'Ivan' puts on a show at Remington

The Sentinel-Record/File photo RECORD BREAKER: Jockey Calvin Borel rides Ivan Fallunovalot to win the King Cotton Stakes at Oaklawn Park on Jan. 30, 2016. Under jockey Luis Quinonez, Ivan Fallunovalot set a track record Sunday at Remington Park in Oklahoma City as he won the $150,000 David M. Vance Stakes for the fourth straight year.
The Sentinel-Record/File photo RECORD BREAKER: Jockey Calvin Borel rides Ivan Fallunovalot to win the King Cotton Stakes at Oaklawn Park on Jan. 30, 2016. Under jockey Luis Quinonez, Ivan Fallunovalot set a track record Sunday at Remington Park in Oklahoma City as he won the $150,000 David M. Vance Stakes for the fourth straight year.

OKLAHOMA CITY -- If you think Ivan Fallunovalot is something at Oaklawn Park, check out his Remington Park record sometime.

As an odds-on favorite, the 7-year-old gelding set a stakes record Sunday night in winning the $150,000 David M. Vance for the fourth year in a row. With Luis Quinonez aboard, Ivan Fallunovalot won for the sixth time in his last eight starts and may have punched his ticket to the Breeders' Cup Sprint in November at Del Mar in Southern California.

"I don't like having to go out there," said owner Lewis Mathews Jr., of Bismarck.

"When we took him (to Keeneland for the Sprint) in 2015, it was the worst trip during a race that he's ever had, so, yes, it is tempting. We'll let the horse tell us what he wants to do."

Ivan Fallunovalot is seven for eight at Remington, his only defeat coming in the 2014 Remington Park Sprint Cup after winning the Vance. Going six furlongs in 1:08.28 Sept. 2 -- his first start since March 11 at Oaklawn, when second to Whitmore in the $150,000 Hot Springs -- Ivan was clocked Sunday in 1:08.19, nine-hundredths of a second off the track record set by Smoke of Ages in 1991.

Tracking the breakneck pace set by Wings Locked Up, Quinonez turned his mount loose on the turn and quickly led by three lengths, the winning margin. Riding a horse long associated with Hall of Fame jockey Calvin Borel, Quinonez was only mildly disappointed that it didn't come with a track record.

"I thought we had a chance at it and I pushed him a little this time, but it just wasn't quite enough," said Quinonez. "He wanted to go to the lead at the three-eighths pole, and I wanted to make him happy, so I let him go. Down the stretch, I really thought we might get it."

Twice a winner of Oaklawn's King Cotton and second in the 2015 Grade 3 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap, Ivan Fallunovalot scored his biggest victory in the 2016 Grade 3 De Francis Memorial Dash at Maryland's Laurel Park. Hoof problems limited Ivan to two races this year at Oaklawn, where owner Mathews claimed the Texas-bred gelding for $25,000 in March 2014. Under trainer Tom Howard's care, the old boy is on the doorstep of becoming a racing millionaire.

Said Mathews: "I'd just like to have him healthy for a full Oaklawn meet."

Sports on 09/26/2017

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