In a two-horse throwdown, Otto the Conqueror outdueled the previously unbeaten Glengarry and inched away to post a three-quarters of a length victory in the $300,000 Remington Springboard Mile Stakes on Dec. 15.
Otto The Conqueror Outduels Glengarry In Remington Springboard Mile
Steve Asmussen, horse racing's all-time winningest trainer, sent out Three Chimneys Farm's Otto the Conqueror to win Friday night's $300,000 Remington Springboard Mile Stakes at Remington Park in Oklahoma City, Okla. It was Asmussen's seventh victory in the Springboard Mile, a Kentucky Derby qualifying points race awarding 10-5-3-2-1 points to the top five finishers.
Previously unbeaten Glengarry, trying to become the second consecutive Iowa-bred to win the Springboard Mile, finished second, with Magic Grant third, Third Street fourth, My Buddy Mel fifth, and Raging Torrent sixth. There were three scratches.
Ridden by Tyler Gaffalione, Otto the Conqueror – a Street Sense colt out of G3 Schuylerville Stakes winner Dream It Is, by Shackleford – hooked up on the front end with Glengarry in the early going, with the two racing as a team most of the way through fractions of :23.48, :46.35, 1:11.40, and 1:25.26. Otto the Conqueror edged away from a stubborn Glengarry to his inside in the final sixteenth to win by three-quarters of a length in a final time of 1:39.91 on a muddy track. It was 1 1/4 lengths back to Magic Grant.
Otto the Conqueror, who Asmussen said was named for the eldest son of Three Chimneys Farm owner Goncalo Borges Torrealba, paid $4.80 for the win, his third in four career starts. The Springboard Mile was Otto the Conqueror's stakes debut and first try around two turns.
In his previous start, Otto the Conqueror defeated Honor Marie and Just Steel in an allowance race at Churchill Downs. Honor Marie came out of that race to win the G2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes while Just Steel would win the Ed Brown Stakes next out – both races at Churchill Downs. Asmussen said Otto the Conqueror would return to Oaklawn, where he had been stabled, and point for future Derby trail races.
Otto the Conqueror was bred by Hoolie Racing Stable and purchased by Three Chimneys for $450,000 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale from the Claiborne Farm consignment.
Two entries from the Brad Cox stable – Calumet Farm's Fidget and Siena Farm and WinStar Farm's Gettsyburg Address – were entered and scratched from the Springboard Mile. Cox shipped a total of four horses to Oklahoma City to race on Friday night, but published reports said they left the track on Friday morning. The trainer did not respond to messages seeking comment.
Randy Howg's Rhino Runner also was scratched. He was entered by trainer Sean Williams, substituting for Robertino Diodoro, who is serving a suspension for a TCO2 overage at Oaklawn Park earlier this year.
The Remington Park meet concludes on Saturday with a 12-race card that begins at 2:30 p.m. CT. The day was added as a makeup for the nine races lost on Dec. 6 when the track's lighting system did not function properly.
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$21,968 Saturday Carryover In Los Alamitos Pick 6
There will be a Pick 6 carryover of $21,968 when racing resumes Saturday at Los Alamitos, the next-to-last day of the Winter Thoroughbred meet at the Cypress, Calif., track.
The carryover was clinched when Midnight Memories won Friday's final race, the $101,000 Bayakoa Stakes. The only live ticket was to Desert Dawn, who finished second as the 7-5 second choice. Midnight Memories, second choice on the morning line, was sent off as the even-money favorite.
Other payoffs were Geezer, third race, $9.00; Habeas, fourth race, $42.20; Toledo Rocket, fifth race, $7.80; Departure, sixth race, $3.80; and Dancing Soul, seventh race, $7.80.
Consolation tickets with five winners paid $149.40 each from a total pool of $41,121.
The Pick Six begins in Saturday's fourth race. Post time is 12:30 p.m. and scheduled post time for the fourth is 1:58 p.m.
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Like Mother, Like Daughter: Midnight Memories Captures Bayakoa At Los Alamitos
Daughter emulated mother in the $101,000 Bayakoa Stakes Friday.
Nine years after Tiz Midnight won the inaugural running of the race at Los Alamitos, Midnight Memories did the same, scoring as the even-money favorite in the Grade 3 test for fillies and mares at the Cypress, Calif., track.
Racing for the same owner-trainer combination as Tiz Midnight, the 4-year-old Mastery filly was ready after a layoff of more than nine months, running down 7-5 second choice Desert Dawn in the final sixteenth of a mile to win by one length.
Owned by breeders Mike Pegram, Karl Watson and Paul Weitman and trained by Hall of Famer Bob Baffert, Midnight Memories earned her fifth win in eight tries and pushed her earnings to $424,680. Three of her victories have come in graded events and she's only been worse than third once.
Ridden by Juan Hernandez, Midnight Memories completed the 1 1/16 miles in 1:42.84 and paid $4, $2.60 and $2.20.
The win was the second in a row for Baffert in the Bayakoa as he took the previous renewal in 2021 with As Time Goes By. The race was not run in 2022.
Desert Dawn, who was seeking her first win since the 2022 Santa Anita Oaks, got the jump on the eventual winner around the turn, opening a clear advantage into the lane, but ultimately had to settle for second for the fifth time in her career while nearly six lengths clear of stablemate Turnerloose.
Desert Dawn returned $2.20 and $2.10 while the show price on Turnerloose, the fourth choice in the field of seven at nearly 8-1, was $3.80. Ganadora, Smoothlikebuttah, Trouville and Violent Runner completed the order of finish.
Mike Marlow, Baffert's assistant trainer at Los Alamitos, thought Midnight Memories, who hadn't raced since finishing third in the G1 Beholder Mile March 11, was in trouble when Desert Dawn moved away from her.
“She had trained well for this, but, in all honesty, I thought she was done on the turn,'' said Marlow. “(Hernandez) started riding her pretty hard and at the three-eighths pole I thought to myself she's not going anywhere.
“Then Juan got her outside and she came back. He just said she didn't want to run into the kickback. He did a great job riding her. She showed a new dimension today coming from off the pace.''
The stakes win was the second in less than a week for Hernandez, who captured the G2 Starlet last weekend for Baffert aboard Nothing Like You.
“She broke sharp, but I let her settle off the two leaders (stablemate Ganadora and Violent Runner),'' said Hernandez, the all-time daytime thoroughbred meet leader at Los Alamitos with 16 stakes wins. “She doesn't like dirt in the face, so I tried to avoid that as much as I could down the backside.
“(Desert Dawn) got the jump on us turning for home, but once I swung this filly out in the stretch she really took off.''
Jockeys Jose Valdivia, Jr. and Armando Aguilar both doubled Friday. The former swept the early double with favored Class Clown in the first and Creative Way in the second while the latter scored with first time starter Toledo Rocket in the fifth and Dancing Soul in the seventh.
Racing resumes Saturday at Los Alamitos. Post time is 12:30 p.m.
The last of nine races is the G2, $200,000-guaranteed Los Alamitos Futurity for 2-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles.
Baffert entered a trio – Coach Prime, Wynstock and Wine Me Up – as he seeks to win the Futurity for the eighth time in 10 years at Los Alamitos. Scheduled post time for the Futurity is 4:28 p.m. PT.
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