SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Earlier this year, Pietro Moran accepted the Eclipse Award as North America's outstanding apprentice jockey of 2025. It was a humbling honor for the then 20-year-old from Kilkenny, Ireland.Friday, the baby-faced Moran will get yet another career highlight when he rides in his first-ever race at Saratoga Race Course. Moran will be aboard 6-year-old mare Miss Vyvyanne (Rainbow Heir), the 5-2 morning-line second choice in the featured $200,000 Smart and Fancy Stakes, a 5 1/2-furlong event on the Mellon Turf Course.“I am so excited,” Moran said Thursday morning while touring the Oklahoma Training Track. “This is a dream. Saratoga is the best of the best in the summer, and I have always wanted to ride here.”Now 21, Moran has already started to establish himself as a top jockey at Woodbine in Canada. He leads the jockey standings at the Toronto track with 65 winners. Last year, he won the prestigious King's Plate, the first leg of the Canadian Triple Crown, with Mansetti (Collected).After riding the one race in Saratoga Friday, Moran will hustle back to Woodbine where he will attempt to win the King's Plate again, this time aboard Dixie Law (Tiz the Law), one of two fillies in the 12-horse field. The other, Luster(Knicks Go), is the even-money morning-line favorite and will be ridden by Hall of Famer Johnny Velazquez.Dixie Law is 10-1 on the King's Plate morning line.Moran and his family–his father David is also a jockey on the Woodbine circuit–moved to Canada when he was six.“It was special, growing up in Canada, to have the year I did last year,” Moran said. “To win the Eclipse and to be able to ride in big races was very special.”Moran got the Eclipse after winning 140 races from 863 starts and earnings of $6,083,83. He lost his bug on Jan. 6 and won eight races in 36 mounts at the championship meet at Gulfstream Park before heading back to Woodbine.All of this came after he was involved in a horrible fall that resulted in him having a spinal fusion in 2024.“It was bad,” Moran said. “It almost paralyzed me. I knew I would be back, but it was a long road to recovery. I was off for eight, nine months.”Moran was taking in as much of Saratoga as he could in his short stay. He was here a few years ago and had a brief tour.He is hoping for a solid performance from Miss Vyvyanne on Friday and expects more than a little excitement when he makes the walk from the jockey's room to the paddock.“I've watched races and all the jockeys that have been here,” he said. “There are so many good riders here … Johnny V. … Jose Ortiz… I grew up watching them. And I have ridden against a lot of them.”At 5-foot-7, Moran is tall for a jockey, but he doesn't worry about that.“It's all about the weight,” he said. “I've never had problems with it. Since I was a kid, I always worked hard on keeping my weight down and being fit because this is all I ever wanted to do.”Talk to Me Jimmy Will Stay With N.Y. BredsThe decision was never going to be that hard for trainer Rudy Rodriguez. His 3-year-old colt Talk to Me Jimmy (Modernist) will run in the $200,000 Albany Stakes against New York-breds, not the $1.25-million GI Travers Stakes against some of the best sophomore colts in the land.Talk to Me Jimmy wins the Withers | Coglianese“I want to run in the Albany,” Rodriguez said at his barn at the Oklahoma Training Track Thursday morning. “There is no need to experiment with those kind of horses (in the Travers). I've got to protect him.”After Talk to Me Jimmy beat state-breds in the New York Derby on July 13, there was talk about maybe trying the big boys in the Travers. Talk to Me Jimmy won the Withers Stakes at Aqueduct in February and there was a brief case of GI Kentucky Derby fever, but that faded when he finished eighth in the GII Wood Memorial.The horse is owned by SEI Thoroughbreds, Michael Imperio and Rodriguez.“I own 25 percent,” Rodriguez said. “Definitely the Albany, without a doubt. We've got a New York-bred, why screw him up? He still looks like he's growing. Those horses in the Travers will be tough. Why go there? If we can finish 1-2-3 in the Albany, we can point to the (Empire) Showcase Day (at Belmont Oct. 24).”Talk to Me Jimmy has won three of six starts in his career and is two for four this year. After the horse won the Withers, Rodriguez said the ownership group was offered a substantial amount of money for Talk to Me Jimmy, but the decision was made to keep him.Rodriguez also gave an update on his 2-year-old Flight Command (Flightline), who finished last as the 9-5 favorite in the GII Saratoga Special on Aug. 1. Flight Command, who broke his maiden by 10 lengths in his first start to be named a 'TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard', stumbled out of the gate and was never a factor in the Saratoga Special.“Draw a line through that one,” said Rodriguez, who is pointing Flight Command to the GI Hopeful Stakes on Sept. 6. “Saratoga is tough. Everything can go right and everything can go wrong. I'm happy with the way he came out; he hasn't missed a day.”Alvarado Will Head West to Ride KnightsbridgeWhen 'TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard' Knightsbridge (Nyquist) heads west for the $1-million GI Pacific Classic next week, jockey Junior Alvarado will be going with him.Junior Alvarado and Knightsbridge in June | Sarah AndrewAlvarado, the regular rider for the 5-year-old, will be reunited with the Bill Mott-trained horse, who won the GIII Monmouth Cup by 10 1/4 lengths at Monmouth Park on July 18. He was ridden by Flavien Prat that day.“Flavien rode him that day because Bill wanted me to stay here because we had horses to ride at Saratoga,” Mike Sellitto, Alvarado's agent, said on the Oklahoma Training Track Thursday morning.Sellitto said the team, which includes Mott and Godolphin–which owns and bred Knightsbridge–wanted Alvarado back on for the Pacific Classic.“I don't ask no questions,” Sellitto said. “They said you are going to ride Knightsbridge, and I said, 'thank you.'”Sellitto said Alvarado will leave for California next Friday at 5 p.m. from Albany International Airport. He said he expects Alvarado to ride eight races on the Pacific Classic card.The post Saratoga Notebook, presented by NYRA Bets: Dream Comes True for Eclipse Award-Winning Jockey appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.