With four days left in the calendar year-ending fall meet, the race for the jockey title is going down to the final weekend.
Sheldon Russell sits atop the standings with 45 wins, two more than both Trevor McCarthy and Alex Cintron. Russell is second with $1.62 million in purse earnings, trailing McCarthy’s $1.97 million.
Russell is a four-time leading rider at Laurel, his most recent title coming at the 2015 winter meet. He led all Maryland riders in wins with 126 in 2011 and ranked second in both 2012 and 2013 before being plagued by injury the last few years.
McCarthy returned to the Maryland circuit full-time last fall after a stint in New York and claimed the fall title, following up by winning Laurel’s winter and spring stands to open 2019. He was second to apprentice Julio Correa during the summer meet, but led all riders with more than $1 million in purse earnings.
A former leading rider at Delaware Park, Cintron is seeking his first Maryland riding title since arriving for the first time in the fall of 2013.
Claudio Gonzalez has already wrapped up the fall meet training title sitting atop the standings with 46 wins, 25 more than runner-up Mike Trombetta. Gonzalez is also first with nearly $1.2 million in purse earnings.
Live racing returns to Laurel with a special Thursday program Dec. 26. The fall meet ends Sunday, Dec. 29.
New to the Paulick Report? Click here to sign up for our daily email newsletter to keep up on this and other stories happening in the Thoroughbred industry.
Copyright © 2019 Paulick Report.
