Jockey Spieth Continues March Toward 5,000 Wins

As he continues his pursuit of 5,000 career victories, jockey Scott Spieth is determined to do things his way.

Spieth collected his fourth victory of the current Tampa Bay Downs meet in the fifth race April 12 with a strong front-running performance by 3-year-old Florida-bred filly Immortallove , trained by his wife, Aldana Spieth. The winner was never threatened in the 5 1/2-furlong maiden special weight contest, posting a 4 1/2-length victory from Pat'schromecompass .

Immortallove is owned by Endsley Oaks Farm. It was the second career start for the daughter of Kantharos  , who finished in a fine time of 1:04.51 for the distance.

With 4,973 career winners, Spieth is confident he'll get to the coveted 5-grand milestone later this year at Presque Isle Downs in Erie, Pa., or Thistledown outside Cleveland, where he excelled while averaging 269 winners a year from 2005-2007.

But the 56-year-old athlete says fans who think he's downcast about his paucity of victories in Oldsmar aren't seeing the big picture.

"I come down here to help Aldana take care of our business, and I ride what I ride. I don't have an agent here. It's kind of me staying fit and working down here for when we go up north, where I have my agent Steve Hayes, who I've been with I don't know how many years. So I stay fit and stay healthy here and play a lot of golf," said Spieth, who shot 91 April 11 at Wentworth Golf Club in Tarpon Springs.

Behind the scenes, Spieth works with his wife to prepare horses such as Immortallove for what they hope will be a productive summer. Spieth rode 37 winners last year at Presque Isle and figures that is probably where he will get to 5,000, as long as he stays healthy.

"I should do that easily," he said. "I haven't lost a step from where I was five, 10 years ago. The young horses Aldana is bringing over, they are the work of the two of us, my years of riding experience and her training expertise. So I'm really enjoying it.

"It will be nice to pass 5,000, but I'll keep (riding) until either my head or my body tells me I'm done."

Aldana Spieth knows Scott is excited about getting to 5,000, but the chase isn't keeping him up nights.

"He maybe feels he has already done it, because he won a lot of Quarter Horse races and those don't count (in the official Equibase statistics)," she said. "He has accomplished so many things in his life, and that would be another big accomplishment. But I don't think he is going to stop after he gets there. He likes to be around horses, especially the young ones like this filly."

The big horse in Aldana Spieth's barn is Dreaming of Kona , a 3-year-old colt who won the Mucho Macho Man Stakes Jan. 1 at Gulfstream Park and had previously finished third here as a 2-year-old in the Inaugural Stakes. He has turned in two sharp four-furlong breezes since finishing sixth in the Tampa Bay Derby (G3) last month, and they hope to run him in the Pat Day Mile (G2) May 6 on the Kentucky Derby (G1) undercard at Churchill Downs.

Dreaming of Kona is owned by Aldana Gonzalez Racing in partnership with Lisa Ballou and Steve Ballou.