Florida-based Venezuelan expat, preparing unbeaten Gulfstream winner Gabaldon for a race at Britain’s showpiece meet, speaks to Laura King
Jose Francisco D’Angelo is getting excited. About his first trip to England and, more specifically, wearing “the big hat” – and meeting Harry Potter.
That’s a top hat, by the way, because the former Venezuelan champion trainer is bound for Royal Ascot with Gabaldon, set to run in the Windsor Castle Stakes, a Listed race on the second day of the annual five-day jamboree on June 19.
“I’m really excited about coming to England – I love Harry Potter!” he says. As such, it seems unfair to tell him that J.K. Rowling’s wizard hero is unlikely to grace the Royal Enclosure because the trip already has a fairytale quality for the 34-year-old from Caracas.
Gabaldon earned his trip to Britain by winning on debut in the Royal Palm Juvenile, one of two black-type races Gulfstream Park in May offering free entry to their winners as part of an Ascot initiative.
The colt was 16-1 for that contest and is also likely to be among the outsiders at Royal Ascot, but perhaps he shouldn’t be. After all, Kentucky-based trainer George Weaver’s Crimson Advocate won on the same Gulfstream card last year before winning the Queen Mary Stakes.
Either way, D’Angelo is overjoyed to be on his way. “I’ve always wanted to go there,” says the trainer. “For the last two years we’ve been looking for a horse to win the race here and go to Ascot.
“This horse was doing so well that I asked the owner to let me run him on grass and it worked. He won the race and now we are on the way to Ascot.”
Impressive at Gulfstream
Owned by Soldi Stable, Gabaldon impressed in the five-furlong contest at Gulfstream, duelling on the lead and then having enough in hand to win by a length and a quarter. He was ridden by D’Angelo’s number one jockey, his Venezuelan compatriot Emisael Jaramillo, who keeps the ride for Ascot.
“He’s fast and set fast fractions,” adds his trainer. “He fought with the other horse and closed a little bit so I think it’s good to go there. His armour is his speed.”
A grey son of Pennsylvania Derby winner Gone Astray, Gabaldon was purchased for just $9,000 at the Ocala Yearling Sale.
“I liked him at the sale – he was really well-balanced and pretty horse,” says D’Angelo, who picked him out alongside the owners. “He has no big pedigree, so I think that’s why we bought him for $9,000.
“He’s a baby but he has a good mind, like an older horse,” he goes on. “That’s very important, so I don’t think the travelling will be a problem for him. He’s a big boy and he eats very well, so I think he’ll handle it.”
Ascot’s pomp and circumstance will be a different experience for D’Angelo, who can boast a solid background in racing. He followed his father, Francisco, into training, emulating him both by becoming champion in his native Venezuelan in 2018 before moving to the US, where he set up a base in South Florida.
“I’d won the biggest races in the country and the [equivalent of the] Eclipse Award there too,” says the trainer, who in 2014 became the youngest to win the Gran Premio Clásico Simón Bolivar – Venezuela’s G1 equivalent of the Breeders’ Cup Classic. 
“After all of that I wanted to achieve something else, and the big races are here in the US,” he explains.
In the big league
“I wanted to try in the big league and it was difficult at first, but it was helpful that my father moved first and that I’d been following American racing closely. With horses, it’s always the same – you have to work early, work hard and do as good as you can with them.”
D’Angelo’s affable, relaxed persona hides a layer of determination. He was quick to establish himself in the US; his breakthrough win coming with just his third runner, Beach Dreaming, in 2019.
A year later, he entered that big league, a Covid-ravaged season seeing him compete at the top tier with Jesus’ Team. D’Angelo himself drove the horsebox across the country with his G1 performer in the back, saddling him for third in a Preakness Stakes run in October before a second place in the G1 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile. After that, it was time to really travel when Jesus’ Team took him to Meydan for a respectable sixth in Mystic Guide’s Dubai World Cup.
“All the trips we did with Jesus’ Team, it was the best time,” he remembers. “Travelling is good, because you get to run against the best trainers and riders in the world and the best horses.
“If you go to Dubai or Ascot, it’s the best of the best from each place and it’s not easy to qualify – you must be good. I want to prove myself at that level.”
D’Angelo’s travels have also taken him to Saudi Arabia, where Bentornato gave him his best international result so far, finishing third to Forever Young in the $1.5m Saudi Derby. As well as netting some nice prize-money, D’Angelo used the trip as learning experience.
Learning process
“I learned a lot,” says the trainer, who has also sought advice from Weaver ahead of Ascot. “You have to adapt your horse the trip and make it as comfortable as you can for him – make a proper programme, workouts, food … make them less tired, so they’re not stressed.”
Back home, where he has 85 horses at Palm Meadows Training Center in Florida (plus smaller strings at Monmouth Park and Saratoga), things are going very nicely. D’Angelo trainees have pocketed more than $2.6m so far this year across 66 wins and a 19 per cent strike rate; he has more than 360 North American victories altogether for $11.9m in prize-money.
“I just like to win races, so I try to treat each horse differently,” he says of his training methods. “I don’t try and adapt the horses to my programme, I try to adapt me to the horse, because every horse is different.
“Some run short, some run long, and if they run different races then you can’t treat them all the same. I always tried that in Venezuela and for me it works.”
The next step, he feels, is that coveted international win. “Now we want to win those races, not just run good.”
Jose D’Angelo might not get to meet Harry Potter, but the dream of winning at Ascot might yet come true.
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