Barn Tour: Moquett is off to a fast start at Oaklawn

Trainer Ron Moquett, who’s been going to Oaklawn for 21 years, is off to a fast start this fall at the Hot Springs, Ark., track.

He won with 4 of 8 starters on opening weekend and picked up two more last weekend, giving him a record of 18: 6-5-4 for the meet so far.

You won’t find him in many graded stakes. Other than with the great Whitmore, who won seven from 2017 to 2020, Moquett hasn’t won a graded stakes since 2015.

But he enjoys the competition at Oaklawn, he told Horse Racing Nation on Monday from Arkansas ahead of a Christmas shopping outing.

“If you can win races, you can make money for your clients,” Moquett said. “It's hard to win at Oaklawn. There's a lot of very astute horsemen here that are very good at their particular niche of the industry. You've got a lot of people that just focus on state-bred races, you got some people that are just very good claiming trainers that know what to do with a good horse. And then obviously, you've got the people that develop the next-level horses. And so there's not an easy spot to avoid competition.”

Moquett discussed his five of his six Oaklawn winners (the other one was claimed) for the latest in HRN’s Barn tour series.

Sulwe. The 4-year-old Dominus filly, unraced until this year, started by going 1-for-5. After a seven-month break, she won a $104,000 allowance race for Arkansas-breds by a head on Saturday. She’s one of two Arkansas-breds whom Moquett pointed to this meet months ago, giving them a freshening during the summer. “She looks like he's ready to maybe try some state-bred stakes company, perhaps,” Moquett said.

Acehigh Royal is a 3-year-old who debuted in April and broke his maiden Dec. 9 on his seventh attempt. He’s one of two runners sired by Gentlemen’s Bet to win for Moquett that day. “Gentleman's Bet is a horse that I trained for the owner of Acehigh Royal named Harry Rosenblum, and he stands stud at McDowell farms. So he had a light breeding year his first year in Arkansas, and this was one of the first foals. And luckily, he was a part of a two-win day for that sire, Gentleman's Bet, who was fast, and we're happy to see his horses running as a reflection of him.” The other win for Gentleman’s Bet that day was Pattern Bet.

Pattern Bet. The 3-year-old filly is the other Arkansas-bred Moquett freshened for the fall Oaklawn. Unraced as a 2-year-old, she started the year with five second-place finishes from January through April and then had a break. With one win, “she is now eligible for the race that Sulwe came out of. So hopefully she takes the baton from Sulwe and does well in that race.”

Spurrier. This 2-year-old Tunwoo colt broke his maiden on first try at Oaklawn on opening weekend. “We're kind of going to keep an eye on a couple stake races for Spurrier, if there's some possibilities that we could fit. And if not, then we'll let him develop in an allowance race because the purses are so good.”

Sinner's Sin. The 3-year-old gelded son of Practical Joke is another one who got a break after going 0-for-5 in the spring. He came back at Oaklawn last weekend and got his first win. “Sinners Sin is a horse that luckily is owned by the right connections with (Oaklawn president Louis) Cella. And he's always let me do what's right by the horse. We came out to Churchill, and we felt he was pretty live running there, and he didn't handle the heat really well. So I asked him if I could just kick him out and get him ready for when the temperatures dropped a little bit. So it worked out very well. … It's good to win that race because you want to win on Saturday at Oakland because there's a lot of people there, but you definitely want to win a race and reward the owners for doing right by their horses.”

This last horse hasn’t won at Oaklawn yet, but Moquett said “we’re very proud of Protege.” The 2-year-old son of Good Magic won his first start in September at Churchill and was third on Saturday in an Oaklawn allowance optional claiming race. “A Gary and Mary West horse won it – that's a very nice colt. And it looks like if we could have maybe gotten through it a time or so we might have been second or even contended for a win. But sometimes you get the benefit of a good trip. Sometimes someone else gets the benefit of your bad trip. And the rider did the right thing. It's just it didn't work out. … But he'll be a fun horse to keep an eye on.”