Inca Empire wins for Caldwell in Oklahoma Classics Cup
Remington Park’s winningest owner Danny Caldwell of Poteau, Okla., has found the winning formula for taking down the $175,000 Oklahoma Classics Cup. For the third time in this race, Caldwell won Friday night with a horse he claimed, this time with Inca Empire, an 8-1 long shot.
“I claimed (2012 winner) Fifth Date and Dont Tell Noobody (2020) and now this one,” Caldwell said. “We tried him in a turf race first time out this meet, and we could tell he didn’t like that.”
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Inca Empire ran seventh, beaten by four lengths in the $50,000 Red Earth Stakes on the grass. Caldwell’s outfit tried plan B, back to the dirt and pointed toward the Oklahoma Classics Cup.
“The plan doesn’t always work out like this,” Caldwell said.
Jockey Isaac Castillo got a leg up from trainer Óscar Flores and took over in mid-stretch to pull away for the victory.
The race included multiple-stakes winners Number One Dude and Flat Hanby, but as they say, Inca Empire can’t read the past performances and didn’t care. Number One Dude could do no better than fourth, and post-time favorite Flat Hanby ran last after stumbling twice out of the gate and never showing any interest after that.
Caldwell bought Inca Empire, a 5-year-old, Oklahoma-bred gelding by Midshipman out of Kipling mare Inca Miss, for $20,000 from a race June 30 at Prairie Meadows. Inca Empire raced two more times in Iowa before his new owner loaded him in a trailer and brought him home.
Inca Empire’s best race for Caldwell before the stakes win Friday night was when he ran second, beaten by only a half-length in an optional $30,000 claiming race at Prairie Meadows on July 22. With the Oklahoma Classics Cup triumph he improved lifetime to 28: 8-3-3. He picked up $78,600 to bring his career earnings to $215,209.
Inca Empire bested runner-up C W Prize (5-2) by 1 3/4 lengths in the 1 1/16-mile race over the fast main track. The second-place finisher was another 1 1/2 lengths ahead of Winters Lion (3-1). The rest of the order was Number One Dude (7-2) fourth, Soul Sacrifice (19-1) fifth, Okie Smoke (26-1) sixth and Flat Hanby (2-1) seventh.
The winner hit the wire at 1:45.31 over the fast track after biding his time in fifth up the backstretch. He didn’t take over until the top of the homestretch, where he was a full length in front. He cut into early fractions set by C W Prize, who was out in 24.66, 49.78 and 1:14.74. Inca Empire hit the mile at 1:39.03.
Inca Empire paid $18.60 to win, $8.40 to place and $5.00 to show. He was bred by Bryan Hawk, who bred four of the 10 victors of the Classics races Friday.
It was the first win in the Cup series for both Castillo and Flores.