'It's Never Too Late': Daniel Centeno Gets First Kentucky Oaks Mount Aboard Power Squeeze

By winning the Suncoast Stakes on Feb. 10 at Tampa Bay Downs and the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Oaks on March 30, 3-year-old filly Power Squeeze proved she belongs in next Friday’s $1.5 million Longines Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs.

So did her jockey, six-time Tampa Bay Downs riding champion Daniel Centeno.

Following the 52-year-old Venezuela product’s outstanding performance in the Gulfstream Park Oaks – in which Centeno avoided an early squeeze play going into the first turn after breaking from the No. 1 post position, then timed her power stretch move perfectly to upset 1-2 favorite Ways and Means – owner Bill Cosgrove of Lea Farms and trainer Jorge Delgado agreed they need look no further for their filly’s rider under Churchill’s Twin Spires.

Centeno, who will be making his first-ever appearance at Churchill Downs, is still (figuratively) pinching himself to be sure it’s for real.

“You never know in this business,” said Centeno, whose previous brush with the classic scene came in 2019 when he rode Alwaysmining to an unplaced finish in the Preakness at Pimlico. “You only have to get the opportunity to ride the right horse and try to keep on her for something like this to happen.

“When I talked to the owner and he told me he wants me to come to Louisville and ride her again, I said ‘Sure, no problem. I’ll follow her wherever you want me to go.’ The filly and I get along real well, so now we’re going to the Oaks,” Centeno said.

While Power Squeeze’s credentials are topnotch – she is 4-for-6 in her career, with a four-race winning streak – she is expected to face such standouts as 2023 Eclipse Award Champion 2-Year-Old Filly Just F Y I, G1 Central Bank Ashland Stakes winner Leslie’s Rose, G2 Fantasy Stakes winner Thorpedo Anna and Ways and Means, along with eight or nine others.

Despite the imposing lineup, if Power Squeeze can duplicate her Florida form, she should be right in the mix for the garland of pink stargazer lilies awarded to the winner.

“It’s very exciting,” said Centeno, who plans to fly to Louisville on Thursday with his wife Brooke and his father Enrique. “I’ve ridden a lot of nice horses in my career, and it’s never too late to get another one. I’m blessed and grateful to Jorge and Mr. Cosgrove to be going.”

Power Squeeze completed the mile-and-a-sixteenth at Gulfstream in 1:44.19. Her winning time of 1:40.22 in the mile-and-40-yard Suncoast, the Oldsmar oval’s “Road to the Kentucky Oaks” prep race, was less than a second off Nest’s stakes record. Nest went on to finish second in the 2022 Longines Kentucky Oaks to Secret Oath.

Centeno thinks Power Squeeze, a daughter of Union Rags out of the Awesome Again mare Callmethesqueeze, will welcome the added distance of the mile-and-an-eighth Longines Kentucky Oaks.

“I think the longer she goes, the better she’s going to be,” Centeno said.