Saenz Earns Career Victory No. 2,000
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Photo: Coady Photography
Diego Saenz teamed with Mobile Bay to win this year's LA Bred Premier Night Championship at Delta Downs
Southwest-based rider Diego Saenz secured the 2,000th victory of his career Oct. 25 when he guided Lovely Charlie to victory in the eighth race at Delta Downs.
To secure the milestone win, Saenz moved Elite Thoroughbred Racing's Lovely Charlie outside in early stretch to find racing room, and the filly responded, surging past two rivals on her way to a 1 3/4-length score in the optional-claiming allowance race for fillies and mares. Lee Thomas trains Lovely Charlie.
Since 2009, Saenz, 39, has regularly finished among the top 50 riders by wins or earnings, sometimes both. In September, he picked up his first graded stakes win when he guided Limation to a score in the Super Derby (G3) at Harrah's Louisiana Downs Casino and Racetrack.
Saenz has won 94 black-type stakes. Some of his top wins include Mobile Bay in this year's LA Bred Premier Night Championship Stakes at Delta Downs—the seventh stakes the two have won together—and the 2014 Evangeline Downs Turf Sprint Stakes with Heitai, one of nine stakes earned by Saenz with Heitai.