Nine lives: Welder takes Silver Goblin Stakes for ninth straight win

Welder moved out of a tie for second for most wins in a row at Remington Park, winning for the ninth consecutive race here by taking the Silver Goblin Stakes for Oklahoma-breds, 3-year-and olds and older. He is now only two away from the all-time leader Slide Show, who won 11 straight in the mid-1990s.

This 6-year-old gelded son of The Visualiser made it look like he was dancing softly across the finish line as jockey David Cabrera had him well in hand, drawing off by a city block to win the $70,000 Silver Goblin Stakes for the third year in a row. The final winning margin for the 6-1/2 furlongs sprint was 11 lengths over runner-up D Toz, who was another length ahead of third-place Gospel Cherokey. The winning time was 1:16.03 for the 6-1/2 furlongs over a fast track.

“This is a nice horse,” Cabrera said of Welder. “It was just a breeze for him. You asked me one time who my favorite horse I’ve ever ridden was, I think this is it.”

Welder’s third win of the Silver Goblin Stakes ties him with most wins in this stakes with Okie Ride, who won it in 2012, 2013 and 2016.

Clayton Rash, owner of Ra-Max Farms in Claremore, Okla., who has had this horse since he and trainer Teri Luneack found him hiding in the corner of his stall as a yearling, praised Luneack for her magical touch with this horse.

“She really does have an amazing rapport with Welder,” said Rash. “The way she knows horses and has charisma. We couldn’t have a better fit for this horse. I have the ultimate faith and confidence in her.”

Cabrera had a plan coming into this race, but Welder had made plans of his own.

“It was 6-1/2 furlongs, so I decided I wanted to take him back a little bit,” said Cabrera, the leading rider at Remington Park. “So when I tried to take him back, he just grabbed the bit and said, ’No, we ain’t going back.’ I just let him do what he wants to do and that’s when he runs his best race.”

The fact that Welder moved one win closer to arguably the greatest filly to run here, Slide Show, had Luneack feeling sentimental over her gray streak of lightning.

“It means everything,” she said. “I mean this horse is so special.’

Welder added $42,000 to his bankroll after winning for the 21st time in 31 career starts. He also has four seconds and four thirds. His lifetime earnings are now $970,998.

“We’ll have to see if there’s anything that he would be eligible for the rest of the meet,” Luneack said. “We would like it very much if he could break the $1 million-mark at Remington Park.”

Welder set fractions of :22.28 for the quarter-mile, :44.69 for the half-mile, and 1:09.19 for three-quarters of a mile. He paid $2.10 to, $2.10 to place and $2.10 to show.

Rash said, despite the fact he and Luneack were able to purchase him as part of a package of about six horses for $6,400 apiece, the owner that sold him wanted $12,000 for him as a throw-in. But Rash didn’t build an international welding company without knowing how to negotiate.

“I think I would have paid the $12,000 for him then, but this was negotiating,” he said. “Someone could come up and offer me $1 million for him now and I wouldn’t take it. I really wouldn’t.”

Welder was bred in Oklahoma by Center Hills Farm in Pryor, the same farm that produced $3 million winner Kip Deville.

The Silver Goblin Stakes is named after the gray Oklahoma-bred millionaire who won multiple stakes races at Remington Park and numerous graded stakes events around the nation, in a career spanning 1993-1999.