Moquett stable stars gear up for 2019

Three of Ron Moquett’s biggest guns are scheduled to arrive early next month at Oaklawn Park to begin preparing for the 2019 meeting, the trainer said Thursday morning.

Moquett said Grade 1 winner Whitmore, stakes-winning 2-yearold Frosted Ice and stakes-placed older sprinter Petrov are to arrive Jan. 3 in Hot Springs. The trainer said all three horses are being freshened in Kentucky, including Whitmore, who has not started since finishing second in the Grade

1 $2 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Nov. 3 at Churchill Downs.

“I always call it his annual stay (cation) because all he does is stay in Kentucky until January and then he comes here,” Moquett said.

Whitmore was Oaklawn’s top older sprinter in 2017 and 2018 after sweeping the $125,000 Hot Springs Stakes and Grade 3 $400,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap.

Moquett said Whitmore will target the same two races in 2019, but the 5-year-old Pleasantly Perfect gelding may resurface a little earlier “because of how good he came out of the Breeders’ Cup.”

“He’s going to tell us,” Moquett said, mentioning the $100,000 King Cotton Stakes Feb. 9 as a possible landing spot.

Oaklawn’s stakes series for older sprinters continues with the

$150,000 Hot Springs on March 9 and the Count Fleet on April 13.

Co-owned by Moquett, Whitmore had a 3-4-0 record from eight starts in 2018, highlighted by his first career Grade 1 victory in the

$600,000 Forego Aug. 25 at Saratoga Race Course in New York.

“He’s bad,” Moquett said. “He’s a good horse. I was very pleased he won the Forego.”

Moquett said the year-end goal in 2019 for Whitmore is a third consecutive appearance in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. Overall, Whitmore is 11 of 24 with earnings of $2,381,000.

Moquett’s top Arkansas Derby prospect might be Frosted Ice, a winner of 2 of 3 starts, including the $150,000 Bertram F. Bongard Stakes for New York-breds on Sept.

21 at Belmont Park in his last start. A gray son of Bellamy Road, Frosted Ice won the Bongard by 6

1/4 lengths and broke his maiden by 5 1/2 lengths against state-breds Aug. 17 at Saratoga.

Bongard fourth Bankit returned to dominate state-breds in the $256,875 Sleepy Hollow Stakes Oct. 20 at Belmont Park and is the

3-1 second choice in the program for the $400,000 Springboard Mile Sunday at Remington Park.

“We’ve been flattered several times out of that race,” Moquett said of the Bongard. “Frosted Ice can run. He’s a big horse and he’s got a big, huge stride.

“When everybody else is getting tired, he still maintains that speed. Stamina is pretty good. Being by Bellamy Road, he’s got the pedigree for it.”

Moquett said he would he would like to use a two-turn allowance race as Frosted Ice’s prep for the Grade 2 $1 million Rebel Stakes on March 16 at Oaklawn. The Rebel is the final major local prep for the Grade 1 $1 million Arkansas Derby on April 13.

Frosted Ice, who has never run farther than 7 furlongs, races for his breeder, Catherine Adams Hutt.

Petrov was an allowance winner this year at Oaklawn and Saratoga, helping boost his career earnings to $557,307.

Oaklawn’s meeting runs Jan. 25-May 4.