Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Skelly stays in high cotton, glides to 7th consecutive win
HOT SPRINGS — If not already, Skelly worked his way into discussion among the best sprinters seen at Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort with his seventh consecutive victory Saturday‚ 54 weeks after his last defeat.
With a show of force to rival that of his Dec. 30 victory over the track, the 5-yearold Practical Joke gelding cruised into the stretch for a 3 1/4-length triumph in Oaklawn’s $150,000 King Cotton Stakes on Saturday.
Skelly sprinted clear for Ricardo Santana Jr., notching his second win in three starts over a wet track. For the fourth time in an Oaklawn stake, the Kentucky-bred gelding went six furlongs in 1:09 and change — 1:09.38, to be exact — leaving Tejano Twist, December’s Ring a Bell winner for trainer Chris Hartman, in his wake.
“That’s a nice horse, man,”Santana said. “I’ve ridden so many fast ones, but this horse is getting is getting better and better and better. How the track was, he went :44 [in the half-mile] and was comfortable. Turning for home, I asked him just a little bit to give me his best. He’s a tough horse.”
“This horse has just run seven or seven unbelievably fast races in a row,” trainer Steve Asmussen said.
Too far back at crunch time, Tejano Twist could only complete the exacta in the sixhorse field. Hartman-trained Excess Magic was third at 16-1 and stablemate Edge to Edge, second to Skelly last out, sixth. Miles Ahead, third in the King Cotton last year behind Gunite and Tejano Twist, checked in fourth for trainer Paul McGee.
Jaxon Traveler ran fifth for Asmussen, who scratched rail-drawn Ryvit, winner of Oaklawn’s Bachelor last year. Ron Moquett, whose Whitmore scored seven local stakes wins (though none in the King Cotton), scratched Osbourne, who on Jan. 20, 2023, was the last horse to beat Skelly.
Skelly paid $3.80, $2.40 and $2.10. The exotic returns were understandably chalky with the superfecta ($10.15) paying less than the trifecta ($17.15).
Asmussen, the track’s career leading trainer overall and in stakes, won the King Cotton for the fourth time in five years and fifth time overall. Santana, eight-time meet champion, also rode Gunite last year.