Jockey Wins at Two Tracks on Same Day

Jerry Bailey’s trip, the jockey said, was easier while racing than it was in getting from track to track. Bailey started the day at Saratoga, where he won a $47,000 race, and ended it Sunday at Monmouth Park, where he rode favored Roman Ruler to a 1 1/2 -length win in the $1-million Haskell Handicap.

Bailey is based at Saratoga, in Upstate New York, and he lingered there to ride First Samurai, a highly regarded 2-year-old son of Giant’s Causeway who is now undefeated in two tries. Bailey was supposed to be flown from Albany, N.Y., to the Monmouth County Executive Airport in New Jersey. But when he was unable to land there, the plane dropped him at an airport in Teterboro, N.J., and he took a helicopter the rest of the way to Oceanport, where Monmouth Park is.

Roman Ruler’s win, which came after Afleet Alex, the Preakness-Belmont Stakes winner, missed the race because of an ankle injury that will sideline him until fall, gave trainer Bob Baffert his third victory in the Haskell in the last five years. Baffert, who won with Point Given in 2001 and War Emblem in 2002, joins Jimmy Croll and Sonny Hine as the only trainers with three Haskell wins.

“This win was the most gratifying,” the Del Mar-based Baffert said. “This horse passed a huge test, running a mile and an eighth, winning around two turns.”

Baffert said Roman Ruler might run in another $1-million race, the Travers at Saratoga on Aug. 27. The long-range goal is the $4-million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Belmont Park on Oct. 29.

Roman Ruler is owned by Californians Bill Bianco and David Shimmon, who recently ended their partnership with the exception of a joint interest in the Haskell winner.

After running fifth as the favorite in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, Roman Ruler was knocked off this year’s Triple Crown trail because of foot problems during the rainy winter at Santa Anita. He made his first start in 3 1/2 months July 4, when Bailey rode him for the first time and won the Dwyer at Belmont.

In the Haskell, Roman Ruler shadowed the leaders, then Bailey circled the field as they overtook the pace-setter, Sun King, in the stretch. Sun King finished second, two lengths ahead of Park Avenue Ball. Roman Ruler, earning $600,000 for his fifth win in eight starts, was timed in 1:49 4/5 and paid $4.20.

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In other stakes at Monmouth, Love Match, paying $56.60, won the $150,000 Matchmaker; Gary Stevens, taking over a horse the recently retired Pat Day used to ride, won the $150,000 Oceanport with Ay Caramba; Stewart Elliott won the $100,000 Teddy Drone with Wildcat Heir and the $100,000 Lady’s Secret with Friel’s For Real; and Areek won the $100,000 Regret.

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A lengthy inquiry by the stewards at Del Mar failed to affect Tucked Away’s narrow win over Hollywood Story in the $300,000 Clement L. Hirsch Handicap. Tyler Baze, who finished off the board with Muir Beach, contended that Tucked Away and her jockey, Alex Solis, had come into his path at the top of the stretch. Tucked Away, winless this year and winner of only one race -- at Del Mar -- in 2004-05, gave her trainer, Paddy Gallagher, his first win of the meet.... Andujar, who had been headed for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, is out for the year because of a tendon injury.