Paco Lopez

Monmouth Park continued an upward trend by showing an increase in average total handle and average on-track handle for the third straight year as the 51-day meet came to a close Sunday. Paco Lopez claimed his 10th riding title and Claudio Gonzalez was the leading trainer for the second straight summer. The average total handle was $4,032,648 this year, an 11.4 percent increase over last year's average of $3,620,719. The on-track handle rose 15 percent to $340,257 compared to the 2022 average of $295,896. In addition, the average field size...

Fixed odds wagering at Monmouth Park last year didn't exactly break sharply from the gate. In its first run, it was available only on Monmouth races and, initially, only to on-track customers. A website that took fixed odds bets did get up and going during the meet, but regulations that would allow for bettors living outside of New Jersey to bet on fixed odds never did materialize. Handle figures were never made public, but it appeared that fixed odds accounted for only a small percentage of Monmouth's total handle. Yet,...

Trainer Mike Maker racked up his 20th and 21st Claiming Crown victories on Saturday, extending his lifetime lead among conditioners in that annual series by saddling Keystone Field (Candy Ride {Arg}) to a determined half-length win in the featured $175,000 Jewel. But while Maker's familiar presence in the winner's circle underscored his resilience in the event often described as the "blue-collar Breeders' Cup," a trainer taking his first crack at the Claiming Crown, Tom Van Berg, also registered two series victories and added a third on the undercard for a...

Monmouth Park showed a 25.2% increase in total handle and a 16.07% increase in on-track handle, while Paco Lopez won his ninth riding title and Claudio Gonzalez earned his first training title as the Jersey Shore track closed out its 77th season Sunday. Total handle was $217,243,199 this summer compared to $173,511,611 a year ago. On-track handle was $17,753,794 in 2022 compared to $15,216,978 a year ago. Total attendance was 368,101. Monmouth ran 60 live days of racing this year compared to 55 a year ago. "We're extremely pleased by...

With the first week of the 2022 Saratoga meet in the books, NYRA and Fox Sports TV analyst Andy Serling joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland Tuesday as the Green Group Guest of the Week to talk about how Saratoga somehow continues to exceed its sky-high expectations, what track trends handicappers should look out for the rest of the summer, whether or not the sport needs fewer stakes races and more. "I'll be honest, I came into this meet concerned [about a drop in business], and I think...

Though admitting that he deserved his eight-day suspension after being the aggressor in an altercation with Paco Lopez following a July 1 race at Monmouth, Nik Juarez has some choice words for his fellow jockey, calling him "careless and someone who has no regard for his fellow riders." Lopez was suspended five days for his ride aboard Midnight Diva (Midnight Lute) in that day's seventh race. Juarez was suspended for eight days and fined $500 for "initiating a physical confrontation with another jockey." According to the footnote of the race,...

OCEANPORT, N.J.-With a steady stream of customers showing up at the fixed odds windows, Monmouth Park's bold experiment with a new form of wagering the track hopes will energize the sport began Sunday. Fixed-odds betting was supposed to begin a day earlier, but the opening day of the 2022 meet was canceled due to bad weather. Monmouth did not release figures regarding how much was wagered on the fixed-odds bets, which made it difficult to assess how successful it was on day one. Because the bets are only available at...

Jockey Paco Lopez has been suspended 14 race days after Gulfstream Park stewards found him guilty of careless riding in Saturday's GII Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth S., the track announced Wednesday. The jockey will be on probation through the remainder of the Championship Meet. Lopez was aboard eventual runner-up In Due Time (Not This Time) when the field of 3-year-olds bunched up on the far turn of the Fountain of Youth. In Due Time shifted out, which looked to cause High Oak (Gormley), under Junior Alvarado, to clip heels and...

With 2021 now behind us--thankfully, some might say--it's time to look back at the TDN stories that were the mostly widely read during the year. Unfortunately, it's a list largely void of feel-good stories. That's not surprising during what was another tumultuous year for the sport, from the sad saga of Medina Spirit (Protonico) to the sentencing of drug cheat Jorge Navarro to five years in prison to the 11th-hour surprise that was the United States Anti-Doping Agency announcing that it would not be part of the Horseracing Integrity and...

Trainer Mike Maker racked up his series-leading 19th career Claiming Crown victory, conditioner Saffie Joseph Jr. won three of the stakes conducted under starter-allowance conditions, and jockey Paco Lopez won five races overall on the Saturday card to kick off the championship meet at Gulfstream Park. The Claiming Crown began in 1999 as a blue-collar version of the Breeders' Cup to reward primarily older horses who compete in the types of races that form the backbone of day-to-day American racing. But oddly enough, it was a lightly-raced 3-year-old homebred who...

Monmouth Park's 2021 season, which concluded Sunday, showed an increase in overall handle from 2020, with $173,511,161 wagered during the 55-day meet compared to $167,511,608 during last year's 44-day meet. On-track handle was $15,216,978 this year. Last season, which was hampered by attendance restrictions due to the pandemic, had on-track handle of $8,917,436. The simulcast handle was down slightly from $158,594,172 in 2020 to $158,294,183 this year. Jockey Paco Lopez took his eighth riding title at the Oceanport oval, while Wayne Potts was the leading trainer. Colts Neck Stables, with...

When Joe Bravo decided to leave New Jersey because of new regulations banning the use of the whip, his future was unclear. Bravo, 49, needed a place to ride, but leaving the comfortable confines of Monmouth Park might be difficult. He had been riding at the Jersey Shore track since the late eighties and has been leading rider there 13 times. But rather than struggling outside of the Garden State, Bravo is having a meet to remember at his new home, Del Mar. With a week to go in the...