Alvarado, Saez share jockey of the week after stakes haul

Junior Alvarado and Luis Saez ended the July 6-12 voting period in a dead heat for Jockey of the Week after both turned the Indiana Derby Day stakes card at Horseshoe Indianapolis into a showcase of timing, travel and finishing power.

The Jockeys’ Guild said a panel of racing industry experts could not separate them, a rare shared honor built on the same basic formula: show up on a deep summer card and keep converting chances. At Horseshoe Indianapolis on July 11, the program included eight stakes races. Alvarado won three of them. Saez won two there and added another stakes victory earlier in the week at Prairie Meadows during the Iowa Festival of Racing.

Alvarado’s day was the more varied of the two, and that variety mattered. He rode six mounts at Horseshoe Indianapolis, including three for Bill Mott, and the results reflected how well he handled different pace scenarios and surfaces. In the Michael G. Schaefer Memorial Handicap, Bendoog came from fourth to win by 2 1/2 lengths over a mile and 70 yards. Equibase listed the race for 3-year-olds and up and noted that Bendoog was the second choice in a scratched-down field of five.

He followed that with Kapoor in the Mari Hulman George Memorial and never let the race get away. Kapoor made every pole a winning one, getting the job done in 1:41.75. Alvarado’s third score came aboard Seminole Chief in the Jonathan B. Schuster Memorial Stakes, a $102,500 listed turf stakes at 1 1/16 miles. Seminole Chief, sent off at 14-1, outdueled Encino and held on by three-quarters of a length in 1:40.16, returning 30.60 to win.

Saez’s week was shorter on detail in the final tally, but the quality was just as sharp. He won the Indiana Oaks (G3) on Maximum Offer for Kenneth G. McPeek, sending the filly gate to wire to win by 2 1/2 lengths in 1:42.65. Maximum Offer, who had been racing in graded company, paid 13.00 to win, and Saez also landed a stakes earlier in the week at Prairie Meadows before heading into the Indiana card.

The tie says as much about the summer circuit as it does about the riders. Saratoga usually claims Alvarado in midsummer, but he made the detour to Shelbyville count, while Saez stitched together wins from Iowa to Indiana and finished with the same weekly prize.