Top sprinters enter ‘Hot Springs’
A graded stake with four Hall of Fame trainers represented, the $200,000 Honeybee is technically the feature race Saturday at Oaklawn Park.
But with a field of top sprinters including some Oaklawn favorites, the $150,000 Hot Springs two races earlier may generate more local interest.
Picking a favorite among Whitmore, Ivan Fallunovalot and Storm Advisory, all with solid Oaklawn credentials, may take some doing. Between them, Ivan Fallunovalot and Storm Advisory have won the last three runnings of the King Cotton while Whitmore comes off the fastest six furlongs ever run at Oaklawn in January.
The Hot Springs so brims with quality that Oaklawn’s 2015 Bachelor winner, Holy Boss, a last-out stakes winner in New Orleans, might sneak into town unannounced. The same goes for Fish Trappe Road, last year’s Grade 3 Dwyer winner at New York’s Belmont Park and here making his 4-year-old debut.
Recount, a nine-time winner at other tracks but 0 for 6 at Oaklawn, hopes to better his second-place finish in the King Cotton, which Storm Advisory won by 2 3/4 lengths Feb. 4. In that race, two-time King Cotton winner Ivan Fallunovalot faded to fourth as an odds-on favorite in his first start since a Grade 3 victory in Maryland last fall. Ivan has since recorded two “bullet” workouts and, with 119 pounds, gets a slight weight break in the Hot Springs.
Ron Moquett trains Whitmore and owns the 4-year-old gelding in partnership with Harry Rosenblum, of Little Rock, and Robert LaPenta. Sired by Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Pleasantly Perfect, Whitmore has been converted to sprinting after clocking six furlongs in
1:08.81 Jan. 15 in his seasonal debut at Oaklawn. In his 3-yearold season, Whitmore won an Oaklawn allowance sprinting, then stretched out for seconds in the Grade 3 Southwest and Grade 2 Rebel and placed third in the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby.
Ricardo Santana Jr., fourtime Oaklawn riding champion, is named to ride Whitmore for the first time in the Hot Springs. Santana is expected back in the saddle Friday after separating a shoulder in a spill last week that fellow jockey Didiel Osorio fractured two vertebrae.
Hall of Famer Calvin Borel remains aboard Ivan Fallunovalot, while Luis Contreras picks up the mount on the Steve Asmussen-trained Holy Buss, whom Santana rode to victory at Fair Grounds Jan.
21. Ramon Vazquez rides Fish Trappe Road, making his Oaklawn debut for trainer Bret Calhoun, while Chris Landeros stays aboard Recount and Geovanni Franco with Storm Advisory, high-weighted at 122. Candy Ruby, a last-out Oaklawn winner, makes his first start off a $40,000 claim by Hall of Fame trainer Jack Van Berg with Declan Cannon aboard while Channing Hill rides Chief Cicatriz, a stakes winner at Sunland Park and Turf Paradise.
Post time is 3:39 p.m. for the
71st Hot Springs, a prep for the Grade 3 $400,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap April 15. Subtle Indian won both races last year for Robertino Diodoro, who trains Storm Advisory.