November, 2020 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Oklahoma Legend Highland Ice, 27, Passes: ‘The Iceman’ Won 15 Of 16 At Remington Park

Highland Ice could light up the track with his racing brilliance; this shooting star of a racehorse faded away Wednesday night, passing from this world at the age of 27.

The brilliant record-breaking sprinter, who won 15 of his 16 races lifetime at Remington Park in Oklahoma City, Okla., was treated with kindness and care by the Oklahoma Thoroughbred Retirement Program and under the watchful eye of his caretaker Royce Clay, who pampered him to his final day. “He will forever be in our hearts and we will miss him dearly,” the OTRP posted on its Facebook page.

A gelded son of Highland Blade, by the Icecapade mare Ice Magic, Highland Ice was known as “The Iceman.” He treated his competition like he had ice in his veins, showing them no mercy. Racing from 1995-2001, Highland Ice had 48 starts, 16 wins, nine seconds and eight thirds for $474,090 earned lifetime.

Highland Ice, a dazzling gray/roan, was bred by legendary horseman Walter Merrick of Sayre, Okla., and was purchased at sale as a 2-year-old by Gerald Dixon of Guymon, Okla., for $5,500. Dixon sent him to the barn of trainer Chuck Turco, who also conditioned Dazzling Falls, winner of the Remington Park Derby (now the Oklahoma Derby), the Arkansas Derby and the Alabama Derby in 1995.

Highland Ice was as good a sprinter as Dazzling Falls was a classic-distance horse. Among his accolades were victories ranging from five to seven furlongs, including stakes triumphs at six and seven furlongs. His first stakes attempt came in the $50,000 Oklahoma Classics Juvenile in 1995, winning by a head.

Taking his picture in the winner's circle after stakes races became the norm for Highland Ice as he won the $50,000 Oklahoma Classics Sprint in 1996 as a 3-year-old. That effort had mouths dropping as he set a half-mile fraction of :43 3/5 for the half-mile. When he won the Oklahoma Classics Sprint in 1998, he stopped the timer in 1:08.20, believed to be the true track record at Remington Park for years, before two-time Horse of the Year Welder bettered that by a fraction in 1:08.13 in 2019. That's how amazing Highland Ice was.

Highland Ice stakes wins came in:

· The Remington Park Sprint Championship in 1997-98 (6 furlongs)

· The Silver Bullet Centennial Handicap in 1997-98 at Remington (7 furlongs)

· The Oklahoma Classics Sprint in 1996-1999 (6 furlongs)

The 1999 Oklahoma Classics Sprint was the last of four wins in that race and the last of his stakes victories in his career. He won five Oklahoma Classics stakes races in his career against fellow Oklahoma-breds.

“He had a presence about him like no other horse I've ever ridden,” said jockey Glen Murphy, who rode Highland Ice in 19 races, more than any other rider. “He knew he was fast.”

In the 1998 Silver Bullet Centennial Handicap at Remington Park, he finished a length in front of Chindi, who became a millionaire in his career before retiring. Highland Ice's only victory outside of Oklahoma was in a second-level allowance at Oaklawn Park. The final race of his career came on the Fourth of July in an optional $40,000 claiming-allowance race at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, Texas, running fifth.

Highland Ice in retirement

Highland Ice was voted the Remington Park Horse of the Meet in 1997, when the Oklahoma-bred proved he was more than merely a state-bred champion. When he won the Remington Park Sprint Championship and Silver Bullet Centennial Handicap, both races were for open company. He also bagged the Oklahoma Classics Sprint that year. He won the same three stakes events in 1998, but was edged out for Champion Horse of the Meet by Brush With Pride. Highland Ice did win Champion Sprinter that year.

When he retired in 2001, Highland Ice shared the records for Remington Park victories with 15, sharing the mark with Elegant Exxactsy. The all-time Remington Park win record has stood the test of time, holding up as the standard now with only Welder approaching it some 20 years later. In 2001, nine stakes wins were the most by any horse at Remington Park, the record was held by Highland Ice and Darrell Darrell. Okie Ride managed to break that mark when he won his 10^th local stakes in 2016. Welder took over the record during the current 2020 season, moving the total to 11 stakes won in Oklahoma City.

At Remington Park, Highland Ice's record was 24 starts, 15 wins, five seconds and two thirds for $390,810. He was inducted into the Oklahoma Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2012.

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Loud Mouth Charges Past Take The One O One For Cary Grant Victory

Thomsen Racing's Loud Mouth tracked the leaders early, then fired his best shot in the lane under leading rider Abel Cedillo and came away with a three-quarter length score in the seventh running of the Cary Grant Stakes Sunday at Del Mar near San Diego, Calif.

The 4-year-old colt by Boisterous rang up his first stakes score in the Cal-bred offering, besting six rivals in 1:22.34 for the seven panels.

It was the second win on the day for Cedillo, who now has 18 firsts in 11 days of racing. Loud Mouth is trained by Steve Knapp.

Finishing second was Jay Em Ess Stable's Take the One O One, while Reddam Racing's Rookie Mistake was three and a half lengths farther back. The 11-10 favorite, West Point Thoroughbreds, Barker, Sandbrook, et al's Galilean finished fourth.

“I could tell they were going fast up front (:22.13, :44.94, 1:09.56), but I had my eye on the favorite (Galilean),” said Cedillo. “I was tracking him. When he made his move (on the turn), I moved with him. Then I went by him in the straight and went after the leader (Take the One O One). My horse had it and we got him.”

Loud Mouth paid $28.00, $10.60 and $7.00 for his tally. Take the One O One returned $4.80 and $3.60, while Rookie Mistake paid $6.80.

The victory gave Cedillo another notch on his belt toward winning his second straight Bing Crosby Season title at Del Mar. He is currently eight wins ahead of his nearest rival with four days left in the meet. Last year the 31-year-old from Guatemala won honors with 13 victories.

“I kept experimenting with him to find out what and how far he wanted to run,” Knapp said of Loud Mouth. “He got some real questionable rides, several of them, but I knew this horse could run. We went the seven today and worked out and he ran huge. This horse has a big heart and when he gets to the lead or gets close, he runs. And he's got a really nice way of moving. He's a runner and this is a hell of a win.”

The winning owner, Ron Thomsen, lives in Valley Center, which is about 32 miles northeast of Del Mar.

Racing will resume at Del Mar on Thanksgiving Thursday with an early first post at 11 a.m. It will be the start of a dynamic final four days of the season with seven graded turf stakes up for grabs, including Grade 1 offerings on Saturday (Hollywood Derby) and Sunday (Matriarch Stakes).

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Decorated Invader, Gufo Among East Coast Invaders For Saturday’s Hollywood Derby

Befitting its Grade 1 status, a field of 3-year-olds of both quality and quantity was entered Sunday for next Saturday's 79th running of the Hollywood Derby at Del Mar.

The 1 1/8-mile turf event, won by California Chrome in its initial edition at the seaside track north of San Diego, Calif., in 2014 as a springboard to Horse of the Year honors, had 13 set as the entry deadline approached Sunday morning. Among the group were five shippers from East Coast-based trainers with two from Christophe Clement and one each from Chad Brown, George Weaver and Thomas M. Bush.

Clement is sending out Decorated Invader, a winner of the Grade 2 Pennine Ridge Stakes at Belmont Park and the G2 Hall of Fame Stakes at Saratoga last summer and Gufo, a winner as the favorite of the Belmont Derby on October 3.

Brown is dispatching Domestic Spending, a winner of the Saratoga Derby Invitational in August by a head over Gufo; Weaver will be represented by Ever Dangerous, fresh from a win in a $150,000 stakes at Keeneland on November 6, and Bush sends Get Smokin, a wire-to-winner of the Grade II Hill Prince on a yielding Belmont turf on October 18.

Joel Rosario, who has ridden Decorated Invader for Clement for the son of Declaration of War's last five starts, was in the irons for a four-furlong workout in 51.66 seconds Sunday morning at Belmont Park. Stablemate Gufo also worked the same time and distance.

“He put in a good work,” Rosario said by phone while en route from Belmont to Aqueduct for the Sunday card. “He's doing very well and hopefully he'll make the trip well and run a good race.”

A supplemental entry, at a $3,000 cost, was Roadrunner Racing and Sayjay Racing's Strongconstitution. The Kentucky-bred son of Constitution, a $220,000 purchase at a 2-year-old in training sale last spring, was second in the Bob Hope last year and won the Let It Ride Stakes on the second day of the current meeting.

“The Let It Ride was a really good race for him and we're hoping he can step it up another notch because obviously he's going to have to against the horses he'll be up against this time,” trainer Doug O'Neill said.

The entrants, in alphabetical order with jockeys in parenthesis: California Kook (Juan Hernandez); Decorated Invader (Rosario); Domestic Spending (Irad Ortiz, Jr.); Ever Dangerous (Victor Espinoza); Get Smokin (Mike Smith); Gufo (Flavien Prat); Kanderel (Geovanni Franco); Lane Way (Drayden Van Dyke); Scarto (Manuel Franco); Smooth Like Strait (Umberto Rispoli); Storm The Court (Juan Hernandez); Strongconstitution (Abel Cedillo), and Taishan (Jose Valdivia, Jr.).

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Del Mar’s Red Carpet Stakes Has Eastern Flavor; TVG’s Hoover Savors 2019 Victory By $8,000 Claim

The field of 10 for the Thanksgiving Day featured Red Carpet Stakes includes four horses that last raced in New York or Kentucky on assignment from nationally-renowned trainers. Three of them will have elite Eastern-based jockeys that venture west only when the stakes are most plentiful and highest – as they will be through the four final days of the Bing Crosby Season.

So the Grade 3, $100,000 Red Carpet figures to be a tasty hors d'oeuvre for the feast that will follow—six graded stakes on grass in three days in what amounts to a “Turf Festival” – to the November 29 close of the meeting.

Three notable equine travelers for the 1 3/8-mile Red Carpet marathon for fillies and mares are Orglandes for one of the nation's leading trainers, Chad Brown, Woodfin for Victoria Oliver and Blame Debbie for H. Graham Motion. And Peter Miller has had California Kook, runner-up in the G1 Del Mar Oaks last summer, in training at San Luis Rey Downs for a month since returning from a fifth-place finish in the G1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup on October 10 at Keeneland.

Irad Ortiz, Jr., No. 1 in North America for purse earnings with nearly $20 million, will ride Orglandes, a 4-year-old import from France making her third U.S. start and coming in off a win at Belmont Park on October 9. Joel Rosario, No. 2 in winnings with nearly $17 million, has the call on California Kook. Manny Franco, No. 10 with more than $11.4 million will be aboard Blame Debbie after their initial collaboration resulted in victory in the G3 Dowager at Keeneland last month.

The field from the rail with jockeys in parenthesis: California Kook (Rosario); Never Be Enough (Tiago Pereira); Colonial Creed (Flavien Prat); Orglandes (Ortiz, Jr.); Going to Vegas (Mario Gutierrez); Woodfin (Jose Valdivia, Jr.); Aunt Lubie (Victor Espinoza); Blame Debbie (Franco); Hollywood Girl (Mike Smith), and Quick (Umberto Rispoli).

When TVG commentator Kurt Hoover saw the entries come out for the Red Carpet, he took special interest in looking over the field. Partly out of professional obligation, of course, but also for sentimental reasons.

“It's a race that doesn't mean a hell of a lot to a lot of people, but it does to me,” Hoover said by phone from the Los Angeles area.

Hoover, his friend from high school days Brian Ferguson and Jeff Lambert of Del Mar, a longtime client of trainer Bob Hess, Jr., comprised the ownership group of Zuzanna, an $8,000 claim of theirs that they watched win the 2019 Red Carpet at odds of 23-1.

“I remember watching her cross under the finish line and I remember being in the winner's circle, but I don't remember going down to the winner's circle,” said Hoover. It was the first stakes win as an owner for Hoover, who said he has had pieces of four or five horses with only Zuzanna succeeding at the stakes level.

“I suggested to Bob that we enter because I thought maybe we could hit the board,” Hoover recalled. “If it hadn't been a mile and three-eighths we wouldn't have entered. We were planning on going to the Claiming Crown (event) in Florida with her.”

The traditional Thanksgiving Day feature of the Bing Crosby Season was moved to Saturday in 2019 after rains early in the week compromised the Jimmy Durante Turf Course. That resulted in Paco Lopez, arriving from the east, being able to ride Zuzanna skillfully to a 1 ½-length victory.

After more than 30 career starts, Zuzanna has recently been retired and will be sold as a broodmare in January.

For the first time in 30 years, Hoover has a Thanksgiving Day off from work. But he said he'll be watching the Red Carpet with professional and sentimental interest.

“I like John Sadler's horse Quick,” Hoover said when asked for a 2020 selection. “Her last outing was a really good effort and I think she's ready to run big. Besides Quick, I think Graham Motion's horse coming in from Kentucky, Blame Debbie, will be very tough.”

In Thursday's edition, trainer Richard Baltas has the duo of Going to Vegas and Colonial Creed. Going to Vegas comes in off a runner-up effort, beaten only a neck by Warren's Showtime, in the G3 Autumn Miss at Santa Anita. Colonial Creed was second in the Katherine Crosby Stakes on the opening day of this meeting.

“Going To Vegas ran really good last time with the blinkers off,” Baltas noted. “It's a little far for her, but if she can get the distance, who knows? Obviously she's in a little tough because she's a 3-year-old running against older, but we're going to see because she's training really well.

“Colonial Creed has never been this far either, but she's coming off the pace now more and more, so maybe she will like the distance. I think they've both got a good chance.”

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