Honored in retirement: Oaklawn to celebrate Whitmore Day

Jockey Joe Talamo coasts across the wire aboard Whitmore to win the Count Fleet Sprint Handicap on April 18, 2020, at Oaklawn. - Photo by Richard Rasmussen of The Sentinel-Record
Jockey Joe Talamo coasts across the wire aboard Whitmore to win the Count Fleet Sprint Handicap on April 18, 2020, at Oaklawn. - Photo by Richard Rasmussen of The Sentinel-Record

More than ever, even in retirement, Whitmore is Oaklawn's horse.

The local track is devoting an entire Saturday card year to honor the 2020 Breeders' Cup Sprint winner and champion sprinter. March 20 has been designated Whitmore Day at the track with the $200,000 Hot Springs Stakes renamed the Whitmore Stakes. A nine-time Oaklawn winner in six seasons at the track, Whitmore tied the Oaklawn mark of seven stakes victories -- his four straight in the Hot Springs (2017-2020) and three (2017, 2018 and 2020) in the Grade 3 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap both records.

In a related move, the Swift Ruler barn at Oaklawn, his winter home for six years, will be renamed the Whitmore Barn. Swift Ruler also won seven Oaklawn stakes including the 1965 Arkansas Derby and 1966 Oaklawn Handicap.

Whitmore Day will also feature an appearance by the champion and Whitmore T-shirts with the first 5,000 fans receiving a commemorative Whitmore baseball card.

"Whitmore was truly Oaklawn's horse and we're excited to honor his accomplishments with Whitmore Day and the Whitmore Stakes next March," President Louis Cella said. "It is rare for a horse to compete at the highest level for six years and Whitmore did just that, never backing down from a fight. This is why he has such a large following of fans not only in Arkansas but nationwide."

Now 8 years old, Whitmore raced throughout his career for trainer Ron Moquett's Southern Springs Stables. Moquett later selling shares to Robert LaPenta and Head of Plains Partners LLC (Sol Kumin). For a time, Whitmore also raced in the silks of Little Rock horseman Harry Rosenblum.

Whitmore won an Oaklawn allowance race in January 2016 in his 3-year-old debut and went on to place in the track's top 3-year-old with a third-place finish in the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby. After running in that year's Kentucky Derby, Whitmore did not race again until December 2016 when he won a six-furlong race at Aqueduct, setting the stage for him to become one of the top sprinters in North America.

Whitmore's two Grade 1 victories, the 2018 Forego (Saratoga) and the 2020 BC Sprint (Keeneland), enhanced his reputation nationally. He was retired after being pulled up in a recent Grade 1 race at Saratoga, ending his career with a 15-15-3 record in 43 starts and lifetime earnings of $4,502,350.

"Oaklawn has always been my home track and it was Whitmore's home track, so it's a huge honor to have a stakes race named for him here," said Moquett, a Greenwood native who lives near the Oaklawn backstretch. "He was a hard-knocking horse that a lot of people could easily root for whether they put a bet on him or not. The amount of support we have received since his retirement has been overwhelming."

The upcoming Oaklawn meeting, the first spread over two years, starts Friday, Dec. 3 and runs through Sunday, May 8. There is no racing Christmas week, Dec. 24-26, or Easter Sunday, April 17.

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