Cooke Creek Starts 2022 Campaign in Jerome
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Photo: Hoofprints, Inc.
Cooke Creek prevails in the Rocky Run Stakes at Delaware Park
The Jan. 1 Jerome Stakes marks not only the start of a new year of racing, but also the beginning of the 3-year-old portion of New York's icy road to the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1).
For trainer Jeremiah O'Dwyer, it's familiar ground.
Back in 2019, O'Dwyer trained Remsen Stakes (G2) winner Shotski and elected to start the son of Blame 's 3-year-old campaign in the Withers Stakes (G3), Aqueduct Racetrack's early February stop on its Triple Crown trail.
Shotski finished second in the Withers and was sidelined for nearly 11 months after a subsequent fourth-place finish in the Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth Stakes (G2) at Gulfstream Park.
O'Dwyer's newest Triple Crown hopeful also enjoyed success in a New York Racing Association juvenile stakes, though not on the same scale as Shotski, and is also starting his 3-year-old season in wintry New York.
Trainer Jeremiah O'Dwyer
In Cheyenne Stable's Cooke Creek , O'Dwyer has a well-bred Uncle Mo colt who was second in Belmont Park's one-mile Nashua Stakes (G3) on Nov. 7 and returns from nearly two months of freshening to face seven rivals Saturday in the $150,000 Jerome for newly turned 3-year-olds at the same one-turn, eight-furlong distance Saturday at the Big A.
"We don't get many good ones like him, so we're not rushing him. If we miss one race, there's always another. We gave him 30 days off after the Nashua and this looks like a good spot to start back," said O'Dwyer, who will be racing the son of the Bernardini mare Genre for the third straight time at a mile distance. "We're hopeful of getting him back to a two-turn distance, possibly in the Withers."
The Jerome is one of three New Year's Day stakes across the country that are included in the Road to the Kentucky Derby point series and will award 10-4-2-1 qualifying points to the top four finishers. With 11 17-point races left on the schedule before the 85-point races begin Feb. 19, the Jerome will not assure any of the eight starters of a spot in the starting gate on the first Saturday in May. Yet it offers a pleasing purse for an ungraded stakes and will shine some light on a 3-year-old's future chances in longer and more important stakes.
"If we need to go to Florida with him, we can. But New York is a good option now. He will run over a good amount of ground and that's certainly a nice asset at this time of year," O'Dwyer said about a colt who has won two of three starts and was victorious at a two-turn mile distance in the Oct. 16 Rocky Run Stakes at Delaware Park. "He's not one-dimensional but he needs a little more racing experience. The more racing he gets, the stronger and better he'll get."
O'Dwyer said Cooke Creek is a bit more aggressive in his training than Shotski but said there are similarities in the way they both move.
"They are similar in some ways," he said, "and we're hopeful Cooke Creek can take us along the same path as Shotski and perhaps climb the ladder a little higher."
Cooke Creek was bred in Kentucky by the Candy Meadows breeding operation of Cheyenne owner Everett Dobson and is the second of four foals from Genre. He is the first stakes winner for his grade 1-placed, grade 3 stakes-winning dam, who also has a Violence yearling colt and a War Front weanling colt.
Mr Jefferson breaks his maiden at Colonial Downs
Speaking of the Remsen, the Jerome field also includes R. Larry Johnson's homebred Mr Jefferson , who was fourth in the Dec. 4 stakes, 10 lengths behind the victorious Mo Donegal . Bred in Maryland, the son of Constitution won two of four races before that, winning at both Laurel Park and Colonial Downs for trainer Michael Trombetta.
"The slow pace hurt his chances a little bit (in the Remsen) and it made him go wide. They were bottled up, but I think the top two horses were very good horses," said Trombetta, who won the 2020 Jerome with Independence Hall .
The Jerome, which drew four entrants making their stakes debut, also serves as an inviting spot to test a promising grass runner on dirt, just in case there's a Triple Crown candidate obscured by the green glow of sod.
Ohtwoohthreefive breaks his maiden on the turf at Belmont Park
In this case, James Politano's Ohtwoohthreefive will race on dirt for the first time after posting a record of 1-2-2 in six turf starts for trainer George Weaver. The son of Union Rags is coming off a nose loss in the Nov. 27 Central Park Stakes on turf at Aqueduct.
Among those four newcomers to stakes competition is Hill 'n' Dale Equine Holdings and James Spry's Courvoisier , a Tapit colt out of Take Charge Brandi, the multiple grade 1-winning champion 2-year-old filly of 2014. A maiden winner in his fourth try for trainer Kelly Breen, he was bought by Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa for $600,000 at the 2019 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale.
Bred by Elevage II and Hill 'n' Dale Equine Holdings, he is the third of five foals and first winner for his dam, whose offspring also include Justly , a yearling Justify filly, and a weanling Quality Road filly.
Aqueduct Racetrack, Saturday, January 01, 2022, Race 8Entries: Jerome S.
PP
Horse
Jockey
Wgt
Trainer
M/L
1
1Cooke Creek (KY)
Manuel Franco
123
Jeremiah O'Dwyer
5/2
2
2Unbridled Bomber (KY)
Dylan Davis
118
James T. Ryerson
8/1
3
3Ohtwoohthreefive (KY)
Kendrick Carmouche
118
George Weaver
7/2
4
4Rumble Strip Ron (OH)
Eric Cancel
118
Anthony T. Quartarolo
30/1
5
5Smarten Up (FL)
Anthony Salgado
118
Alfredo Velazquez
12/1
6
6Courvoisier (KY)
Jose L. Ortiz
118
Kelly J. Breen
5/1
7
7Mr Jefferson (MD)
Mychel J. Sanchez
120
Michael J. Trombetta
9/2
8
8Hagler (FL)
Jorge A. Vargas, Jr.
120
Rudy R. Rodriguez
4/1
