Aidan Green Enjoys First Career Training Win
Aidan Green Enjoys First Career Training Win
Aidan Green was holding her 4-month-old and pushing a stroller through the grandstand early Thursday afternoon at Oaklawn. Less than an hour later, Green was strolling into the Larry Snyder Winner’s Circle following her first career training victory recognized by Equibase, racing’s official data gathering organization.
Green achieved her personal milestone with Kristo ($18.20), who won the fifth race, a starter-allowance route, by 3 ¾ lengths under Elvin Gonzalez. Kristo marked the 21st recognized starter for Green, who saddled her first horse in 2020, according to Equibase. Green’s husband, Ike, is a former trainer who now assists his wife and Robertino Diodoro, Oaklawn’s leading trainer in 2020. Aidan Green said she has seven horses on the track in training.
“Like Ike and I, we’ve won a lot of races, it’s just the first time it’s been under my name, so, it doesn’t really feel like a first win,” Green said. “But it’s cool to have it under my name now. We’ve always been a team. We’ve run Cody Autrey’s barn in the past and we’ve run Robertino’s in the past.”
Green, 33, grew up in Canada around the Quarter-Horses and draft horses her family owned. A star volleyball player, Green signed with Texas Tech before transferring to Texas-El Paso, where she was a four-year letterman (2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009). Green, also an aspiring photographer, said she met her future husband in 2010 when he was training at Sunland Park in suburban El Paso. They married in 2013 and have three children, 5, 4 and 4 months.
“Team deal, you know,” Aidan Green said. “With three kids and all the horses, Ike and I kind of rotate around, wherever we’re both needed. We do it as a team, everything we do. I’m not a full-time photographer. I’d like to be. Full-time mom and then, I guess, second is horse trainer after that.”
Green owns Kristo, a 10-year-old Distorted Humor gelding, with sister-in-law Delinda Green. Ike Green’s brother, trainer Greg Green, had claimed Kristo for $8,000 early last year at Sunland Park.
Kristo was exiting a third-place finish in a starter-allowance sprint Jan. 22 at Oaklawn.
“He ran really good his last start,” Green said. “Elvin just gave him a good ride. He kind of picks his certain riders and likes them. He ran really good for Elvin, so we were excited to get in this spot. Thought it was a good one.”
Kristo’s victory came roughly seven years after Green said she won a race as an owner/trainer at a weekend fair meet in Fargo, N.D. That victory, Green noted, isn’t recognized by Equibase.
“When we were at Canterbury, we shipped over with one that we owned ourselves,” Green said. “They had like tents set up. It was so much fun. This was my first real recognized one, as me as trainer.”
Ike Green unearthed and broke multiple Grade 1 winner and 2018 Triple Crown hopeful Bolt d’Oro when working for former business partner Mick Ruis. Green has 98 career training victories, according to Equibase, the first coming in 2001.
Finish Lines
Post positions will be drawn Sunday for the rescheduled $750,000 Southwest Stakes (G3) for 3-year-olds, $600,000 Razorback Handicap (G3) for older horses and the $250,000 Bayakoa Stakes (G3) for older fillies and mares. The trio of 1 1/16-mile races are scheduled to be run Feb. 20. … There will be no racing Saturday, Sunday or Monday at Oaklawn because of impending winter weather. … Frenchie Frou Frou ($5.40) recorded the most lopsided victory of the 2021 Oaklawn meeting (13 lengths) in Thursday’s first race for trainer Jason Barkley. … Newcomer Francisco Arrieta was aboard Frenchie Frou Frou and won Thursday’s ninth race on Twilight Blue ($8.20) for trainer Joe Sharp. Arrieta had nine victories through the first 11 days of the meet. … Jockey David Cohen and trainer Robertino Diodoro teamed for two victories Thursday. They won the second race with favored Raintree Starlet ($5.60) and the seventh race with favored Could You ($6.60). … Newcomers Samuel Camacho Jr. and Cristian A. Torres recorded their first career Oaklawn riding victories Thursday. Camacho won the fourth race aboard Bode’s Light ($18.40) for trainer Genaro Garcia. Torres won the sixth race aboard Starrgarita ($26) for trainer John Henry Prather Jr. of Hot Springs. … After his streak of 10 consecutive racing days with at least Oaklawn victory was snapped Sunday, Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen won Thursday’s featured eighth race, a 1-mile allowance for older fillies and mares, with favored Palio Flag ($4.60). Palio Flag represented Asmussen’s meet-best 16th victory. Asmussen is seeking his record-tying 11th Oaklawn training title after winning the crown in 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019. … Joshua Morales, Oaklawn’s leading apprentice jockey this year, is now riding with a 5-pound weight allowance.
