Stuck at 1,999 wins and mired in an 0-46 slump, jockey Tyler Baze broke through for his milestone 2,000th career victory by guiding 2-1 favored Kate’s Event to an easy triumph in the third race Thursday at Del Mar.
Perfectly placed in the early stages of the one-mile contest over the main track, Kate’s Event surged to the lead in upper stretch and coasted to a 2 ¼ win, returning $6.80 to his backers.
For good measure, Baze came back in the day’s feature, also at one mile on the main track, to notch win no. 2,001 astride 7-2 backed Fable, like Kate’s Event owned by the Gulliver Racing LLC of Phil Bongiovanni of Yorba Linda and trained by Ted H. West.
Fable rallied from next-to-last in the ten horse field to overhaul Hugh Knew in the final furlong and win by 2 ¾ lengths in 1:37.82 for the distance. Fable paid $9.40 to win.
Baze, a member of a famous racing family from Washington state which also includes his second cousin, Russell, North America’s all-time leading rider in number of wins, won an Eclipse Award as the nation’s top apprentice jockey in 2000.
Hall of Fame rider Mike Smith and trainer Paddy Gallagher teamed to win two races on the Thursday program, taking the second with Irish-bred Queen of the Sand and the sixth with Sweet as a Rose.
Thursday’s attendance was 9,075.