‘Classy’ effort sends Whitmore to Count Fleet
On his fourth try at Oaklawn Park and sixth overall, Whitmore became a stakes winner Saturday with what his trainer and co-owner called a career-best performance.
The 4-year-old gelding turned the $125,000 Hot Springs into an early St. Patrick’s Day parade, surging in the stretch for a six-length victory and remaining unbeaten in five career sprint starts. The latest made Whitmore two for two at the current meeting and the local favorite, if not overall, for the Grade 3 $400,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap April 15.
“He did what we wanted him to against some very good horses,” said Ron Moquett, who both trains the gelding and races him in partnership with Harry Rosenblum, of Little Rock, and Robert LaPenta. “We knew he could do the distance. He did it against some classy horses.”
With Ricardo Santana Jr. aboard for the first time, Whitmore hugged the rail down the backstretch and briefly waited for running room as the field turned for home. Splitting horses, Whitmore opened a fourlength lead in midstretch and won by six lengths in 1:08.72, the fastest six furlongs of the meeting and third-fastest time in the stake’s history.
Ivan Fallunovalot, a two-time King Cotton winner at Oaklawn, ran second — well enough, trainer Tom Howard said, to aim for the Count Fleet, in which the 7-year-old gelding finished second to Alsvid in 2015.
Others Whitmore defeated included last-out King Cotton winner Storm Advisory and 2015 Oaklawn Bachelor winner Holy Boss.
“This was a pretty tough test because these were all proven warriors at that distance,” said Moquett. “One reason I was happy was because he did it the right way.”
Whitmore won a six-furlong prep Jan. 15 in 1:08.81, the fastest January time at the distance in Oaklawn history. He won going 6 1/2 furlongs in December at Aqueduct after not starting since May at Churchill Downs, where Whitmore won at first asking by 7 1/4 lengths going six furlongs the previous November.
Moquett says he decided to convert Whitmore into a sprinter after the gelding’s 19th-place finish in last year’s Kentucky Derby. Before that, Whitmore ran second to Sudden breaking news in the Grade 3 Southwest, second to Cupid in the Grade 2 Rebel and third behind future Bel--
mont Stakes winner Creator and Sudden breaking news in the Grade
1 Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn.
• Setting a stakes record in her Oaklawn debut Saturday, 3-yearold filly It Tiz Well could return in the Grade 3 $400,000 Fantasy April 14, said Hall of Fame trainer Jerry Hollendorfer.
It Tiz Well won by one length over Arkansas-owned Benner Island and set a stakes record
(1:42.61) for a mile and sixteenth. Imaginary Lady set the previous record (1:43) during the second running in 1989.
“We’ve been looking at this race,” Hollendorfer said Saturday night. “We’ve got several good fillies and thought this race fit It Tiz Well the best.”
Hollendorfer is a two-time Fantasy winner with Lite Light
(1991) and champion Blind Luck
(2010). He trained last year’s champion 3-year-old filly, Songbird, whose only defeat is to veteran mare Beholder in the 2016 Breeders’ Cup Distaff. He currently trains star 3-year-old filly Unique Bella, who defeated It Tiz Well by 7 1/2 lengths in a Grade 2 race at Santa Anita Jan. 8.
Hollendorfer assistant Don Chatlos saddled It Tiz Well at Oaklawn.
“I think we might try to look at that (the Fantasy),” Hollendorfer said from California Saturday night. “That might come up a little tougher, but at least she handled the track and she did what we wanted her to do on this trip.”
Corey Nakatani rode It Tiz Well for the first time, the filly’s third victory from five starts and worth 50 points toward a possible start in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks May 5 at Churchill Downs.
Benner Island, owned by John Ed Anthony’s Shortleaf Stable, will be pointed for the mile-and-sixteenth Fantasy, trainer Brad Cox said Sunday.
Chanel’s Legacy, sixth in the Honeybee after winning the six-furlong Dixie Belle and onemile Martha Washington at the meeting, also may consider the Fantasy, trainer Lynn Chleborad saying “she came back fine. She didn’t run like we really thought she could. We’ll just see.”