Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Welder goes for third win in Classics Sprint
Welder will be getting back to his breadand-butter trip Friday night when he returns to both the main track and six furlongs for the $130,000 Oklahoma Classics Sprint at Remington Park.
“That’s his forte, that’s for sure,” said Theresa Luneack, who trains the millionaire for Ra-Max Farms.
The Sprint is one of eight divisional stakes on the $1 million Oklahoma Classics Night program, the richest of the Remington meet. Other highlights include Rowdy Yates meeting older horses for the first time in the $175,000 Oklahoma Classics Cup and She’s All Wolfe making her first appearance in the $145,000 Oklahoma Classics Distaff – a race her dam, She’s All In, won four times.
Welder is the reigning Oklahoma-bred of the year and will be looking for his third win in the Sprint. He enters off a dramatic victory in the $70,000 Remington Park Turf Sprint on Sept. 23. He was shortening up to five furlongs and making a rare appearance on the grass when he just got up for a neck win under regular rider David Cabrera.
“I’ll be honest, I thought he was beat,” Luneack said. “I was thinking, ‘Well, we’re going to be third today.’ But like David said, the last sixteenth was all [Welder]. It was all heart. That horse has more try . . . he’s not one to give up. He doesn’t like to lose.”
Luneack added that Cabrera did a “phenomenal job” on Welder.
The horse raced in fourth early and kicked into high gear the final sixteenth of a mile. Welder won a three-way battle to the wire and covered the distance on firm ground in a super-swift 55.53 seconds.
“Five furlongs is not his specialty,” Luneack said of Welder. “He was really just starting to roll at five furlongs.”
Welder will break from post 3 in the Sprint under Cabrera. Luneack likes how the horse has emerged from his last race, for which he earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 88.
“Two days after the race, we were handwalking him and he was jumping and bucking and kicking,” Luneack said. “He was feeling so good. I was really happy to see he came back from the race so well.”
The start was Welder’s first in close to three months and served as an important tightener for the Sprint, Luneack said. “He’s training very, very well,” she said. Welder is a winner of 23 of 35 starts, with 16 of those victories coming in stakes races. He is a 7-year-old by The Visualiser.
Rowdy Yates meets elders
Rowdy Yates will meet both older rivals and an East Coast invader in Deal Driven in the Classics Cup.
The 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-olds and up drew a field of eight.
Rowdy Yates is a four-time stakes winner who has run in five consecutive derbies this year. He won the Riley Allison Derby in January at Sunland Park, then ran fourth in the Saudi Derby Cup, the Ohio Derby, and the Ellis Park Derby. Rowdy Yates returned to his home state last month and ran sixth in the Grade 3 Oklahoma Derby on Sept. 27 at Remington Park. The Beyer Speed Figure of 83 that he earned is one of the top last-race numbers in the Classics Cup.
Rowdy Yates is a two-time stakes winner over the main track at Remington, with the first of those victories coming in last year’s Oklahoma Classics Juvenile and the other in the Don McNeill Stakes at two turns. Stewart Elliott has the mount from post 4 for L and N Racing and trainer Steve Asmussen.
Deal Driven, who is trained by Robert Mosco, owns the field’s best last-race Beyer Figure, an 86 earned for a runner-up finish in a second-level allowance that carried a $50,000 claiming option Sept. 10 at Laurel Park. The race was over seven furlongs, and he now moves back to the two-turn configuration of his last four wins, among them a 1 1/16-mile stakes at Parx Racing.
Fast Breakin Cash goes for breeder, owner, and trainer C.R. Trout, who has won the Classics Cup six times as an owner and six times as a trainer. He shares the owner record with John and Barbara Smicklas and the trainer record with Donnie Von Hemel, according to Remington publicity.
Trout registered four of his wins in the Classics Cup with the now-retired Shotgun Kowboy.
Craddock has top 2-year-olds
The program opens with a pair of sixfurlong stakes races for 2-year-olds, and trainer Kari Craddock could have the favorite in both the $100,000 Juvenile and $100,000 Lassie.
Number One Dude was a 7 1/2-length debut winner for breeder-owner Terry Westemeir and Craddock last month at Remington. He broke from the rail in the field of 11 and was always prominent in the maiden special weight over 5 1/2 furlongs. Number One Dude earned a Beyer of 65, which is the best career number in the field Friday.
In the Lassie, Craddock trainee Gotta See Red is moving back into the Oklahoma-bred ranks after running third against open company in the $50,000 E.L. Gaylord Memorial last month at Remington. Gotta See Red was a debut winner in her only other start. The daughter of Pollard’s Vision races for her breeders, Hal Browning and David Faulkner.