Jockey Cruz Set for Breeders' Cup Debut

It's been a whirlwind 2 1/2 years for jockey Angel Cruz since he won his first race at Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races April 6, 2014, a period where the 20-year-old has had more than his share of new and exciting experiences.

Cruz's career will take another giant step forward when the young jockey rides in his first Breeders' Cup race. Cruz will be aboard Chadds Ford Stable's Dancing Rags in the $2 million 14 Hands Winery Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (gr. I) Nov. 5 at Santa Anita Park after the two teamed to win the Darley Alcibiades Stakes (gr. I) Oct. 7 at Keeneland, giving Cruz his first graded stakes win.

Trained by Graham Motion, Dancing Rags has won two of three lifetime starts and stamped herself as a top contender for Saturday's 1 1/16-mile test with that one-length win in the Alcibiades Stakes, a race contested at the same distance as the Juvenile Fillies.

Cruz had no idea who he would be riding when he visited Motion's training yard in Fair Hill, Md. but when a trainer of Motion's stature wants you to work a horse for them you don't hesitate. As it turned out, the first horse Cruz got on at Fair Hill was a bay 2-year-old filly the staff told him was named Dancing Rags. As the rider recalls, Dancing Rags didn't exactly dazzle him in their early time together.

"She was a nice filly but she didn't do anything special in the mornings before she started the first time," Cruz said. "I thought we'd just have to wait and see how she acted in the afternoon."

As it turned out, Dancing Rags would shine in the afternoon. After finishing third Aug. 5 in a turf sprint at Laurel Park, Motion stretched Dancing Rags out to a mile and moved the Union Rags   filly to the main track. 

"She really came to life after that first race on the dirt," Cruz said. "She just started to get better and better every day. There's really no feeling like it, being around a horse who blossoms and suddenly puts it all together."

Dancing Rags (out of the Storm Cat mare Home Court) had that first crucial test for a young horse around two turns in the Alcibiades and Cruz said she handled the experience like a pro.    

"She (Dancing Rags) laid right off the leaders and relaxed for me," the rider recalled, "then when I asked her in the turn she went right after the leader, shook her off in the stretch and kept going hard to the finish. And the best thing is she's trained better and better since that race. Mr. Motion says she's been a pleasant surprise and I couldn't agree more."

Cruz admitted he knew there was always the chance he could lose the mount on Dancing Rags to a high profile rider for the Breeders' Cup.

"In the back of my mind I knew there was always that chance, but Mr. Motion has a reputation for being loyal to the riders he uses and he was loyal to me with Dancing Rags," Cruz said. "He told me I got along well with the filly, that she ran for me and he was confident I'd do a good job on Saturday.

"I can't tell you how good that made me feel; to have a trainer like that have confidence in you in a race like this, it's huge."

Cruz headed to New York in the spring of 2014 after his quick start riding at Charles Town and the Maryland tracks. He was one of the finalists for the Eclipse Award for outstanding apprentice that season when he wound up the year with 119 wins while his mounts earned $2.5 million. Last season he was leading rider at the short Aqueduct Racetrack spring meeting, beating out Irad Ortiz Jr. with 22 wins in 19 days. He was doing well at Saratoga Race Course later in the year when he broke a bone in his hand in an Aug. 18 spill.

He went to Remington Park to ride for trainer Steve Asmussen after returning to action and later came back to New York. But after a dry spell as an apprentice, Cruz moved back to Maryland where he had grown up. He finished 2015 with more than $4.8 million in earnings and 117 wins. 

This year he ranked fifth in the spring-summer meeting at Laurel. Through Nov. 2 he had 71 victories this year.

Cruz's uncle,Jorge Hiraldo, who rode at Charles Town for a number of years before retiring, helped mentor him. Then he spent time working for trainers Crystal Pickett and Javier Contreras before beginning his riding career. 

"I'll be flying to California (Wednesday) and I can't wait to get there, to get to the track and to see Dancing Rags again," the rider said, "We're a team, her and I."