PLETCHER’S PIPELINE still running strong.
Todd Pletcher doesn’t win every time he ships a horse from Gulfstream Park to Hot Springs, but it’s starting to seem that way.
Race Day, trained by Pletcher, made his first Oaklawn Park experience a winning one in the Grade III $250,000 Razorback Handicap on Saturday.
Pletcher won last year ’ s Razorback with another shipper, Golden Lad, who came back last month to win the Essex Handicap on Feb. 14 at Oaklawn.
Pletcher ended the 2014 Oaklawn season by winning the Arkansas Derby with 41-1 long shot Danza, who also shipped in from south Florida.
Horses trained by Pletcher have 4 of 9 starts with 2 second-place finishes and more than $1.2 million in earnings at Oaklawn since the start of the 2014 season.
Race Day, a 4-year-old Tapit colt owned by Matthew Shera, won for the fourth time in seven career starts and increased his earnings to $250,480 with Saturday’s $150,000 first prize.
Race Day outdueled southern California shipper Midnight Hawk, trained by Bob Baffert, who like Pletcher has had excellent success shipping into Oaklawn.
Jockey John Velazquez rode Race Day, who stayed at the flank of Midnight Hawk and jockey Victor Espinoza through fractions of 23.87, 48.26 and 1:12.28 for 6 furlongs.
Race Day stuck a head in front at the head of the stretch, extended the lead to about a half-length inside the 16th pole, only to see Midnight Hawk come back again on the inside.
“There was a lot of pace in his last race at Gulfstream and he didn’t get a good break,” Velazquez told the Oaklawn media department.
“Today, he broke well. I loved the way he was running into the first turn. When he came down the lane, he put up a good fight.”
Espinoza said Midnight Hawk gave a good accounting himself.
“I thought I had it there for a minute,” Espinoza said of Midnight Hawk, who was on the Kentucky Derby trail a year ago before tailing off.
“I started riding him a little early, but he was fighting. He was fighting the whole way.”
Second betting choice Tapiture, winner of last year’s Southwest Stakes, and Ride On Curlin, runner-up in the 2014 Arkansas Derby and the Essex Handicap earlier this meet, finished fifth and sixth respectively in the six-horse field.
“No excuses,” Tapiture jockey Ricardo Santana Jr. said.
“He just got tired. He was coming off a layoff and probably just needed this race.”