A stakes in Whitmore's name? 'I want them to hurry up'

The 7-year-old gelding Whitmore sports a career record of 34: 14-10-3 and earnings of $3.1 million after winning his third edition of the Count Fleet Sprint Handicap (G3) on Saturday. That victory followed yet another win in Oaklawn Park's Hot Springs Stakes, too.

So the talk has ramped up: Is it time to name a race after him?

"That's somebody else's decision," trainer Ron Moquett said Sunday morning. "I'm too close to Whitmore."

But, Moquett added, "I think the Count Fleet is the race that we use to define champions. I don’t think you should mess with that race."

He suggested "maybe the Hot Springs because he won that four times. I do believe there should be a race named after him somewhere. I want them to hurry up and do it so we can come back and run in it."

Whitmore's other Count Fleet wins came in 2017 and 2018. He was second to the eventual Eclipse Award winner Mitole in 2019.

The son of Pleasantly Perfect has won the Hot Springs Stakes every year since 2017.

Moquett's success with Whitmore has come as he copes with atypical sarcoidosis, an autoimmune disease that affects his lungs.

"I have to stay basically quarantined," he said of doing work amid the COVID-19 pandemic. "... I have to stay away from people, but horses are OK."

His setup at Oaklawn is especially favorable.

"Geographically," Moquett said, "I get to stand in my front yard and watch the horses run."

He liked what he saw Saturday, when Whitmore put away the Count Fleet pace setters through the far turn and held off all comers in the stretch of a loaded $350,000 race.

Whitmore's path from here is uncertain, but Moquett said it will move in the direction of the Nov. 7 Breeders' Cup Sprint at Keeneland.

The son of Pleasantly Perfect exited the Count Fleet "very good," Moquett said. "The horse is happy, so I'm happy."

Jockey Joe Talamo credited Moquett's conditioning for the win, saying after the race: "I've been fortunate to ride this horse three times, and to be honest, each time he's felt even stronger. That's just a testament to his conditioning with this horse."

But, Moquett said, "Joe did everything to give him his best chance to win." With an up-close ride, Whitmore got first run on the leaders and had enough left late to hold off the late run of California shipper Flagstaff.

"We're just lucky to have a horse that wants to win as much as we want him to," Moquett said. "...We just know that we're going to try to get to the Breeders' Cup and work our way towards that, however it opens up."