WHAT are the odds of a little teenage girl apprentice from Brazil pulling into Aqueduct and riding the silks off one of the best male jockeys in the world?
Take the odds, because that’s what happened last week when Maylan Studart, a tiny 108-pounder, not long off the plane from Rio, outsmarted that slick old pro Edgar Prado in a match-of-wits stretch run.
It happened in the ninth race Nov. 15, a $35,000 claimer for fillies and mares over a mile on a sloppy track.
Prado rode the 9-5 favorite, Elusive Flower. They broke on top and sprinted clear of the field. Prado, riding to conventional wisdom, kept his filly in the middle of the track, wide off the rail, all the way down the backstretch. He wanted no part of the waterlogged rail.
Maylan, aboard the 5-1 shot Unbridled Union, was even wider, running third, a few lengths behind Edgar.
On the turn, Prado, as you’d expect, still kept Elusive Flower wide for the run to the wire, still riding by the book. But that’s when Maylan, just 19 years old, did the unexpected – and blew convention (and Edgar) out of the water.
She stood up in the irons, eased her horse back, abruptly changed course and darted to the dreaded rail.
Her mount suddenly took off through the muck. While Edgar was whippin’-and-drivin’ out in no-man’s land in the middle of the track, spinning his wheels, Maylan spurted right by him on the rail to win by three lengths. Bravo!
Ever chivalrous, Prado later complimented her, “You did a great job.”
Maylan probably broke all the rules going to the boggy rail, but it was an aggressive maneuver right out of the Angel Cordero Jr. playbook, a sight to behold.
Was it a fluke, a lucky gamble taken by an inexperienced jockey who didn’t know any better? Perhaps, but the record suggests otherwise. Unbridled Union was her fifth winner in 15 rides.
Maylan might be a Cinderella in the making. She learned to ride at a jockey school in Rio de Janeiro and launched her career at the local tracks. In August, she moved to Calder in Florida, where she quickly established a presence, winning 10 races, including a stakes race.
Last month, jockey agent Joe Ceraulo, brought her to New York to try her luck. She arrived in town hurling a challenge on her blog, “I’m in New York and I am ready to take on the world. Bring it on!”
She brought it on with a blast. On Aqueduct’s opening day, she rocked the joint winning with the 51-1 shot Decorated Court for trainer Randi Persaud.
She’s been on a roll ever since with another four wins for Persaud, including another longshot, More Than a Reason, at 15-1 on Sunday.
“Maylan has a knack. Horses run for her,” Ceraulo said. “She’s a very strong rider at the finish for an apprentice.”
Said Maylan, “This is like a dream come true. My goal is to be the best I can be, and this is the place to do it.”
It sure is. Just ask Edgar.