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Montalvo Going For Stakes Treble

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By BART O'CONNELL, Tribune correspondent

Published: January 12, 2008

OLDSMAR - Known around Tampa Bay Downs as "Mr. Salsa" for his love of dancing, jockey Carlos Montalvo is starting to gain fame locally for another reason - his penchant for winning big races.

Montalvo, 29, won four stakes races last season and hasn't slowed down at all this meet. Today he will try to win a stakes for the third consecutive weekend aboard Put Back the Shu in the $65,000 Pelican Stakes for 4-year olds and up covering 6 furlongs on the main track.

Montalvo captured the Sandpiper Stakes (aboard Unfolding Wish) and Minaret Stakes (Taylor Madison) leading up to this week. But while he might be bold on the dance floor, Montalvo remains humble as a successful jockey, giving the credit to the owners and trainers of the winning horses he rides.

"The luck has been coming my way, that's the only thing I can say," he said. "Every horse is different, so you have to ride them each a certain way. So there's no difference because it's a stakes race, just different styles."

Put Back the Shu, which was fourth in last year's Pelican, had not run in 10 months before Montalvo took the mount in a $23,500 allowance race Dec. 22. Staying close to the lead throughout the trip, Montalvo sent the horse to the front at the top of the stretch and, in a strong effort, held on to beat It's His Time, also entered in today's Pelican field, by half a length.

The eight-horse field might be one of the smaller stakes races at the track this year, but it is loaded with experience. The Jamie Ness-trained and Daniel Centeno-ridden Lookinforthesecret, a strong front-runner that has finished first or second in nine of his last 10 starts, is the 5-2 morning line favorite. The winner of last March's $75,000 Turf Dash has won three of five starts on the dirt since.

Also in the field is D'artagnans'spirit, which finished third in last year's Pelican but went on to win the $75,000 Super Stakes in February. He is trained by Kirk Ziadie and will be ridden by Pedro Luis Cotto Jr.

If Montalvo wins this weekend, his chances of making it four in a row look good next week in the Gasparilla Stakes with Unfolding Wish, the undefeated filly owned by George Steinbrenner's Kinsman Stable and trained by Dale Bennett.

"She's been winning with different styles, from the lead, far off," Montalvo said of Unfolding Wish.

RICE MEMORIAL: Trainer Don Rice, who died Sunday - three days after suffering a horse-related injury on his farm in Anthony, north of Ocala - will be remembered at a memorial service in the TBD winner's circle Sunday morning at 11:15.

Also Sunday, members of Rice's family are expected to meet with TBD officials to discuss naming a race after him. There is a possibility that a race could be renamed during the current meet, but it appears unlikely a stakes race would be renamed.

Rice's eight training titles and 44 wins in 2001-02 at TBD remain track records. Though he had one win as a trainer since the 2006-07 meet, and no entries during the current TBD meet, the news still shook many of the horsemen at the track, particularly those who knew or competed against him through the years.

AROUND THE TRACKS: Inaugural Stakes winner Honey Honey Honey and runner-up Run Sully Run are nominated for the $75,000 Pasco Stakes, open to all 3-year olds. ... On Thursday, jockey Huber Villa-Gomez earned his first win since suffering an injury during the summer. It was his fourth start at TBD this meet.

Correspondent Bart O'Connell can be reached at boconnell@

pop.tampatrib.com.

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