was winning her first stakes race. She is now 4 for 20 for earnings of $344,457.
Santana has won 2,000 Thoroughbred races in North America from 12,541 starts, for mount earnings of more than $132 million, according to records from Daily Racing Form. The numbers include five wins from Puerto Rico. Some of the rider’s top horses include Mitole, with whom he won the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, and Creator, whom he guided to victory in the Arkansas Derby.
“It’s been a blessing,” Santana said. “Mitole, Tapiture, Creator, I’ve got a lot of horses that have given me a lot of success.”
Santana has won Grade 1 races with a slew of runners, including Echo Zulu, Whitmore, Bee Jersey, Silver State, Gunite, Yaupon, She’s A Julie, Super Stock, Volatile, Free At Will and Clairiere.
Skelly has been a signature horse for Santana, and the two will team together Friday in the $200,000 Lake Hamilton at Oaklawn.
Santana is a son of the retired jockey Ricardo Santana Sr.
“I always was going to the racetrack with my dad,” the younger Santana said. “I fell in love with horses, My dad was an exercise rider in the morning when he stopped being a jockey. I was going with him every morning. I told him, ‘I want to be a jockey. I want to follow the dream.’”
Santana said the same year he entered jockey school his father broke his back when unseated while exercising a horse. He was left in a wheelchair. Santana, after talking with his parents, decided he still wanted to pursue race riding in a move that spoke to his courage.
“I wanted to follow my dream and my parents let me,” he said.
They will be in to visit their son this week, at his home base of Kentucky.
Santana rode 47 winners in Panama at the start of his career, according to Ruben Munoz, a longtime agent for the rider who brought him to the United States. Munoz said Santana also rode a number of Arabian winners in the U.S., and in 2011 won the Darley Champion Award for jockey of the year. Santana had spent some of his early years at Delaware Park.
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