Mocito Rojo brings trainer Wilson back to Oaklawn for Fifth Season

The last time trainer Shane Wilson started a horse at Oaklawn was 2005 and it was for a $7,500 claiming price. The stakes will be considerably higher Saturday when the south-Louisiana-based Wilson sends out Mocito Rojo for his local debut in the $100,000 Fifth Season Stakes for older horses at a mile.

Claimed out of a career-debut victory for $10,000 in December 2016 at Delta Downs, Mocito Rojo is a multiple stakes winner of $804,000 for Wilson and owner Wayne T. Davis. The 6-year-old son of Mutadda has won 16 of 26 starts since being claimed, highlighted by the $250,000 Lukas Classic (G3) Sept. 28 at Churchill Downs. The sixth-place finisher in the Lukas Classic, Quip, won Oaklawn’s premier event for two-turn horses last year, the $750,000 Oaklawn Handicap (G2).

Mocito Rojo is trying to rebound from seventh-place finishes in the $200,000 Fayette Stakes (G2) Oct. 26 at Keeneland and the $600,000 Clark Stakes (G1) Nov. 29 at Churchill Downs.

“Really looking at the condition book, it has such a good program up there for your older horses,” Wilson said Wednesday afternoon. “The second-to-last race in the slop, he didn’t handle the track at all at Keeneland. It was a really different, soupy track. I’ve been hauling him 15 hours from where we are to Kentucky and I don’t think he recovered from the sloppy-track race. I ran him back too soon, so we gave him 60 days off. Looking at the schedule, it just looks like if he likes the track at Oaklawn, I know it’s short stretch mile, so I think it’s a good race to come back in.”

After 16 horses were entered Monday, Oaklawn split the Fifth Season. Each division retained its $100,000 purse.

Mocito Rojo is entered in the second division, which goes as the eighth of nine races. Probable post time is 4:38 p.m. (Central). Probable post time for the first division of the Fifth Season, the fifth race, is 3:08 p.m. (Central).

The projected field from the rail out for the first division: Sky Promise, Orlando Mojica to ride, 117 pounds, 8-1 on the morning line; Guest Suite, Walter De La Cruz, 122, 10-1; Snapper Sinclair, Ricardo Santana Jr., 122, 2-1; Remembering Rita, Alex Birzer, 119, 9-2; Chris and Dave, Stewart Elliott, 119, 4-1; Sonneteer, Richard Eramia, 122, 8-1; Night Ops, Florent Geroux, 119, 5-1; and Lenstar, Channing Hill, 119, 12-1.

Millionaire Snapper Sinclair is trying to win his first stakes race on dirt. Sonneteer, a supplemental nominee, won the 2018 Fifth Season. Grade 3 winner Remembering Rita, trained by Doug Anderson of Hot Springs, will remove blinkers for race.

The projected field from the rail out for the second division: M G Warrior, Geroux, 119, 8-1; Mocito Rojo, Filemon T. Rodriguez, 122, 8-1; Rated R Superstar, De La Cruz, 122, 10-1; Bankit, Santana, 122, 5-1; Bravazo, Ramon Vazquez, 115, 3-1; Pioneer Spirit, Mojica, 122, 5-2; Colonelsdarktemper, Jon Court, 115, 12-1; and Sevier, Joe Talamo, 115, 10-1.

Pioneer Spirit ran third in last year’s Oaklawn Handicap (G2) and inaugural $250,000 Oaklawn Mile. Millionaire Bravazo was among the country’s leading 3-year-olds in 2018 and finished eighth in the Clark, his first start since running fourth in the $9 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1) last January at Gulfstream Park. Rated R Superstar won the $350,000 Essex Handicap for older horses last year at Oaklawn.

The Fifth Season begins a lucrative local series of two-turn events for older horses, which culminates with the $1 million Oaklawn Handicap (G1) April 18.

“I think he’ll like the track, and if he does then we have the Essex, you have the Razorback, you have the Oaklawn Mile.” Wilson said. “We beat Quip and a couple of those guys that ran in the Oaklawn Handicap last year. If he gets back into form and he likes that track, it looks like there’s a lot of opportunities for him to run at the meet there.”

Wilson, a former assistant to Sam David, started his first horse in 1998 and wintered at Oaklawn in 1999, winning three races. He said Mocito Rojo will be vanned Friday morning from his Delta Downs base to Oaklawn.