Tag: count fleet sprint handicap

C Z Rocket Gets The Best Of Whitmore Again In Count Fleet Sprint Handicap

Winning for the seventh time in eight races since being claimed for $40,000 last April, the 7-year-old City Zip gelding C Z Rocket defeated  sprint champion Whitmore for the second time in a row on Saturday, taking the Grade 3, $500,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap by two lengths at Oaklawn in Hot Springs, Ark.

Ridden by Florent Geroux and trained by Peter Miller, C Z Rocket sped six furlongs in 1:09.62 on a fast track and paid $6 to win as the second choice in the wagering. He carried 122 pounds, one less than Whitmore, the 123-pound highweight.

Even-money favorite and local hero Whitmore, an 8-year-old by Pleasantly Perfect trained by Hot Springs resident Ron Moquett, finished second. Empire of Gold was third, another 1 1/2 lengths back, with Strike Power fourth, Mojo Man fifth, Mr. Jagermeister sixth and pacesetter  No Parole last in the field of seven older runners.

The victory was the 11th in 25 career starts for C Z Rocket, who was bred in Florida by Farm III Enterprises LLC and sold for $800,000 to Frank Fletcher Racing Operations at the OBS June Sale of 2-year-olds in training in 2016.

C Z Rocket won his first three starts as a 3-year-old when racing for Fletcher and trainer Al Stall Jr. but was claimed from an April 30 race at Oaklawn that would be his 11th consecutive defeat. The City Zip gelding turned around quickly for Miller, winning a $50,000 claiming race at Churchill Downs, two allowance/optional claiming races and then scoring in the G2 Pat O'Brien Stakes at Del Mar for his first graded stakes triumph. He then won the G2 Santa Anita Sprint Championship  but was defeated by Whitmore when second in the G1 Breeders' Cup Sprint at Keeneland. C Z Rocket turned the tables on Whitmore last out in the Hot Springs Stakes at Oaklawn, then doubled down with his Count Fleet victory.

C Z Rocket races for Madaket Stables LLC, Gary Barber and Tom Kagele.

In the Count Fleet, C Z Rocket broke well but was eased back off the pace in sixth as No Parole went quickly early, going :21.92 for the opening quarter and :45.35 for the half. Whitmore raced close to the front-runner down the backstretch and into the far turn and found a seam on the inside as the field hit the stretch.

Geroux swung C Z Rocket five wide at the top of the stretch and he quickly overtook the front-runners, winning with relative ease under a hand ride late from his jockey after passing the furlong pole in :57.53 for five furlongs.

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Shades Of ‘Ali-Frazier’: Whitmore, C Z Rocket Up For Rematch In Count Fleet

So far, Whitmore and C Z Rocket have fought to a split decision. Round 3 is Saturday at Oaklawn when they tangle again in the $500,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap (G3) for older sprinters at 6 furlongs.

“They're two warriors,” said Peter Miller, trainer of C Z Rocket. “It's Ali-Frazier. It's going to be a battle. I think it will probably come down to who gets the trip.”

Round 1 went to Whitmore, who beat C Z Rocket by 3 ¼ lengths in the $2 million Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1) Nov. 7 at Keeneland for co-owner/trainer Ron Moquett of Hot Springs. That outcome secured Whitmore an Eclipse Award as the country's champion male sprinter of 2020 and snapped C Z Rocket's five-race winning streak (all the victories, including two Grade 2 stakes, came after being claimed for $40,000 last April at Oaklawn).

Round 2 went to C Z Rocket, who beat Whitmore by a neck in the $200,000 Hot Springs Stakes March 13 at Oaklawn. That outcome made C Z Rocket, a 7-year-old gelding, a millionaire, denied Whitmore his record-extending fifth consecutive Hot Springs victory and from becoming the outright leader in career Oaklawn stakes victories with eight (the 8-year-old gelding shares the record with Swift Ruler). Whitmore has won the Count Fleet a record three times (2017, 2018 and 2020).

“They're very comparable horses,” Miller said. “Really super-good horses.”

Whitmore and C Z Rocket headline the Count Fleet, which has drawn a field of seven. Probable post time for the Count Fleet, which goes as the 11th of 13 races, is 6:05 p.m. (Central). First post Saturday is 12:02 p.m.

The projected lineup from the rail out: No Parole, Ramon Vazquez to ride, 118 pounds, 9-2 on the morning line; Whitmore, Ricardo Santana Jr., 123, 9-5; Mojo Man, Francisco Arrieta, 116, 8-1; Strike Power, Joel Rosario, 117, 5-1; Empire of Gold, David Cabrera, 117, 8-1; C Z Rocket, Florent Geroux, 122, 2-1; and Mr. Jagermeister, Rocco Bowen, 116, 12-1.

Whitmore and C Z Rocket were making their first starts since the Breeders' Cup Sprint in the Hot Springs. Both races were 6 furlongs. Tipping the scales, so slightly, in C Z Rocket's favor last month may have been geography. He was training in Southern California, while Whitmore's routine in Arkansas was interrupted for roughly two weeks by severe winter weather. Oaklawn lost 11 days of training (Feb. 12-22) to snow and arctic temperatures.

“We missed two works,” said Laura Moquett, who assists her husband and regularly gallops Whitmore, a career winner of almost $4.3 million. “That stunk. And he went five-wide. Had he gone on the rail and missed two works, maybe it would have been even. Had he had the two works and gone five-wide, maybe it would have been even. But doing both – missing two works and going five-wide – it's not possible.”

Whitmore has had two half-mile works since the Hot Springs. Miller has kept a small string of horses at Oaklawn, but he opted to send C Z Rocket back to Southern California following the Hot Springs. The gelding has posted two works at his home base, San Luis Rey Downs.

“We were torn,” Miller said. “Leave him there or bring him home? Just with the weather there and everything like that, we thought it was prudent to bring him back.”

C Z Rocket was flown back to Arkansas Wednesday. He and Whitmore figure to again have plenty of pace to chase Saturday with the presence of Grade 1 winner No Parole, 2020 Breeders' Cup fourth Empire of Gold, multiple stakes winner Mr. Jagermeister and Grade 3 winner Strike Power, who has the fastest 6-furlong time of the 2021 Oaklawn meet (1:08.91).

“Lots of pace,” Miller said. “There's definitely lots of pace. We're just going to leave it up to Flo.”

Let Round 3 begin.

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Moquett Emotional After Whitmore Named Champion Sprinter Of 2020

Oaklawn's top male sprinter last year can now be called the best nationally, too.

The ultra-popular Whitmore, a seven-time Oaklawn stakes winner co-owned and trained by Ron Moquett of Hot Springs, was named the country's champion male sprinter of 2020 during the 50th annual Eclipse Awards ceremony Thursday night.

Whitmore received 132 first-place votes from members of the three consolidated voting blocs – Equibase, Daily Racing Form and the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters. Vekoma finished second with 83, followed by three other 2020 Oaklawn-raced horses in Volatile (16), Charlatan (four) and C Z Rocket (three).

Three finalists in each division were announced Jan. 16, established through a 10-5-1 point system from earlier voting. Eclipse Award winners were determined solely by first-place votes.

Whitmore compiled a 3-2-0 mark from seven starts last year, punctuating his resume with a dominating victory in the $2 million Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1) Nov. 7 at Keeneland.

The gelding's other two victories came at Oaklawn, his winter home since 2016. He won the $150,000 Hot Springs Stakes in March for a record fourth consecutive year and the $350,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap (G3) in April for a record third time.

“I think the reaction that we get from the rest of the people kind of mimics how we feel all the time about him,” Moquett said Friday morning. “It's like everybody's giving him credit, loving him or whatever. But Arkansas people kind of already thought that he was a champion, regardless, and it's kind of like the rest of world got to see what we've been thinking for three years.”

Whitmore is training at Oaklawn in preparation for his scheduled 8-year-old debut in the $200,000 Hot Springs Stakes March 13. Whitmore's major spring objective, Moquett said, is again the $500,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap (G3) April 10. Both races are 6 furlongs.

“Still the plan,” Moquett said. “He's going to run a mile and a half at Oaklawn.”

Moquett received one first-place vote for outstanding trainer. But Whitmore, his prized gelding, had more than enough support to grab his first Eclipse Award after finishing eighth, second and third in the previous three runnings of the Breeders' Cup Sprint.

“He's a cool horse,” Moquett said.

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