Whitmore claims another Count Fleet Sprint victory

HOT SPRINGS — Yet another standard falls to the great Whitmore.

Owned in part by his trainer Ron Moquett and Robert Lapenta, Whitmore, the 3-1 favorite, ran down the frontrunners and held off closers to win a record third Grade III, $350,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap in 1:08.95 before a crowd of zero at Oaklawn’s Racing Festival of the South on Saturday.

Moquett, self-quarantined from the coronavirus, watched the 6-furlong race unfold on a television in his house, separated by no more than a tall, chainlink fence from the racetrack’s backstretch. He said his phone began to ring seconds after Whitmore, a son of Pleasantly Perfect and ridden by Joe Talamo, crossed the wire 13/4 lengths in front of late-closing Flagstaff.

“As soon as the race was over, I started getting phone calls,” Moquett said. “[Steve] Asmussen called. I got a call from Bob Baffert. [Nick] Zito called to congratulate me and Whitmore. That’s how much respect people have for this horse.”

Trainers Steve Asmussen, Baffert, and Nick Zito are each members of the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.

“I don’t take any credit,” Talamo said. “Whitmore is a great racehorse.”

Flagstaff finished length in front of third-place Manny Wah, a 74-1 shot. Nitrous, trained by Asmussen and ridden by Oaklawn’s leading jockey Ricardo Santana, Jr., finished fourth, 21/2 lengths behind Whitmore in the field of 11.

Oaklawn has closed its facility and grounds to all but essential personnel and media since March 13 to protect horsemen and others from the pandemic.

Share the Upside, the last horse to win in front of Whitmore,

led through the opening quarter-mile in 21.69, a head in front of speed-happy Bobby’s Wicked One, who soon stopped and jogged to the wire in last. Whitmore was in sixth, 21/4 lengths off the lead and about 100 yards past his trainer’s home, from which Moquett had shouted advice through the fence to Talamo during the warmup.

“He’s been doing that for the last couple of months,” Talamo said. “It’s great. It’s so cool to just ride over there to his house and have him tell me what he wants, and one of the great things about Ron is, he doesn’t tell me too much. He keeps it simple, especially with Whitmore.”

Talamo said Whitmore’s early position was ideal.

“He broke sharp, and I thought he put me in a perfect place in the backstretch,” Talamo said.

Hidden Scroll, ridden by Martin Garcia, led through the half-mile, late in the turn, in 44.67. Whitmore was third, just behind Share the Upside and length off the lead.

All that was missed was the Oaklawn stereotype of a full-throated crowd as Whitmore turned into the homestretch with length lead over Share the Upside and all the momentum needed.

Flagstaff, ridden by Joel Rosario, was in sixth, four lengths back, and would soon pose Whitmore’s final threat.

He closed 31/4 lengths over the final 3/16ths only to come up short at the wire.

Moquett said he was never worried. Talamo said he wasn’t, either.

“Ron had told me before that Whitmore tends to throttle down a little once he gets the lead, so he had a lot left,” Talamo said. “I could feel that horse coming, but I just kept working him.”

Only Whitmore and Share the Upside, also trained by Asmussen, had run in Oaklawn’s previous two stakes in their division, the King Cotton on Feb. 8 and the Hot Springs on March 7.

Share the Upside led from the start of the King Cotton to win by 11/2 lengths over second-place Whitmore, who returned to win the Hot Springs under Talamo by 21/2 lengths.

Five in the Count Fleet field made their first career Oaklawn starts, an approximate percentage of entrants common to all recent races at the track. Large fields augmented by shippers have come as a byproduct of large purses and a bundle of track closures across the U.S. sparked by the coronavirus. Only five racetracks remain open nationwide.

With his Hot Springs win, Whitmore became the only horse to win the same stakes race at Oaklawn four or more times.