GRIDIRON GREATS FLANK ROOKIE RIDER--New York, NY---New York Jets kicker Jay Feely (left) and New York Giants Pro Bowl defensive end Justin Tuck (right) loom large over 19-year-old jockey Maylan Studart, at Tuesday night’s MDA Muscle Team 2009, an annual fundraiser for the Muscular Dystrophy Association held last night (1/6/09) at Chelsea Piers in New York.
Studart, a native of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, began riding in New York last fall and is currently a jockey at the New York Racing Association's Aqueduct Racetrack.
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Tuesday night marked the third straight year that a New York jockey has joined New York Jets, Giants, Islanders, Red Bulls and other top athletes at the annual “MDA Muscle Team,” a gala event at New York’s Chelsea Piers that raised nearly $1 million in support of the work of the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
Jockey Maylan Studart, a 19-year-old apprentice rider from Brazil, represented the New York jockey colony, posing with some of the top names in New York sports and appearing on stage with her Muscle Team Buddies -- local children living with Muscular Dystrophy.
Jockeys Edgar Prado, John Velazquez, Norberto Arroyo Jr., Javier Castellano and retired jockey Angel Cordero Jr. have all participated in past MDA Muscle Team events.
The MDA Muscle Team is a high profile sports dinner where professional athletes join together to put their muscle behind the search to find treatments and cures for neuromuscular diseases. MDA combats neuromuscular diseases through programs of worldwide research, comprehensive medical and community services, and far-reaching professional and public health education. With national headquarters in Tucson, MDA has more than 200 offices across the country, sponsors 230 hospital-affiliated clinics and supports nearly 400 research projects around the world.
Russ Salzberg, a racing fan who anchors the WWOR-TV sportscasts, was the event’s emcee.
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