Oaklawn: Millionaire Tejano Twist lines up in Whitmore

After snapping a nine-race losing streak in his last start, millionaire Tejano Twist bids for his second consecutive stakes victory Saturday in the Grade 3, $250,000 Whitmore for older horses at Oaklawn.

The six-furlong dash named for the seven-time Oaklawn stakes winner and 2020 champion male sprinter headlines an 11-race card that begins at 1:30 p.m. EDT. Post time for the Whitmore, the 10th race, is 5:17 p.m. It is Oaklawn’s final major prep for the six-furlong Count Fleet Sprint Handicap (G3) on April 12.

Tejano Twist won the 2023 Whitmore for trainer Chris Hartman before finishing second, beaten by a nose by Jaxon Traveler in last year’s edition. The 2024 Whitmore was among five runner-up finishes last year for Tejano Twist. A late-running son of Practical Joke, he came from far back early to edge Happy Is a Choice by a half-length in Oaklawn’s $150,000 King Cotton for older horses Jan. 25.

Hartman, Oaklawn’s leading trainer in 2015, conditions Tejano Twist for his stepdaughter Jackie Slawson as JD Thoroughbreds and Joe Davis.

“Tejano has been doing great,” Slawson said. “He’s had an eventful past year but coming off of the King Cotton win was quite emotional. It was such a deserving moment for him. He’s such a fighter. He’s one of those horses when he gets the right ride, when a jockey really understands him and lets him settle into his rhythm, you see what’s he’s capable of. He’s smart, he knows where the wire is and if you give him his moment, he’ll take it.”

Tejano Twist has won five stakes and earned $1,187,497 since being claimed for $80,000 by Hartman on June 19, 2022, at Churchill Downs. Three of those stakes victories came at Oaklawn. In addition to the 2023 Whitmore and King Cotton, Tejano Twist won the Ring the Bell in December 2023. A winless 2024 began with a runner-up finish behind Skelly in the King Cotton.

Happy Is a Choice seeks his third career stakes victory after winning the six-furlong Louisville Thoroughbred Society on Sept. 14 at Churchill Downs and the Ring the Bell on Dec. 7. After stalking dueling frontrunners, Happy Is a Choice took a short lead in the upper stretch of the King Cotton but was unable to hold off Tejano Twist’s late surge on the outside.

“That was horse racing at its best,” trainer John Ortiz said. “You’ve got a front-running sprinter and a closing sprinter. The race was won at the quarter pole.”

Program favorite Booth exits a powerful victory in Oaklawn’s inaugural $145,000 Commodore Overnight Stakes on Feb. 24.

Booth blasted out of the starting gate under Erik Asmussen and rolled to a front-running 4 3/4-length victory, the colt’s first in stakes company. Booth ran the opening half-mile in 44.98 seconds and finished in a meet-best 1:08.64 over a fast track. Booth earned career-high 105 Beyer Speed Figures, according to Daily Racing Form.

“He flew,” Asmussen said. “He won it at the break. I mean every single step he took from the first to the last, he was fine.”

The Commodore was the first career Oaklawn stakes victory for Asmussen. It was a record-extending 117th at the track for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen, his father. Steve Asmussen also trains millionaire Jaxon Traveler, who seeks his fourth consecutive stakes victory and fifth consecutive victory overall.

A deep Whitmore cast also features millionaire multiple stakes winner Miles Ahead, multiple stakes victors Closethegame Sugar and Glengarry, Grade 3 winners Durante and Giant Mischief, who exits a victory in the $150,000 Fall Highweight Stakes on Nov. 29 at Aqueduct for trainer Brad Cox.

Miles Ahead ran second behind Tejano Twist in the 2023 Whitmore.