C Z Rocket letter perfect, repels Whitmore in HS
Within minutes of each other Saturday, the basketball Razorbacks lost in the Southeastern Conference tournament and Whitmore tasted defeat in the Hot Springs Stakes.
Even if Arkansas hadn’t lost an SEC game since January, there was precedent on the basketball court.
The unthinkable happened at Oaklawn in the race that champion Whitmore had won four straight years.
C Z Rocket, back where he was claimed last April for
$40,000, got up in the last 70 yards of the $200,000 Hot Springs, avenging by a neck his second to Whitmore in last year’s Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Sprint. That victory, at Keeneland, propelled Whitmore to his first Eclipse Award, heightening expectations for the 8-year-old gelding’s sixth year of local racing.
If they didn’t have a rivalry beforehand, the battle lines have been drawn clearly. Now a racing millionaire, C Z Rocket becomes only the third horse to beat Whitmore sprinting at Oaklawn. Imagine the build-up to the Grade 3
$600,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap if they meet again April 10. Whitmore, bankrolling more than $4.5 million in 39 starts, counts three in the Count Fleet among nine Oaklawn victories.
Florent Geroux, riding Kentucky Oaks winner Shedaresthedevil to victory in the Grade 2 Azeri earlier on the card, made the absolute difference in the Hot Springs. With what interviewer Nancy Holthus called a “slingshot move,” the 7-year-old City Zip gelding received some of the most effective left-handed whipping seen here since Pat Day’s time. His last-to-first move nailed Whitmore just as the latter bellied down, helped to that point by longshot stablemate Firecrow.
“I just wanted him to take his time and stay close to Whitmore,” said Geroux, who won aboard C Z Rocket twice last year (Luis Saez rode in the Breeders’ Cup.) “From what I could see, he was the horse to beat.”
They crossed the wire after six furlongs in 1:09.94, both carrying 121 pounds. Formerly owned by Arkansan Frank
Fletcher, C Z Rocket paid $7.20,
$3.40 and $2.40. Whitmore, the 17-10 favorite, was second by 1 1/2 lengths over Flagstaff, who with blinkers on was given a good chance to atone for his last-out defeat in the King Cotton Feb. 6.
California-based Peter Miller, defeating Whitmore twice in the BC Sprint with champion Roy H, joins Steve Asmussen as the only trainer to beat Whitmore sprinting at Oaklawn. Future champion Mitole did so in the 2019 Count Fleet and Share the Upside in last year’s King Cotton, Whitmore avenging the latter defeat in the Hot Springs.
Striving to ensure a fast pace, trainer Ron Moquett entered Firecrow, a 5-yearold Maclean’s Music gelding whose co-owner Robert LaPenta (as does Moquett) owns an interest in Whitmore. With Ramon Vazquez riding, the 34-1 longshot worked out a half-mile in 44.69 seconds before giving way, placing fourth.
Flagstaff, the $2.20-to-1 second choice with Joel Rosario, was 1 1/2 lengths back in third, not prominent late. King Cotton winner Boldor, the 124-pound highweight, could not make use of the rail post, placing fifth for Asmussen, just ahead of Engage, who defeated Whitmore in the 2019 Grade 2 Phoenix at Keeneland. Mr. Jagermeister trailed the field.
Miller claimed C Z Rocket in behalf of Los Angeles businessman Tom Kagele, who counts Sol Kumin (Madaket Stable) and Gary Barber, former chairman and CEO of Metro-Goldwyn Mayer, as racing partners. One of the last sons of City Zip (sire of 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify), C Z Rocket won two Grade
2 races in California off the Oaklawn claim before Whitmore beat him by 2 3/4 lengths in the Breeders’ Cup Nov. 6.
Essex Handicap: With five horses across the track at the quarter pole, a thrilling finish ensued in the Essex Handicap.
Silver State, by a neck, beat
2019 Essex winner Rated R Superstar in the $500,000 race for older males Saturday. Defending champion Night Ops was almost two lengths back in third.
A daughter of Hard Spun-Supreme, Silver State repeated his success of Oaklawn’s Fifth Season Jan. 22. Third winner on the card for jockey Ricardo Santana Jr. and trainer Asmussen, Silver State represented the fourth meet victory for Marshall co-owner Willis Horton, his 3-yearold filly Will’s Secret (trained by Dallas Stewart) taking two Kentucky Oaks preps.
Harpers First Ride and Green Light Go were heads apart down the backstretch while Silver State, from post four, floated wide. Silver State took a slight lead turning for home and was “all out” (the Equibase chart says as much) when confronted by Vazquez and 19-1 Rated R Superstar.
“We had a beautiful trip,” Santana said. “I was in the position I wanted to be in. He relaxed really well for me and turning for home, he gave me a really nice finish.”
Rated R Superstar, formerly trained by Cippy Contreras and now by Federico Villafranco, made his second start since claimed for $50,000 off a Jan. 30 Oaklawn victory. Poteau, Okla., owner Danny Caldwell, asked then why he would invest in an 8-year-old gelding, said he liked older horses.
Siiver State, also owned by Winchell Thoroughbreds, has won all four races since an October comeback. Before that, he was graded-stakes placed in two Triple Crown preps in New Orleans.
Wearing Horton’s colors, Silver State zipped a mile and sixteenth in 1:42.73 with 118 pounds and, as the favorite, paid $4.40, $3 and $2.10. Temperence Hill: Honoring a horse who could get the distance, longshot Carlos L. stretched his speed to a mile and a half, setting a track record in the $150,000 Temperence Hill.
Bearing down while Lone Rock veered outside in the stretch, the 5-year-old got home in 2:29.97 (previous record 2:31 3-5) and paid $97.60 to win. Alex Canchari rode the winner, who formerly raced in Panama and last won on American soil in December at Hawthorne, then going 6 1/2 furlongs.
“He’s a really good speed horse,” trainer Mac Robertson said, Carlos L., going the first mile in 1:39.00 and the mile and a quarter in 2:04.36. “He was almost 50-1, and I didn’t know if he could win but thought might hit the board.”
The Temperence Hill honors Arkansas lumberman John Ed Anthony’s first of three Eclipse Award (1980 champion 3-year-old) winners and whose defining victory came in the mile-and-a-half Belmont Stakes for trainer Joe Cantey.