Irish Aces, with Tyler Gaffalione aboard, edged Nineeleventurbo to win the $500,000 Big Ass Fans Tapit Stakes at Kentucky downs.. (Coady Media)
Jockey only two wins (65-63) from Hernandez’s all-time record
Kentucky Downs Release
Ellis Park is staging Kentucky Downs Preview Weekend this Saturday and Sunday, an event created in 2018 to give horses a place in the state to prep for the lucrative all-turf Kentucky Downs meet. As part of that, the winners of the seven Preview stakes earn a fees-paid berth in the corresponding graded stakes at Kentucky Downs.
It’s also serving very much as a Kentucky Downs preview for jockey Tyler Gaffalione, who resumed riding on July 19 at Ellis Park in Henderson, Ky., after being sidelined four months with ankle fractures. Gaffalione has won the Kentucky Downs riding title four of the last five years, including in a tie last year with Irad Ortiz Jr. at nine wins apiece.
Kentucky Downs runs Aug. 28, 30 and 31 and Sept. 4, 6, 7 and 10 in Franklin, Ky. Eleven of its 18 stakes carry purses worth at least $2 million for Kentucky-breds (and at least $1 million for horses bred outside the state).
“That was kind of our goal going into this meet,” Gaffalione, who has won on six of his 13 mounts so far at Ellis Park, said Thursday morning at Churchill Downs between working horses for trainer Brendan Walsh. “We got a late start coming back, so we figured Ellis Park (rather than Saratoga) would be the best fit … to try to build business back for Kentucky Downs.”
Since his first meet at Kentucky Downs in 2017, when he won three races — Gaffalione has been on a collision course with the track records. The 30-year-old jockey will come into the 2025 Kentucky Downs meet with 63 career victories, just two behind all-time win leader Brian Hernandez, according to Equibase, provider of the industry’s official statistics.
“That’s pretty amazing,” Gaffalione said when told that stat. “Brian is somebody I look up to here, especially the last six years where we’re in the same corner (in the jocks’ room) and have Shane Borel as our valet. I’ve learned a lot from Brian and Corey (Lanerie) and a few of the others.”
He added with a grin, “But I like to follow Brian in races, so it makes sense.”
Another stat: Last meet Gaffalione quietly surpassed Florent Geroux as Kentucky Downs’ all-time earnings leader, his mounts at the track having made $14,857,910 to Geroux’s $14.1 million. Another big grin.
“I can’t wait to tell Flo that,” joked Gaffalione, knowing that Geroux and Hernandez both will be trying hard to keep or regain their records. “But, no, it’s such an amazing meet. We’ve been fortunate to have had some success in the past. My agent (Matt Muzikar) does a great job. The horsemen do a great job bringing the horses over ready, and the horses have been showing up. It’s a fun place to ride, and I look forward to it every year.”
He said he was hooked on Kentucky Downs from the start back in 2017.
“I was in heaven,” Gaffalione said. “It was the type of course I always wanted to ride. I’m a big fan of European racing, and it’s the closest thing we have to it here in the States. So it was really exciting for me. Back then, it was more of a smaller track; there weren’t as many fans. But it always had that homey feeling, a very comforting place. It’s really grown over the last few years. The fan excitement just has traction. It’s a place everyone should check out.”
But first there’s Ellis Park. Gaffalione is scheduled to ride all seven Preview stakes, which are funded with purse money and Kentucky-bred purse supplements generated at Kentucky Downs and transferred to Ellis Park.
Gaffalione’s mount in Sunday’s $250,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Ladies Turf Mile is the Walsh-trained Austere, upon whom he won the 2023 Kentucky Downs Juvenile Fillies. He’ll be aboard Nobals, the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner at Santa Anita, for the first time for trainer Larry Rivelli in $250,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Turf Sprint that concludes Sunday’s card.
Four of Gaffalione’s stakes mounts this weekend are for Walsh, who earned his third Kentucky Downs trainer’s title last year in a three-way tie with Steve Asmussen and Joe Sharp at six wins apiece. (Gaffalione was up for four of Walsh’s wins.)
His other stakes mounts for Walsh are Pea Patch Stakes runner-up Pondering (Saturday’s $250,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Ladies Turf Sprint), Verstappen (Sunday’s $300,000 KD Preview Turf Cup) and Hereforagoodtime (Sunday’s $400,000, Grade 3 Pucker Up for 3-year-old fillies). Gaffalione rides Emergence ($250,000 KD Preview Dueling Grounds Derby) for Brad Cox and Green Light ($250,000 KD Preview Mint Millions) for Rodolphe Brisset, with both stakes on Saturday.
Four months is the most Gaffalione has missed riding since his career began in late 2014, knocking him out of the entire Triple Crown and more. But the forced hiatus did allow more time at his Florida winter home with his wife, Casi, who had their first child, son Tatum. That long-planned delivery had been timed for right after Preakness Day, a race Gaffalione won in 2019 on War of Will and which he figured he’d be riding this year.
“We’re thrilled to add a new family member,” Gaffalione said. “She’s a wonderful mother. I’m so proud of her and happy. It’s a great time for all of us.”
Although he does have a couple of trips to ride at Saratoga planned, none will be on a day Kentucky Downs races, he said. While prominent jockeys and past Kentucky Downs riding champions such as Ortiz, his brother Jose Ortiz and Joel Rosario may miss one, two or three days to ride Saratoga’s closing weekend, Gaffalione and Muzikar’s late-summer business plan has always been Kentucky Downs-centric.
“We won’t be missing Kentucky Downs,” Gaffalione said. “Where else would you rather be?”
