Flores Wins Debut At Ellis Park;

Defending Champ Osorio Wins 4

written by Jennie Rees

HENDERSON, Ky. (July 1, 2016) — Jockey David Flores had never before been to Ellis Park. But he didn’t waste any time earning his first victory at the western Kentucky track on Saturday’s opening card. Flores teamed with trainer Buff Bradley to capture the featured second race, a $40,000 second-level allowance race that the 3-year-old Divine Warrior took by 3 1/2 lengths over Snow Leopard and jockey Chris Landeros.

Flores first had to make sure of the circumference of the track: 1 1/8 miles on dirt and a mile on turf, making it one of the largest in the United States – similar to Saratoga, Aqueduct and the shuttered Hollywood Park. The latter was a track Flores frequented during his many years on the Southern California circuit.

“The track is unbelievable, beautiful,” he said. “It reminds me of Hollywood Park, same mile and an eighth. So for me it was comfortable. It was like home.”

Of course the backdrop is far different. Hollywood Park had flamingos on its infield lake; Ellis has soybeans. And Hollywood Park was in a very urban area by Los Angeles International Airport, as opposed to nestled amid farmland on the Ohio River.

“I like it,” Flores said.

Flores, 48, said he’s been thinking about his transition into another aspect of the industry when his riding career ends. In that regard, he’d been working in Florida, learning the ropes about breaking babies, buying and reselling young horses and preparing 2-year-olds for the sales.

“There’s so much to learn in this business,” he said. “I’m hoping I can get my own business when the time comes.”

In the meantime, former jockey turned prominent trainer Wesley Ward told Flores he had a job for him at Keeneland, galloping and working horses.

“At the same time, he said he’d put me on some horses” in races, said Flores, who had to drive back to Lexington to be at Keeneland Sunday morning. “I couldn’t refuse that offer. I’ve been with him in the mornings for the last month. He’s a great guy. I’ve known him a long time, won some good races for him. He probably thinks I shouldn’t quit yet, so I’m going to take his advice.”

Flores was riding in Singapore in March of 2015 when he was suspended by those racing stewards for “failing to take all reasonable and permissible measures to obtain the best possible placing” in a fourth-place finish. While such an infraction, which Flores strongly denies occurred, generally would have brought a fine in the United States. The Singapore stewards gave him a year’s suspension, which Flores appealed in the United States and was allowed to ride.

Flores says he was getting as much as he could out of his mount, which he thought was showing signs of lameness.

“They said I didn’t ride severely to the wire and that it cost me a placing, which I don’t think it did,” he said. “The horse was lame, in bad shape…. After I got suspended, they ran the horse again and had to stop on him for three months because of injuries…. It’s just very hard to adapt to their system. There are horses you know you have to get aggressive, and some horses you make the best out of them. Sometimes you don’t have to beat a horse to do well.”

Flores, a three-time winner of Breeders’ Cup races, earned the 3,541 North American victory of his career aboard Divine Warrior, who won an entry-level allowance race at Churchill Downs at 46-1 in his last start. And Saturday he paid $20 to win as the longshot shot in the field of five older horses, with 4-5 favorite Tanner’s Popsicle another head back in third. Divine Warrior’s previous victory came days after the death of Bradley’s father, Fred, who with the trainer and their partner Carl Hurst of Louisville bred Divine Warrior. The colt races for Buff and Hurst.

Bradley said Flores landed on Divine Warrior because his previous jockey, Landeros, was committed to what proved the runner-up.

“I said, ‘Hey, let’s ride a good rider here, and if we can get him, that’s great,’” Bradley said of Flores.

Divine Warrior captured his third start in 10 races overall after taking six attempts to win a race. By Divine Park and out of Town Queen, he’s from the same female family as Bradley’s highly-regarded 3-year-old The Player, who races next in the $500,000 Indiana Derby at Indiana Grand.

“He’s kind of getting back into it,” Bradley said of Divine Warrior, who after winning a $25,000 maiden-claiming race lost his next two before the Churchill score. “This family, they mature a little later most of the time. I’m happy for him to be coming around at the right time. He’s really run big in his last two starts.”

Osorio wins four: Didiel Osorio, last year’s Ellis Park riding champion, captured the first race of the meet aboard the John Hancock-trained Elona ($13.60 to win) and the last on the Wayne Catalano-trained Optical ($4.20) to finish the day with four victories. He also won the fifth race on Siempre Mia ($14) for trainer Tom Amoss and the seventh on Ange Grise ($12.80) for Richard Finucane.

“I’m excited about that,” said the 22-year-old Osorio. “I’m trying to win the title again this year. There are going to be a lot of good riders here this year who aren’t going to Saratoga. But I always try hard, and we’ll see what happens.”

His agent, Joe Santos Jr., was lamenting that it might have been a six-pack had he not opted to ride other horses in two races.

“So many people last year gave us a shot so it was easy to kind of look forward,” Santos said of this meet. “It’s a lot of long nights looking for horses. I actually messed up two times today, taking him off two winners. So I guess if he had a better agent he would have won six. But we did what we could today. When you’ve got the right horse, it makes it easy.”

Osorio said there actually was some family pressure on him, as his brother, jockey Ricardo Santana, won four races Friday at Churchill Downs.

“If my brother can do it, I think I can too,” he said with a laugh.

Racing resumes Sunday at 12:50 p.m. CT, with a special holiday card Monday.

For more information, contact Jennie Rees, Ellis Park publicity, at tracksidejennie@gmail.com.