Whitmore looks to get back on top in Oaklawn's Hot Springs Stakes
They were all chasing Whitmore in his first six career sprint starts at Oaklawn Park, but that hasn’t been the case in his last two local races when the veteran gelding was unable to catch speedsters from Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen's barn.
Future Eclipse Award winner Mitole ended Whitmore’s local dominance with a gate-to-wire victory in the $500,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap (G3) last April. After Mitole went to stud, Asmussen went to his bench and tapped Share the Upside for the $125,000 King Cotton Stakes Feb. 8. Share the Upside went immediately to the lead and held off Whitmore by 1 ½ lengths to record his first career stakes victory.
Round 3 comes in Saturday’s $150,000 Hot Springs Stakes for older sprinters at six furlongs. Share the Upside is back. So is Whitmore, the 9-5 program favorite who is seeking his fourth consecutive victory in the race for co-owner/trainer Ron Moquett of Hot Springs. Probable post time for the Hot Springs, which will be the eighth of 10 races, is 5:38 p.m. ET.
Moquett said he believes Whitmore can turn the tables on Team Asmussen because, on paper, there’s more early speed than in last year’s Count Fleet or the King Cotton.
“That’s a good horse that won the last race, too, but we get to go around there and let him (Whitmore) relax and run his race,” Moquett said.
New shooters that figure to help Whitmore’s off-the-pace style are the speedy multiple stakes winner Mr. Jagermeister for co-owner/trainer Valorie Lund and Firecrow, who was a front-running allowance winner for Moquett on Feb. 14. Moquett said he decided to enter Firecrow because there wasn’t an allowance race “that suited him” and he “didn’t want to work him a bunch.”
“But his presence will be ensuring the pace,” Moquett said.
Share the Upside has lost just once in five career Oaklawn starts, that being a runner-up finish in last year’s Hot Springs. The Maclean’s Music gelding earned a career-best 104 Beyer Speed Figure for his King Cotton victory.
“Share the Upside does not need the lead at all,” said his regular rider, Ricardo Santana Jr. “He did it the last time to take advantage of a paceless race. He’s best coming right off of it.”
Completing the projected six-horse field are the Asmussen-trained Boldor and stakes-winning Wendell Fong, who will be making his 4-year-old debut for trainer Jeremiah Englehart.
The Hot Springs is the final major local prep for the April 11 Count Fleet. Whitmore also won the Count Fleet in 2017 and 2018.