Last early, Whitmore was first when it mattered most on Saturday at Oaklawn Park.
And, winning the Grade 3 $400,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap for a second-straight year, the 5-year-old gelding covered himself in glory again.
Whitmore remained unbeaten in Oaklawn sprint races (6 for 6) with a combination of speed and class. Though he has run faster, thrice clocking 1:08 "and change" over the track last year, the chestnut gelding was both patient, punctual -- and need we say it, powerful -- when the situation demanded.
Last of six at the quarter pole, more than five lengths behind the razor-sharp Smart Spree, Whitmore uncorked a tremendous burst of speed after turning for home. Widest of all in the stretch, Whitmore prevailed by three quarters of a length over early-season King Cotton winner Wilbo in a fast-rated 1:09.77 under high weight of 121 pounds.
As in two of his three Oaklawn victories last year and in the March 10 Hot Springs, which he won by a neck over Wynn Time in his seasonal debut, Whitmore responded to Ricardo Santana Jr. like the New York Philharmonic to Leonard Bernstein.
Santana hoped the the speed would back up after Smart Spree took the field to the top of the stretch in 45.64 seconds. Once Smart Spree, a three-time meet winner for Oaklawn rookie trainer Norman McKnight, gave way, Whitmore set sail.
"I rode the horse before and he's a class horse," said Santana, earlier honored for his sixth consecutive Oaklawn jockey title. "Today, there was a lot of speed and I wanted to be off it. His class won out.
"When he got in the clear, he became a different horse," Santana said. "He just blew by them."
Trainer Ron Moquett converted Whitmore into a sprinter after a 3-year-old season that the gelding finished third in the Arkansas Derby and competed in the Kentucky Derby. Racing for partners Moquett and Robert LaPenta, Whitmore has won 10 of 18 races and earned $1,527,000 -- becoming an Oaklawn millionaire Saturday with a 6-2-1 record from nine starts.
"The way the track was playing today, I didn't want to be that far back early," said Moquett. "But I put my trust in Santana, and he put his trust in the horse."
Smart Spree, Ivan Fallunovalot and Wings Locked Up, the latter horse shadowing Smart Spree early, completed the order of finish in the 45th Count Fleet before an announced crowd of 64,500.
Northern Spur
John Ed Anthony's yellow and brown diagonals are silks treasured by veteran Oaklawn racegoers, represented by Arkansas Derby winners Temperence Hill, Demons Begone and Pine Bluff to name a few.
Shortleaf (formerly Loblolly) Stable has distinguished Arkansas racing locally and nationally since the late 1970s. Thus it was no surprise that Anthony, a Hot Springs lumberman whose horses have won three Triple Crown races, visited the Oaklawn winner's circle again Saturday.
High North, a half-brother to Grade 2 winner Benner Island, took the lead off the turn and outdueled Ike down the stretch in the $150,000 Northern Spur.
Overmatched twice in Grade 2 stakes in his 3-year-old season, High North scored his first victory since a third-out, two-turn maiden race at Keeneland last fall. Anthony paid $230,000 for the bay colt by Midnight Lute, whose dam, Spacy Tracy (by Awesome Again), produced Shortleaf's Benner Island, last year's Eight Belles winner on the Kentucky Oaks undercard at Churchill Downs.
Brad Cox, Benner Island's trainer, also conditions High North, who raced at Fair Grounds and in Oaklawn's Rebel earlier this year.
"We put blinkers on him, hoping it would put a little more speed into him. It did, obviously," Cox said. "Florent did a good job, knuckling down on him a little bit and getting him into position on the first turn. That's kind of what we were looking for. ... We've thought a lot of this horse all along."
Overtaking 45-1 pacesetter Soul P Say at the head of the stretch, High North pulled away by 2 1/2 lengths over Ike, a Paynter colt owned by the Little Rock-based Westrock Stable of Scott and Joe Ford. It was another 3 3/4 lengths back to Higher Power, an early-season meet winner for trainer Donnie Von Hemel, with post-time favorite Title Ready, an Oaklawn winner, fourth of eight entered.
With Florent Geroux aboard, High North clocked the fast-rated mile and sixteenth in 1:43.73 and paid $11.80, $5.60 and $4.40.
Sports on 04/15/2018