The right medicine for 3yo Damir was a mommy

In his first six career starts, Damir never finished in the top three at Gulfstream Park, Gulfstream West or Delaware Park. It took a rider switch to a pony-tailed 34-year-old mother of three from Idaho, whose agent is former top rider Ron Ardoin, to turn it all around.

After those first six races, Aubrie Green hopped aboard Damir for the first time on June 24 at Delaware Park and the 3-year-old gelding by Ride On Curlin finished second, missing by half a length of scoring a 26-1 upset. In his next start on July 5, Green guided him to a third-place finish, this time at 9/2.

Yesterday, with the odds on the gelding bred by Robyn Thompson ballooning to 14-1, Green took Damir wire-to-wire in a race at a mile and 70 yards, breaking his maiden in start No. 9. He put up fractions of :23.07, :46.98 and 1:11.61 en route to a three-quarters of a length score in 1:37.48 over 2-1 shot Gandolfo, and collected a purse of $11,400.

Ride On Curlin now has seven winners from 11 starters in 2021 for a winning percentage of 63.6.