MORALES STRIKES BALANCE BETWEEN CAREER, FAMILY; LATE PICK-5 CARRYOVER

By Mike Henry —-

(PHOTO OF PABLO MORALES COURTESY OF SV PHOTOGRAPHY)

MORALES STRIKES BALANCE BETWEEN CAREER, FAMILY; LATE PICK-5 CARRYOVER

OLDSMAR, FL. – Any hopes Pablo Morales had of capturing his first Tampa Bay Downs jockeys title this season evaporated before the calendar flipped to 2025.

With Samuel Marin and Samy Camacho dominating the meet from the outset, a majority of the track’s top trainers sought to secure their services whenever possible. As a result, the track’s other top riders have been forced to settle for far fewer mounts than they might have expected.

Morales has ridden 175 horses through 61 days, fewer than half of Marin’s total and about 54 percent of Camacho’s. His total mounts are still higher than all but four other jockeys, but the top two will remain uncatchable until next season.

“I don’t seem to have a lot of business for the trainers who are winning a lot of races, but I’m still in the mix,” said Morales, who managed to capture the Mother’s Restaurant Jockey of the Month Award with a recent 9-for-42 stretch that moved him into a tie for fifth place with 26 winners. “I appreciate the support I’m getting, and I’m making it count when I can.”

He made it count twice today from three mounts, both victories coming on the turf; more on that to follow.

No bettor hit the late Pick-5 combination of 3-8-1-1-7 today, creating a carryover pool of $43,815.47. Saturday’s late Pick-5 will begin with the fifth race.

Morales won today’s fifth race on E Minor, a 5-year-old gelding owned by Blazing Meadows Farm and trained by Tim Hamm (E Minor was claimed from the race for $16,000 by owner-trainer Maria Bowersock). Morales added the seventh aboard Capitol Hill, a 3-year-old colt owned by Emily Bushnell and Oliver Bushnell and trained by Bill Mott.

“He is a very talented rider, certainly one of the more talented ones here,” said Hamm’s Oldsmar assistant trainer, Julie Hutchison. “When Pablo is on his game, you can’t beat him.”

His goals the remainder of the season are staying healthy, winning enough races to gain new business for next season and keeping himself sharp mentally and physically for the 2025 meet at Presque Isle Downs. Morales has won nine titles at the Erie, Pa., track, four more than Antonio Gallardo, who captured last year’s crown with 118 winners, 31 more than Morales, the runner-up.

Presque Isle Downs conducts racing on a synthetic Tapeta surface, and Morales credits his success there to a combination of hard work, familiarity with the surface and a little luck. “It’s been nothing but good to me. Antonio and I have been going back and forth, and it’s a dream to get my 10th title there,” he said.

Morales is the regular pilot on Poker Joker, a 4-year-old gelding who is 4-for-4 at the current meet. He has ridden the turf specialist in each of his last three starts, since trainer Richard Sillaman claimed him for $16,000 from his maiden victory on Dec. 6. “I really didn’t know what to expect, but he seems to perform better and better in each race,” Morales said.

“He is doing everything correctly and I’m glad to be part of the equation.”

A 36-year-old product of Lima, Peru, Morales has 2,758 career victories. His three graded-stakes triumphs include the 2005 Grade II Super Derby on The Daddy, less than a month after he turned 17; the 2019 Grade III Sam F. Davis Stakes here on Florida-bred Well Defined, for trainer Kathleen O’Connell; and the 2022 Grade II Highlander Stakes on owner-trainer Wesley Ward’s Bound for Nowhere.

Morales has ridden 200 or more winners in four separate years, including three in a row from 2017-19. On May 4, 2019 (Kentucky Derby Day), he was a perfect 5-for-5 at Tampa Bay Downs, including two stakes victories.

He considers himself fortunate to be able to balance the demands of his profession with the joys of being a husband and a father. He and his son Camilo, 12, have formed their own two-man band – Dad on guitar and Camilo on drums – and Morales believes the youngster has the ability to become a topnotch performer. Daughter Sophia, 14, plays for a club volleyball team, and Morales is at as many games and practices as his schedule allows.

Morales and his wife Erin have been married 15 years. She provides their foundation. “She’s given us this beautiful home and kept everything together,” he said. “My family is what keeps me young and alive and happy.”

Book’em Danno wins at Colonial. Book’em Danno, the New Jersey-bred 4-year-old gelding who won last year’s Pasco Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs by 12 ½ lengths and developed into a Grade I winner, stamped himself as a candidate for Dubai World Cup Day on April 5 with an impressive 2025 debut today in the $150,000 Boston Handicap at Colonial Downs.

Under jockey Paco Lopez, Book’em Danno turned in a 2 ½-length victory from Repo Rocks in a swift time of 1:20.03 for the 7-furlong distance. The field was depleted to three horses by eight scratches.

Book’em Danno is owned by Atlantic Six Racing and conditioned by Tampa Bay Downs trainer Derek Ryan.

Followjng his Pasco victory, Book’em Danno competed in the Group 3 Saudi Derby, losing by a head from Japanese ace Forever Young. In his return to the United States, he won the Grade I Woody Stephens Stakes on June 8 at Saratoga.

Today’s winner’s share of $60,000 pushed Book’em Danno’s career earnings to $1,098,125. He is 7-for-12 in his career.

According to a report in the Daily Racing Form, Ryan hopes to enter Book’em Danno in the $1-million Godolphin Mile in Dubai in three weeks. “He’s gotten to the state where he wants to go a little longer,” Ryan said earlier this week.

Around the oval. Thoroughbred racing at Tampa Bay Downs continues Saturday with a nine-race card beginning at 12:15 p.m. Tampa Bay Downs races Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and is open every day except April 20, Easter, for simulcast wagering, no-limits action and tournament play in The Silks Poker Room and golf fun and instruction at The Downs Golf Practice Facility.