Trainer Mike Maker and owners Ken and Sarah Ramsey added to their trophy cases and jockey Alonso Quinonez started one by finishing atop their respective categories for Turfway Park’s 49th annual winter/spring meet, which began Jan. 1 and closed April 1.
The Ramseys continued their dominance as Kentucky’s leading owners, earning their 12th Turfway title overall and their third straight at the Northern Kentucky track. They sent out 12 winners from 40 starters, primarily from the barns of Maker and Wesley Ward.
Dennis Behrmann was second among owners with nine wins from 45 starters, and Paula Haughey’s PTK LLC had eight winners from 24 starters. All of PTK’s starters were trained by Dane Kobiskie, who as an apprentice jockey was Turfway’s leading rider for the fall meet in 2005.
Maker earned his fifth consecutive training title at Turfway and his 19th overall at the track, saddling 27 winners from 83 starters. Among his winners were En Hanse, who won the WEBN Stakes, and Fast and Accurate, who earned a spot in the Kentucky Derby gate by winning the JACK Cincinnati Casino Spiral Stakes (G3) March 25. The Spiral Stakes win was the fourth for Maker in that race and his second straight.
Ward finished second among trainers with 16 wins from 57 starters, including the Cincinnati Trophy Stakes with Delphinia. Kim Hammond, the sport’s leading female trainer with 2,132 lifetime wins as of April 1, finished third for the winter/spring meet with 14 winners from 50 starters.
Jockey Alonso Quinonez earned the first leading rider title of his career, finishing the Turfway meet with 50 wins from 266 mounts.
Second among jockeys was Albin Jimenez with 47 wins from 249 mounts. Jack Gilligan, who won his first career stakes trophy by guiding Crewman to victory in January’s Forego Stakes, was third with 39 wins from 235 mounts.
Celebrations marking career milestones highlighted the three-month winter/spring meet. Jockeys Malcolm Franklin and Jimenez won the 1,000th races of their careers on Feb. 6 and Feb. 25, respectively, and apprentice jockey Shelbi Kurtz won her first race Feb. 22. Twelve-year-old Hannah Schlenk notched her first win as a Thoroughbred owner Feb. 10 with a horse she inherited from her late mother, and Julie Sebastian earned her first win as an owner Feb. 17. Erin Tadeo started the string of milestone events by scoring her first training win on January 25.
Turfway also celebrated the remarkable career of 62-year-old jockey Perry Ouzts by declaring Jan. 13 Perry Ouzts Day. Currently 11th by wins among all jockeys in North American racing history and still riding regularly, Ouzts has 6,734 career wins as of April 1.
Turfway lost two of the winter/spring meet’s scheduled 48 race dates, Jan. 6 and 7, to extreme cold. The track maintains the winter dates for Kentucky’s year round racing circuit.
Live racing returns to the track Nov. 29 for the start of the 43rd holiday meet.
Turfway Park