Trainer Ron Moquett was in his usual spot Wednesday morning at Oaklawn, preparing to watch Whitmore train following the second break to renovate the racing surface.
Of course, the scene was much different than the previous five years. Whitmore and Moquett's wife, Laura, also the gelding's regular exercise rider, weren't going to the track to prepare for a big race – they were preparing for a big day.
Saturday is “Whitmore Day” at Oaklawn, which honors the now-retired 2020 Eclipse Award winner (champion male sprinter), seven-time Oaklawn stakes winner and among the most popular horses in its 117-year history. Whitmore won Oaklawn's Hot Springs Stakes a record four consecutive years (2017-2020) and its Count Fleet Sprint Handicap (G3) a record three times (2017, 2018 and 2020).
“I know that a lot of people like him,” said Ron Moquett, who also co-owned Whitmore throughout his racing career. “Of course, I'm close to people that do. I don't know how the average people are. All my friends are pumped about it (Whitmore Day).”
Oaklawn announced in early September that March 19 would be Whitmore Day. It renamed the Hot Springs Stakes after the gelding, with the inaugural $200,000 Whitmore Stakes (G3) for older horses at 6 furlongs headlining the March 19 card. Oaklawn also renamed the Count Fleet barn, Whitmore's longtime home in Hot Springs, after the now-9-year-old gelding.
Fans attending Saturday will receive commemorative Whitmore baseball cards as they enter, while supplies last. Free Whitmore T-shirts, while supplies last, can be redeemed on the north end of the first floor following the second race. First post Saturday is 1 p.m. (Central). Gates open at 11 a.m. Probable post time for the Whitmore Stakes, which goes as the seventh race, is 4:04 p.m.
And, if all goes as a planned, fans also will see Whitmore, who was retired after suffering a leg injury during a fifth-place finish in the $600,000 Forego Stakes (G1) Aug. 28 at Saratoga.
Whitmore returned to Oaklawn in early March and has been on the track this week as part of his continuing education for a possible transition from star horse to stable pony.
Briefly replicating his former career, Saturday's script calls for Whitmore to follow the field from the barn area to the track for the Whitmore Stakes, then head into the horseshoe-shaped hedge infield winner's circle, traditionally used for stakes, as the horses are being saddled in the paddock.
Whitmore, ridden by Laura Moquett, will then lead the post parade for the Whitmore Stakes.
“I'm running horses that day and none of them are Whitmore, but at least I get to lead him over and all that,” Ron Moquett said while sitting in the second-floor grandstand across from the finish line. “That's the thing. That's what this sport is about. I don't care if anybody knows me, but I'm so humbled that they know him.”
A chestnut son of Pleasantly Perfect, Whitmore bankrolled $4,502,350 – 88th in North American history through Thursday – after winning 15 of 43 starts, according to Equibase, racing's official data gathering organization.
Whitmore won the $2 million Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1) in 2020 at Keeneland, but much of his best work came at Oaklawn, where he compiled a towering 9-6-1 record from 16 starts and earned $1,752,600. Swift Ruler, a local star during the 1960s, is the only other horse in Oaklawn history with seven career stakes victories.
Moquett said Whitmore was sent to Rebecca Maker's equine rehabilitation and breaking facility in Kentucky following the Forego. Whitmore normally decompressed there the last several years before returning to Oaklawn – his winter home at every meeting in 2016-2021 – for a new racing campaign.
Whitmore returned to Arkansas in late November, settling at Oaklawn's satellite training center about 25 miles east of Hot Springs, where Moquett also keeps horses. Laura Moquett, also her husband's assistant, has been charged with trying to re-train Whitmore for pony work, which encompasses escorting horses to and from the track during morning training hours.
Whitmore was a noted bad actor at 2 and gelded before his first start. Although he mellowed with age, Whitmore would kick his rear legs before loading into the starting gate for some races.
Moquett said Whitmore's transition to a possible new career is going well.
“Typical him – he asks a lot of questions and he demands answers,” Moquett said. “We just let him do what he wants to do and figure it all out. Laura's great with him. He's smart enough to do it. It's just whether or not we want to do it. We're going to bring him over here for the people and then from that point on we're going to let him tell us. He may want to be a jumper. He could be a stable pony all the way to being a peppermint-eating lawn ornament. He'll do something for us.”
Whitmore retired as the leading money winner in history among North American-based sprinters, bankrolling $4,098,600 in 37 starts under a mile. Moquett began targeting sprint races after Whitmore finished 19th in the 2016 Kentucky Derby.
Moquett was seated across from trainer Tom Van Berg during training hours Wednesday morning. Van Berg's father, the late Hall of Famer Jack Van Berg, won the 1987 Kentucky Derby with Alysheba, who retired the following year with a then-North American record $6,679,242 in career earnings. Alysheba was champion 3-year-old male and 1988 Horse of the Year.
“Tom's dad was a household name for horse trainers, but Alysheba is what introduced his dad's name, the family's name, to the next level,” Moquett said. “I don't give a dang if they ever know who I am, but it's pretty cool to have a horse that they know who it is.”
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