It is rare when an apprentice jockey wins a riding title on this circuit, but five-pound apprentice Angel Cruz did just that, taking the Aqueduct spring meet crown with 22 wins from 93 mounts.

He finished two wins in front of Irad Ortiz Jr., who went 20 for 76. Manny Franco (19 for 107), Jose Ortiz (18 for 82), and Cornelio Velasquez (14 for 92) rounded out the top five.

◗ With Larry Collmus in Louisville for Kentucky Derby week, the races during Belmont’s opening week will be called by John Imbriale.

Despite his diminished, nearly extinct relationship with Drawing Away Stable, trainer David Jacobson kept rolling, leading the trainer and owner standings in wins at Aqueduct’s winter and spring meets.

As he prepares for the Belmont spring-summer meet, which begins Wednesday, Jacobson has begun a relationship with a new client, James Costabile Jr., who is starting a claiming partnership that will race under the moniker Final Turn Stable.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Ken Ramsey says he was approached recently by a biographer from New York who wanted to chronicle how Ramsey has become one of the most successful people in the modern era of American racing.

“He said he wanted to call the book, ‘From the Outhouse to the Penthouse,’ ” Ramsey said with his familiar cackle. “I don’t believe he realizes how true to life that is.”

OLDSMAR, Fla. – The Tampa Bay Downs community lost one of its most respected members last week when former trainer John Reading died at age 99.

Reading’s answer to a possible midlife crisis was to retire from his position as an executive in the auto-parts industry and start a new career as a trainer in his 50s. He saddled his first horse in the mid-1960s and actively trained until 2010. He still owned runners up until 2014 and was a frequent visitor to the backstretch until recently.

OLDSMAR, Fla. – The 2014-15 meeting at Tampa Bay Downs is winding down, and there’s still lots of interest in the trainers’ and jockeys’ standings, but for altogether different reasons.

Jamie Ness and Gerald Bennett are still battling it out to be leading trainer, while jockey Antonio Gallardo’s biggest challenge is the calendar, as he tries to break the track’s single-season record for wins. After the upcoming four-day race week, the meet has only a single card, June 30.

Jockey Victor Espinoza, who is booked to ride favored American Pharoah in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby, has dropped an appeal of a three-day suspension for causing interference earlier this year.

Espinoza was cited on March 7 for his ride on Hauler in the sixth race at Santa Anita on March 6. Hauler finished seventh in a maiden race on the hillside turf course. There was no disqualification.

Espinoza’s reassigned suspension dates are May 8 through 10.

Verraco, who finished fourth in the Illinois Derby at Hawthorne Racecourse on April 18, is a candidate for the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico on May 16, trainer Jim Cassidy said.

Verraco was beaten 9 1/2 lengths by Whiskey Ticket in his stakes debut.

“He needed that race back there,” Cassidy said.

A final decision on whether Verraco is sent to Maryland will be made following Saturday’s Kentucky Derby.

“It depends on how the Derby runs and who may go in there,” Cassidy said.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Trainer Darrell Vienna went 5 1/2 years between stakes wins, ending a lengthy drought when Si Sage scored a 42-1 upset in Saturday’s $100,750 Last Tycoon Stakes at Santa Anita.

Vienna may only need another week for another stakes win.

Saturday, he plans to start Mystery Train in the $100,000 Precisionist Stakes at 1 1/16 miles. The 5-year-old Argentine-bred Mystery Train has every chance to be competitive in the Grade 3 Precisionist. He was second in the Grade 3 Mineshaft Stakes at 1 1/16 miles at Fair Grounds on Feb. 21.

[bc_playlist_id:289889:]Churchill Downs

Weather: Clear 

Temperature: 48 

Track:  Fast

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -  They saved the best for last Sunday morning at Churchill Downs, the much anticipated final work for Kenetucky Derby favorite American Pharoah, who did not disappoint with an eye-catching five-furlong breeze which took place shortly after the renovation break during the special session reserved for Derby and Oaks horses.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Champion sprinter Work All Week, unraced since winning the Breeder’s Cup Sprint at Santa Anita on Nov. 1, breezed five furlongs in 59.20 seconds over a “good” track Sunday at Churchill Downs Trackside as he prepares for his first start of 2015.