Coach Rene Amescua ended 2021 successfully.
He carried three winners on New Year’s Eve, his first successful career in Oaklawn Park since immigrating from his native California to Hot Springs, Ark., for the 2021-22 meeting that begins on December 3. Entering the January 8 card, he won 3 to 7 at the contest. meeting, ranked 8th in the ranking.
“Sometimes, it just happens to be,” Amescua said after training on January 5.
Amescua, 59, said the opportunity to come to Oaklawn came through another California coach, the late Mel Stute, who brought a minor rope to Oaklawn in 1989 and recorded four career victories in Hot Springs, notably the Oaklawn Handicap (G2) for older horses in 1987 with the championship Snow Chief .
Amescua said: “He used to come here and a friend of mine used to go with the horses. “He always told me how much fun he had here, so I always wanted to come here.”
Already equipped with more than 900 career wins, the majority coming in California, Amescua added to the December 31 total when he won his third race with I am my boss ($8.60), seventh race with Catch ($8), and the ninth race with Snow melt ($25.80).
All three previous winners went to Southern California-based Peter Miller, who announced in November that he would be taking a break from practice. In announcing that respite, Miller said in a statement that he will continue to act as an advisor/race manager to his owners and own his own horses.
Amescua says he has 18 horses at Oaklawn, led by another former Miller intern, millionaire and graded multi-stakes winner Missile CZ . Owned by ltamira Racing Stables, Madaket Stables, Gary Barber and Tom Kagele, he was Oaklawn’s top men’s sprinter in the meeting before he won the Hot Springs Stakes and the Count Fleet Sprint Handicap (G3). ).
CZ Rocket Wins 2021 Hot Springs Stake at Oaklawn Park
City Zip gelding, 8, who finished seventh in his most recent start on 6 November in the Qatar Racing Breeders’ Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1) at Del Mar, entered the US$101,000 option claim race on January 14 in Oaklawn.
“The majority of the horses here come from (Los Angeles). “Pete Miller asked me if I wanted to come here. He gave me these horses to try on it, so that’s how it happened, though I’m looking for it anyway. how to get here.”
Amescua, who arrived with the late Mike Mitchell and Ron Ellis, started his first horse in 1987, according to Equibase, the race’s official data collection organization. As of Friday, Amescua has scored 935 wins, and his horses have made $11,191,096 in the wallet. He’s been in California for a long time, especially the Bay Area, before moving to the Midwest for the first time.
His ten times barn has made more than $400,000 a year, though not since 2008. His barn has gotten leaner in recent years ahead of a wave of former interns. by Miller.
“I had a pretty good run,” Amescua said. “I’ve never had a great superhorse, but we always try to win some races.”
