NEWS
Prado wins All-Star Championship
Posted: Saturday, July 01, 2000
New York jockey scores a come-from-behind victory in tiebreaker race at Lone Star Park
TEXAS and the entire nation are learning something that Maryland racing fans have known for a long time: Edgar Prado is one of the country's top jockeys.
With a rousing come-from-behind victory in a tiebreaker, Prado—now based in New York—snatched victory from local rider Donnie Meche in the fourth annual National Thoroughbred Racing Association All-Star Jockey Championship at Lone Star Park on June 23.
In the last of four races for the championship, Prado, 33, won on We Are Family and pulled even with Meche, each with 19 points. Under the scoring system, the final race was the tiebreaker, if needed, with the title going to the rider with the best overall finish in that race.
Mike Smith finished third overall with 15 points, including a win in the second challenge race aboard 16.20-to-1 longshot Heavens Throne. Craig Perret was fourth with 14 points, followed by Jorge Chavez (12, including a win in the third challenge race while riding favored Bust the Record), Pat Day (6), Alex Solis (6), defending champion Laffit Pincay Jr. (6), Kent Desormeaux (3), Jose Santos (0), Robby Albarado (0), and Shane Sellers (0).
In the All-Star Wager offered by the track in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Prado paid $19.80 to win. The exacta of Prado and Meche paid $241.20, and the trifecta of Prado, Meche, and Smith returned $6,082.60.
"There are many top jockeys, but these definitely were 12 of the top jockeys in the country, so this was very tough," Prado said. "I'm very glad to have won this competition because you're riding against such great riders like Laffit Pincay, who's in the (Racing) Hall of Fame. Just to be part of this event is great." Winners before Pincay were now-retired Gary Stevens in 1997 and Shane Sellers in '98.
Going into the final race, only Prado, Smith, and Chavez had a chance to score enough points to catch Meche, who won the first challenge race on Dix Carat d'Or. In doing so, he became the first local rider to win a race in the track's jockey challenge.
Meche added a third-place finish in the second challenge race and finished fourth in the third race. Any top-four finish by Meche would have given him the crown before a crowd of 15,315.
But Meche, who suffered a possible tear to his right rotator cuff in a water-sports accident on June 13, was wearing down. On June 20, Meche had been cleared by an orthopedic surgeon to ride in the jockey challenge, but he clearly was not near to full strength for the event.
During a luncheon and benefit auction earlier in the day as part of the jockey challenge festivities at Lone Star Park, Meche shook hands using his left hand, and he was not able to use a right-handed whip during the races. He also was handicapped by the luck of the draw, which placed him on 11.90-to-1 St. Croix in the five-furlong turf sprint.
Unlike Meche, whose finish positions worsened during the evening, Prado steadily improved his standing. He was aboard an also-ran in the first challenge race, finished fourth in the second race, and then was third in the third race, giving him seven points entering the final race.
He had to win aboard 7-to-5 favorite We Are Family and Meche had to finish worse than fourth. Prado took advantage of his opportunities, with a clear shot up the rail through the stretch.
"I went into the last race thinking, 'I have to win this race. I want that, no matter what, I want to get that,' " said Prado, who shifted his tack from Maryland to New York a year ago.
"At one point, between the eighth pole and the sixteenth pole, the horse that was on the rail on the lead (Red Prairie) kind of drifted when the jockey (Perret) hit him left-handed. I was thinking I'd have to split horses, but when that horse drifted, I took my horse to the inside, and he took off. I knew I had a good chance to win the race at the quarter pole. It was just a question of whether I'd find room, and I found it with that extra room on the rail."
Meche, who finished seventh on St. Croix, said he was pleased with his overall performance and was honored to be part of an event in which so many of his role models were involved.
Smith, rated as a 16-to-1 longshot to win the jockey challenge, gave ample evidence of why he is one of the nation's top riders by winning the second challenge race and finishing third overall.
"I thought I did great considering that going in, it didn't look like I had much of a chance to win it," Smith said. "It was especially great winning a race for (trainer) Burl McBride. (Heavens Throne) really ran well. I go way back with Burl. I rode for him when I was an apprentice."
Steve Habel is a Texas correspondent of Thoroughbred Times.
