Prado Gets Casino Drive in Belmont
Jockey Triple Crown Giant Killer Will Ride Second Favorite
Jun 5, 2008
Jockey Edgar Prado has broken two Triple Crown championships this decade and broken down on a Triple Crown hopeful (Barbaro, 2006). In Saturday's 140th Belmont Stakes, Prado will ride the second favorite, Japanese-trained Casino Drive, a well-publicized unbeaten rival for Triple Crown hopeful Big Brown.
Casino Drive won the Peter Pan Stakes May 10 at Belmont Park and is unbeaten in his three career starts. Big Brown's jockey, Kent Desormeaux, rode Casino Drive in that race, a 5-3/4 lengths victory.
Prado Rode Sarava and Birdstone
Before the heart-wrenching breakdown of Barbaro in the 2006 Preakness Stakes that ended the Kentucky Derby champ's chances of a Triple Crown championship, and eventually took his life, the colt's jockey, Prado, rode to ruin two previous Triple Crown attempts. In 2002, Prado and Sarava shook off the field and flew under the wire in the biggest long shot Belmont win in history, as the victor paid off at $142.50 in beating Medaglia d'Oro. The favorite, War Emblem, stumbled badly at the start of the race and couldn't recover. He finished eighth.
In 2004, Prado did his job, won the race, then apologized to a transfixed TV audience and to thousands who had come to the race track to see the Belmont Stakes and to witness history -- to watch Smarty Jones become the twelfth American Triple Crown champion. History didn't happen. Prado outwaited an early speed duel between Smarty and two other colts, then sent his little mount, Birdstone, to chase down the exhausted Smarty Jones in the last furlong of the third jewel of the Triple Crown.
140th Belmont Stakes Lineup:
Post Position No.1 --- Big Brown, ridden by Kent Desormeaux, trained by Richard Dutrow, Jr., owned by IEAH Stables and Paul Pompa, Jr.
PP No.2 --- Guadalcanal; Javier Castellano; Fred Seitz; Seitz.
PP No.3 --- Macho Again; Garrett Gomez; Dallas Stewart; West Point Thoroughbreds.
PP No.4 --- Denis of Cork; Robby Albarado; David Carroll; Mr. & Mrs. William Warren.
PP No.5 --- Casino Drive; Prado; Kazuo Fujisawa; Hidetoshi Yamamoto.
PP No.6 --- Da' Tara; Garcia; Nick Zito; Robert LaPenta.
PP No.7 --- Tale of Ekati; Barclay Tagg; Eibar Coa; Charles Fipke.
PP No.8 --- Anak Nakal; Julien Leparoux; Zito; Four Roses Thoroughbreds.
PP No.9 --- Ready's Echo; John Velazquez; Todd Pletcher; Let's Go Stable.
PP No.10 --- Icabad Crane; Jeremy Rose; Graham Motion; Earle Mack.
The other major jockey change for the Belmont run is Robby Albarado getting the ride on Denis of Cork, who previously had been piloted by Calvin Borel.
