Cooke Creek. (Delaware Park Photo)
Keith McCalmont
Dual graded stakes-placed veteran Cooke Creek will take on five formidable foes in the Listed $150,000 Queens County, a nine-furlong route for 3-year-olds and up on Saturday, December 27, at Aqueduct Racetrack.
Trained by Mike Maker for Jay Provenzano’s Flying P Stable, the 6-year-old Uncle Mo gelding has banked $604,527 via a 27-6-3-4 ledger. Provenzano, who is tied for sixth in the 2025 NYRA owner standings with 24 wins [142-24-21-23, $1.4M] is hoping Cooke Creek will add to his local totals.
“It’s my backyard. I love racing in New York. I can’t wait for the new Belmont Park to open. I’ve already committed to one of the suites there,” Provenzano said. “I enjoy racing in Kentucky and at Oaklawn, but the money is really good in New York, and I grew up right outside of the gates at Belmont.”
Cooke Creek was haltered for $40,000 out of a winning effort in May 2024 at Churchill Downs and promptly rattled off a pair of optional-claiming wins with Jose Ortiz at the helm.
“He looked like a horse that needed to be ridden a certain way. He had a lot of back class, and he had thrown some really nice efforts,” Provenzano explained regarding the claim. “We looked at him and thought we wanted to get some speed into him. He won the day we took him and rattled off three wins in a row with Jose Ortiz on him.”
The in-form Cooke Creek looked to continue his win streak against a formidable field in the last year’s Grade 2 Lukas Classic at Churchill Downs, battling gamely on the front end only to be denied by a neck by eventual Group 1 Dubai World Cup-winner Hit Show, while 3 1/2-lengths in front of multiple graded stakes-winner Rattle N Roll, who exited that event to win the Grade 2 Clark.
Cooke Creek was off-the-board in his next four outings, including sixth-place efforts in the aforementioned Clark as well as the Grade 3 Louisiana in January at Fair Grounds, before taking a break after fading to 13th in the Grade 3 Razorback Handicap in February at Oaklawn Park.
“He put in a valiant effort to lose by a neck to the horse that went on and won the Dubai World Cup. We thought we had something special and then every ride we got after that wasn’t his type of ride,” Provenzano said.
Cooke Creek returned to action in August at Saratoga Race Course when sixth in an optional-claiming race that featured returning rivals Film Star and Full Screen landing first and second, respectively, setting up the veteran Cooke Creek for a winning effort in the Battery Park on September 28 at Delaware Park.
Provenzano noted he made a call to jockey Jaime Rodriguez ahead of the nine-furlong Battery Park. Although Cooke Creek was off a step slow from the inside post, Provenzano enjoyed seeing his gelding make every pole a winning one over the muddy and sealed track, besting graded stakes-winner Awesome Aaron by three lengths, with multiple graded stakes-placed Gould’s Gold another length back in third.
“I told Jaime exactly what I wanted and if you watch the replay, you’ll see Jaime look and keep looking,” Provenzano said. “I told him he does not want to be inside horses – I’ve watched all of his races, good and bad – and I told him, ‘when you get into that first turn, open up the rail and bait them. Just don’t let anyone get outside of you.’ Jaime rode him picture perfect.”
Cooke Creek exited that effort to land a troubled eighth in the Clark on November 28 at Churchill where he again exited the inside post and brushed with a rival at the break before fading.
“Nothing went his way last time and sometimes when that happens, he doesn’t throw his ‘A’ effort. Maybe it was just a little too tough for him,” Provenzano said. “He’s a sound horse and we’ll look to keep his confidence up and pick our spots. ‘Cookie’ is a neat horse, but he has to have things his way.”
Flavien Prat, the Aqueduct fall meet leading rider, has the call aboard Cooke Creek from the outermost post 6. Prat, who guided Flying P’s Ole Crazy Bone to victory in the Grade 2, $2.5M Kentucky Turf Cup Invitational in September at Kentucky Downs, likely won’t require any instructions from Provenzano.
“Flavien won the biggest race I ever won purse wise with Ole Crazy Bone this year, so you have that extra boost of confidence. He’s the Eclipse Award-winner. What do you tell a guy like Flavien,” asked Provenzano.
Dual Eclipse Award-winning trainer Brad Cox will send out a strong pair in dual stakes-winner Full Screen [post 4, Manny Franco] and restricted stakes-winner Kinetic [post 1, Christopher Elliott].
Sanford Goldfarb, Steven Speranza and Crown Stable’s Full Screen, a 6-year-old Ontario-bred son of Big Screen, was haltered for $100,000 in July at Saratoga. The dark bay gelding, a veteran of 35 starts [6-5-9, $551,543] has since made three optional-claiming outings for current connections, including a local six-length romp last out over Grade 2-placed Bendoog here routing nine-furlongs. The winning effort registered a career-best 100 Beyer Speed Figure for Full Screen, who boasts a 6-1-3-2 local record.
Godolphin’s Kentucky-homebred Kinetic returns from a nine-month layoff following a distant fifth-place finish in the Grade 3 Essex Handicap on March 22 at Oaklawn Park.
The 4-year-old Street Sense colt put together an impressive five-race streak where he landed first or second between August 2024 and January 25 of this year when he posted a three-quarter length score in the restricted General MacArthur traveling nine-furlongs at Oaklawn Park.
Kinetic, out of the Bernardini mare Collective, is a full-brother to dual graded stakes-winner Shared Sense and graded stakes-winner Comparative – both of whom were trained by Cox for Godolphin.
St. Elias Stable’s Kentucky-homebred Classicist [post 2, Kendrick Carmouche] will look to defeat elders for the third consecutive outing for Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher.
The Curlin sophomore made a pair of juvenile outings, landing third here last September in a race won by Praetor by a neck over Sovereignty, who went on to win two-thirds of the Triple Crown.
Classicist, a half-brother to the Pletcher-trained Grade 2-winning turfer Jouster, is perfect in two frontrunning efforts traveling nine-furlongs this year, graduating in July at the Spa ahead of a last-out nose score over Grade 2-placed Tuscan Gold on September 13 here where he survived an inquiry for drifting out late on.
A strong field includes Grade 2-placed Film Star [post 5, Jaime Rodriguez] for conditioner Gustavo Rodriguez and nine-time winner Bourbon Day [post 3, Jose Lezcano] for trainer Linda Rice.
The Queens County is slated as Race 8 of 11 on Saturday, December 27. First post is 11:20 a.m. Eastern with gates to open at 10:30 a.m.
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