State-breds now wise investments
HOT SPRINGS — The stakes for this stakes race are getting higher. Consequently, so is the quality of its horses.
The $150,000 Nodouble Breeders’ Stakes for Arkansas-bred horses three-yearsold and up over 6 furlongs is the 10th of 11 races on the card at Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort today. Post time is scheduled for 5:52 p.m.
The winning owner will receive $100,000, $70,000 more than the first Nodouble winner in 2009. The overall purse has increased $50,000 from last season.
“With the money how it is here, I almost think you’re crazy not to [own an Arkansas-bred horse],” said Robert Cline, trainer of Nodouble entrants Reef’s Destiny and Bandit Point, second in last season’s Nodouble.
The race’s namesake remains a standard-bearer for Arkansas-bred horses.
“He’s a very tactical horse. If he breaks sharp like he always does, I can’t imagine him being any worse than second, third or fourth, depending on the setup. If we have a clean trip, I really like our chances, for sure.” Jockey Joe Talamo, on Tempt Fate, the horse he’s riding in today’s Nodouble Breeders’ Stakes
Owned by Gene Goff, Nodouble won the 1968 Arkansas Derby and eight other open stakes among his 11 career wins.
The Thoroughbred Racing Association named Nodouble, trained by Bert Sonnier, the American champion older male horse in 1969 and 1970. Wins through those two seasons came for Nodouble in the Santa Anita Handicap, the Brooklyn Handicap at Aqueduct, the Hawthorne Gold Cup Handicap and the Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont Park. As a three-year-old, Nodouble went unnominated for the 1968 Kentucky Derby but finished third in the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico in Baltimore.
Jockey Joe Talamo is set to ride Nodouble entrant Tempt Fate, a son of Hamazing Destiny and the 5-2 morning-line favorite. Talamo said he will ride Jerry Caroom’s Tempt Fate, trained by Carl Deville, with confidence.
“He’s a very tactical horse,” Talamo said. “If he breaks sharp like he always does, I can’t imagine him being any worse than second, third or fourth, depending on the setup. If we have a clean trip, I really like our chances, for sure.”
Talamo said he believes the Nodouble and other Arkansas-bred races will continue to improve in quality.
“I really believe it’s just going to get better,” he said. “They run for so much money. It’s really no secret that the breeding program is only going to get stronger from here on out, as it should when you’re running for that kind of purse money.”
Despite purse increases across the class spectrum at Oaklawn, a chance for ownership at the state-bred level is relatively inexpensive. Cline, who also owns Bandit Point, said the 6-yearold son of Indy Squall cost somewhere in the figurative neighborhood of $3,000 to $4,000. Bandit Point (4-69 in 33 career starts) has earned $330,877 in a career that began in 2018.
“Bandit Point’s run a whole lot of seconds and thirds,” Cline said. “He’s made a lot of money, but he’s kind of done it the hard way.”
Bandit Point, 6-1 on the morning-line, finished second to K.J.’s Nobility in last season’s Nodouble. Kelsi Harr has ridden Bandit Point’s past 21 starts.
K.J.’s Nobility, trained by Renay Borel with her husband Calvin Borel listed to ride, is the Nodouble’s 7-2 second-choice. Renay Borel also trains Nodouble entrant Bebop Shoes.
Ron Moquett trains JRita Thoroughbred’s and Robert LaPenta’s Man in the Can, winner of Oaklawn’s 6-furlong Rainbow Stakes and Arkansas Breeder’s Championship Stakes last season.
Moquett said he was particularly pleased by Man in Can’s success in the longer race for Arkansas-bred horses.
“It was super cool to win it,” Moquett said. “Being from Arkansas, you want to do well in Arkansas.”
Moquette said the Arkansas-bred program at Oaklawn continues to improve.
‘The purse structure has demanded the talent gets better,” he said. “These are horses you see leave here and go run well other places against open horses.”
Cline said he remains grateful.
“Bandit was bought for just a little money and has made a whole lot of money,” he said.
“He gives everybody hope, a horse like that. I got some really good horses that year [2017] from Kentucky, and they are good horses still, but I wouldn’t have thought out of the five 2-year-olds I had that year that my Arkie-bred was going to be the money-maker.”