2016 Kentucky Derby Under the Radar Spotlight: Whitmore

In the last 12 years, the winners of the Arkansas Derby have went on to win eight Triple Crown races, and finish second in four more. Clearly, if you are looking for a horse to do well in the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, or Belmont, Oaklawn Park’s signature event must be considered as a key race. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that when sifting through the attributes of hundreds of early candidates for the 2016 Kentucky Derby, that I would pay extra close attention to those horses expected to be a factor when the Arkansas Derby rolls around on April 16. One such horse that I like a lot is this week’s Under the Radar Spotlight Horse, Whitmore.

If you haven’t heard of the gelded son of Pleasantly Perfect, that’s OK, he hasn’t won anything of note just yet, but judging by his performance of last week, I would not expect that to last for much longer. Trained by Arkansas native, Ron Moquett, Whitmore impressed the local crowd at Oaklawn Park with a troubled, but authoritative victory, in an allowance race on Saturday.

Ridden by Didiel Osorio and wearing blinkers for the first time, the chestnut was pinched at the start and then lacked room while boxed in around the turn, but once clear, had no trouble in dispatching of his competition in his three-year-old debut. Final time for the 3 ¼-length victory was 1:10.57 for the six furlongs. In winter racing at Oaklawn, that’s a very fast time. In fact, the race earned him a career-high 86 Beyer Speed Figure, which was actually three points higher than the winning mark of Discreetness in the Smarty Jones Stakes two days later. While not in stakes company, the performance oozed with class and talent.

For Moquett, who was a major player on the Arkansas trail last year with Far Right winning the Smarty Jones and Southwest, before finishing second to American Pharoah in the Arkansas Derby, it was the kind of result that allows him to look forward to bigger and better things. “To me, he showed us where we’re at,” said Moquett. “I think it was an excellent stepping stone to what we need to do. He answered the question [Saturday], and we’re going to step him up and ask him more. Our end goal is the Arkansas Derby. We’re doing everything to try and get there with the best shot to run his best race that day. So everything I’m doing, I’m working backwards from that.” First things first, though, and the next race for Whitmore (Pleasantly Perfect--Melody’s Spirit, by Scat Daddy) more than likely will be the $500,000 Southwest Stakes on February 15, as the Derby trail begins to ramp up full force in Hot Springs. Whether it is the Southwest or not, Moquett expects his impressive gelding to stretch out to a two-turn test in his next. Despite the long-winded pedigree, Whitmore has yet to prove his affinity for a distance, but with bloodlines like this, and a pair of big performances at the six furlong distance, you can see why there is plenty of excitement for the future.

The first of those two sharp wins at three-quarters of a mile came in his career debut last November when he blitzed a 12-horse maiden special weight field at Churchill Downs by more than seven lengths. It has since become a key race, as four of the horses in the field have come back to win since.

That fantastic career opener did two things. First it prompted well known owners, Harry Rosenblum and Robert LaPenta to buy into the ownership group of Whitmore with Moquett’s Southern Springs Stable. Then, they moved quickly forward to go directly into the $1 million Delta Downs Jackpot only two weeks after his career debut. Perhaps a case of a little too much, too soon, Whitmore ran fifth of ten in the rich, two-turn affair, with the experienced Exaggerator taking home top money.

Surely the big step up in class and distance can be forgiven, and now with his return race under the belt, and as a more experienced horse, there is good reason to believe that Whitmore will be a whole lot more of a threat in his next foray into top quality racing. Bred for distance, an impressive winner of two of his first three races, and in the hands of a trainer who knows the Arkansas trail to Louisville very well, Whitmore looks to be on the fast track to the Arkansas Derby and beyond.