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Remington: 2020 Stakes Schedule To See Purse Reduction Of $820,000

The 2020 Remington Park Thoroughbred Season is set to begin a 67-date run on Friday, Aug. 21. The 32-race stakes schedule will also start on opening night with the $75,000 Governor's Cup, for older runners at 1-1/8 miles, serving as the feature.

The total purse money for the stakes schedule is $2,880,000, a reduction of $820,000 from the 2019 stakes. The lower structure is due to two-months of inactivity from mid-March to late-May this spring when Remington Park halted simulcast racing and casino gaming for health and safety measures at the height of Covid-19.

Remington Park's lone graded events top the billing for Oklahoma Derby Day on Sunday, Sept. 27. The Grade 3, $200,000 Oklahoma Derby and the Grade 3, $100,000 Remington Park Oaks head the lineup of eight stakes races on one of just two Sunday afternoon programs this season. Won in 2019 by Owendale, the Oklahoma Derby shares richest race honors at Remington Park. The Springboard Mile, the track's top event for 2-year-olds, also carries a $200,000 purse.

The marquee night for state-breds falls on Friday, Oct. 16 with the annual Oklahoma Classics. The series of divisional stakes races, worth more than $1,000,000, for Oklahoma-breds has been contested every year since 1993. The $175,000 Classics Cup tops the night and for the first time since 2016 will be won by a horse not named Shotgun Kowboy. A record-holding four-time winner of the Cup, millionaire Shotgun Kowboy has been retired to the farm of his breeder-owner-trainer, C.R. Trout, in Edmond, Okla.

The Springboard Mile leads a loaded afternoon of stakes racing on the final day of the season, Sunday, Dec. 20. The Springboard carries valuable qualifying points for the 2021 Kentucky Derby and has drawn quality fields, sending runners into the two most recent “Runs for the Roses” in 2018 (Combatant) and 2019 (Long Range Toddy).

The Remington Park turf course will be ready for action from opening night into November. There are seven stakes races slated over the grass with the $60,000 Remington Green and the $60,000 Ricks Memorial as the top open stakes races, both on the undercard on Oklahoma Derby Day. A pair of events on Oklahoma Classics night share the honors for richest turf stakes this season with the OKC Turf Classic and the Classics Distaff Turf both checking in at $130,000.

A total of 16 stakes are slated for Oklahoma-bred runners, beginning with a trio of events for state-breds over turf on Friday, Sept. 25. The Red Earth Stakes, the Bob Barry Memorial and the Remington Park Turf Sprint, all worth $70,000, start the run for Oklahoma-breds. The Jim Thorpe Stakes and Useeit Stakes, also worth $70,000, wrap up the state-bred stakes on the Springboard Mile undercard, Dec. 20.

Following is the complete 2020 Remington Park Thoroughbred Season Stakes Schedule. Races for eligible Oklahoma-breds are denoted by (OK).

Aug. 21: $75,000 Governor's Cup, 3 and older, 1-1/8 miles
Sep. 11: $50,000 Oklahoma Stallion Stakes, 3-year-old colts/geldings, 7 furlongs
Sep. 11: $50,000 Oklahoma Stallion Stakes, 3-year-old fillies, 7 furlongs
Sep. 25: $70,000 Remington Park Turf Sprint, 3 and older, 5 furlongs (OK)
Sep. 25: $70,000 Red Earth Stakes, 3-year-olds and up, 7-1/2 furlongs (OK) (turf)
Sep. 25: $70,000 Bob Barry Memorial, fillies/mares, 3 and older, 7-1/2 furlongs (OK) (turf)
Sep. 27: $200,000 Grade 3, Oklahoma Derby, 3-year-olds, 1-1/8 miles
Sep. 27: $100,000 Grade 3, Remington Park Oaks, 3-year-old fillies, 1-1/16 miles
Sep. 27: $60,000 David Vance Sprint, 3 and older, 6 furlongs
Sep. 27: $60,000 Remington Green Stakes, 3 and older, 1-1/8 miles (turf)
Sep. 27: $60,000 Kip Deville Stakes, 2-year-olds, 6 furlongs
Sep. 27: $60,000 Ricks Memorial Stakes, fillies/mares, 3 and older, 1-1/16 miles (turf)
Sep. 27: $50,000 E.L. Gaylord Memorial Stakes, 2-year-old fillies, 6-1/2 furlongs
Sep. 27: $50,000 Flashy Lady Stakes, fillies/mares, 3 and older, 6 furlongs
Oct. 16: $175,000 Oklahoma Classics Cup, 3 and older, 1-1/16 miles (OK)
Oct. 16: $145,000 Oklahoma Classics Distaff, fillies/mares, 1 mile-70 yards (OK)
Oct. 16: $130,000 Oklahoma Classics Sprint, 3 and older, 6 furlongs (OK)
Oct. 16: $130,000 OKC Turf Classic, 3 and older, 1-1/16 miles (turf) (OK)
Oct. 16: $130,000 Oklahoma Classics Distaff Turf, fillies/mares, 3 and older, 1-1/16 miles (OK)
Oct. 16: $130,000 Oklahoma Classics Distaff Sprint, fillies/mares, 3 and older, 6 furlongs (OK)
Oct. 16: $100,000 Oklahoma Classics Juvenile, 2-year-old colts/geldings, 6 furlongs (OK)
Oct. 16: $100,000 Oklahoma Classics Lassie, 2-year-old fillies, 6 furlongs (OK)
Oct. 30: $60,000 Clever Trevor Stakes, 2-year-olds, 7 furlongs
Nov. 13: $75,000 Don McNeill Stakes, 2-year-olds, 1 mile (OK)
Nov. 13: $75,000 Slide Show Stakes, 2-year-old fillies, 1 mile (OK)
Nov. 13: $70,000 Silver Goblin Stakes, 3 and older, 6 furlongs (OK)
Dec. 20: $200,000 Springboard Mile, 2-year-olds, 1 mile
Dec. 20: $75,000 She's All In Stakes, fillies/mares, 3 and older, 1 mile-70 yards
Dec. 20: $60,000 Trapeze Stakes, 2-year-old fillies, 1 mile
Dec. 20: $60,000 Jeffrey Hawk Memorial, 3 and older, 1 mile-70 yards
Dec. 20: $70,000 Jim Thorpe Stakes, 3-year-olds, 1 mile (OK)
Dec. 20: $70,000 Useeit Stakes, 3-year-old fillies, 1 mile (OK)

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Daughter of Intercontinental Debuts at Deauville

Observations on the European Racing Scene turns the spotlight on the best European races of the day, highlighting well-pedigreed horses early in their careers, horses of note returning to action and young runners that achieved notable results in the sales ring. Thursday’s Insights features a daughter of Breeders’ Cup heroine Intercontinental (GB) (Danehill).

4.20 Goodwood, Mdn, £16,500, 2yo, f, 7fT
MISS CHESS (IRE) (Zoffany {Ire}) bids to build on her debut third at Yarmouth earlier this month on the same card that her G1 Prix de Diane-winning half-sister Fancy Blue (Ire) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) takes part in the G1 Nassau S. The Phoenix Ladies Syndicate’s €220,000 Arqana Deauville August Sale graduate is a relative of High Chaparral (Ire) and represents the Ed Vaughan stable in this maiden won in recent times by Rhododendron (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and Amazing Maria (Ire) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}). Amongst her opponents is Jeff Smith’s Iconic Queen (GB) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}), a Ralph Beckett-trained half-sister to the G1 Juddmonte International heroine Arabian Queen (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}).

8.50 Deauville, Debutantes, €22,000, 2yo, f, 6fT
NOT IN DOUBT (GB) (Sea the Stars {Ire}) is one of the day’s intriguing juvenile runners as a daughter of the 2005 GI Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf heroine Intercontinental (GB) (Danehill). Andre Fabre introduces the Juddmonte homebred and also Lady Bamford’s Love Child (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}), a 700,000gns Tattersalls October Yearling Sale Book 1 graduate who is a half-sister to the G2 Prix Niel and G2 Prix Chaudenay winner Brundtland (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}).

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‘Huge Heart’: 8-Year-Old American Sailor Better Than Ever, Takes Aim On Troy Stakes

Firm in his belief that Raj Jagnanan's stakes winner American Sailor is better than ever at the age of 8, trainer Wayne Potts is taking aim at a big target.

Based with Potts at Laurel Park, where he opened his season in impressive fashion last month, American Sailor is being pointed to a return to graded-stakes competition in the $200,000 Troy (G3) Aug. 8 on the Saratoga turf.

The 5 ½-furlong Troy would be the third time facing graded company for American Sailor and the first since running 10th in the 2016 Twin Spires Turf Sprint (G3) at Churchill Downs for previous trainer Joe Sharp.

“He has a huge heart, a huge heart. He just does everything you ask him to do,” Potts said. “When he hits the racetrack, he's all business.”

American Sailor, a gelded son of City Zip, won a turf sprint stakes at Sam Houston in 2016 and ran second in subsequent editions to begin his 2017, 2018 and 2019 campaigns. The connections skipped the trip this past winter and wound up not getting started until June 8, in part due to the coronavirus pandemic that paused live racing in Maryland for 2 ½ months until May 30.

“I think we did the right thing by finally letting him go out and drop his head and be a horse. We gave him the winter off and he came back, and I think he's better now than when I previously had him, knock on wood, that's for sure,” Potts said. “We're very pleased with him.”

The speedy American Sailor earned his 14th career victory in the third-level optional claiming allowance at Laurel, opening up by as many as five lengths after a half-mile to win by a length in 1:03.53 for 5 ½ furlongs. He followed up with a determined runner-up effort after setting the pace in the Wolf Hill Stakes July 18 at Monmouth, finishing between Archidust and Shekky Shebaz – both turf stakes winners at Saratoga.

“It was a very solid field. We were thrilled. It was a super effort, and he gave it everything he had,” Potts said. “He came out of the race very good so I nominated him to the Troy. We're going to look at the race at Saratoga, and I nominated him to the Da Hoss [Aug. 15] at Colonial [Downs] as a backup plan.”

American Sailor, seventh in last year's Da Hoss, is among 17 nominees to the Troy. He was claimed by Potts for $25,000 out of a Sept. 3, 2017 win at Suffolk Downs and ran nine times with two wins and a second in the stakes at Sam Houston before being lost for a $7,500 tag in June 2018.

Jagnanan purchased American Sailor privately after he made one start for owner-trainer David Nunn, and has a record of 4-3-1 with nearly $300,000 in purse earnings from 12 races since being reunited with Potts.

Potts made two starts at Saratoga last summer, both with the gelding Dazzling Okie, finishing third in a mid-July claimer.

“I've never won a race at Saratoga, so it would be a steppingstone in the right direction,” Potts said. “We might get a short field there, who knows. We have to see how it all plays out, but as long as he stays like he is right now, I plan on being there.”

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‘He Sounded Great’: Injured Jockey Rosario Montanez Talking About Return To Riding

When his phone rang Monday evening, jockey agent Joe Rocco Sr. thought it was going to be a regular update on his client, Rosario Montanez, who was injured in a July 17 spill at Laurel Park.

It turned out to be much more. Though the number displayed was of Montanez's fiancé, Chloe LaBarre, Rocco got the surprise of his life when he answered.

“Her number showed up, but it was him on the phone,” Rocco said. “He spoke to me. He's got a long road ahead of him … but he sounded great. It was great news.”

A San Diego native who was a finalist for the 2011 Eclipse Award as champion apprentice, Montanez was unseated when his mount, 4-year-old filly Hendaya, clipped heels and fell leaving the backstretch of a 5 ½-furlong turf sprint for filly and mare claimers 3 and up. While he was being tended to on the track, Hendaya was able to get up and jog off the turf course.

Montanez, 28, underwent surgery July 18 to repair several fractures in his back at the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore. Rocco said the rider was being transferred Tuesday to another facility in the city to begin rehabilitation for his brain injuries.

“I had to explain to him what I thought happened. It was just a bad incident he went through,” Rocco said. “He didn't even know he had surgery, which is a great sign. He's doing well.”

A winner of more than 3,700 career races during his riding career and whose son, Joe Jr. is a jockey based in Kentucky, Rocco gets emotional when talking both to and about Montanez.

“He's my friend. I really care about him a lot,” Rocco said. “I couldn't believe it when he talked to me. I didn't know if he was going to make it or not, that's how bad it was. But, you know he asked me when he's going to be back racing. He said, 'Let's figure this out.'”

A GoFundMe account launched by Laurel trainer Brittany Russell July 18 has raised $37,505 to go toward general living and medical expenses. An initial goal of $20,000 was surpassed in less than 24 hours, and a second $30,000 goal reached days later. The goal has been updated to $50,000.

“I would like to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart for coming together to help us out,” LaBarre wrote on the GoFundMe website. “Please continue to pray for him! I'm so thankful for everything people have done for him. It means so much to us.”

To donate to Montanez's GoFundMe campaign, visit www.gofundme.com/f/rosario-montanez

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