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Shannon C Finally Gets Best Of Welder In Oklahoma Classics Sprint

Twice last year, Welder, the all-time winningest horse in Remington Park history with 16 victories, had beaten Shannon C. Twice in 2018, Welder was an easy winner over Shannon C.

The fifth time is apparently the charm as Shannon C finally got the best of Welder, who made the final start of his career, running third in the $130,000 Oklahoma Classics Sprint, presented by The Kaw Nation, on Friday night here.

“Shannon has been an iron horse from Day One,” said trainer Scott Young. “Today was his day. It took a while but he showed why his breeders, Bob and Ted (Smith), breed horses to Miranda Diane. It's come full circle now. He got that Oklahoma Classics win that we've been shooting for, for what? The past four years.”

It was Young's first trip to the winner's circle in an Oklahoma Classics race as well as jockey Leandro Goncalves. Welder broke well, but veered out to the outside after leaving the gate. Shannon C, a 6-year-old gelding by Latent Heat, out of the Fistfite mare Miranda Diane, is a horse that likes to shoot for the front, but did not show that speed Friday night. Goncalves was mystified that Shannon C wasn't on the early lead.

“He is one of the fastest horses out of the gate I've ever ridden, but not tonight,” said Goncalves. “So, I was waiting and when I asked him to run, he just took off and ran like he was the best horse today.”

“Leandro said he had to go to plan B (because of the slow break) and it worked,” Young said.

It was the second stakes win in a row to the versatile Shannon C. He had won the Remington Park Turf Sprint Stakes on Sept. 24. That was a 5-furlong sprint on the grass. Friday night's win was a 6-furlong sprint over the fast main track.

Welder's owner Ra-Max Farms (Clayton Rash of Claremore, Okla.), before the race had wished Young good luck.

“I'm glad if Welder had to lose it was to this horse,” said Rash. “It's OK. I said before the race that, win or lose, we would be retiring him and we'll stick to that.”

“We knew it was time and we wanted him to retire sound and safe,” said Welder's trainer Teri Luneack. “He has done everything we've ever asked of him and he didn't owe us a thing going into this race.”

Now it seems a horse that Welder had beaten by 4-3/4 lengths, 6-1/4 lengths, 6-1/2 lengths, and a neck, the last four times they faced each other may be the heir apparent as top Oklahoma-bred sprinter on the grounds. Welder had won this race the past three years in a row and was trying to tie Highland Ice and Okie Ride for four wins in this race.

Shannon C drew away impressively at the end, winning by three lengths at 5-1 odds. He paid $12.80, $6.40, and $3.20 across the board. Young trained horses ran 1-2 in the race as Mesa Moon (2-1) held off Welder by one length.

The remaining order of finish in the Classics Sprint was Euromantic (4th), Fast Breakin Cash (5th), No Lak of Speed (6th), Fly to the Bank (7th), and D Toz (8th).

Shannon C earned $78,000 for the win and improved to 27 starts, seven wins, 11 seconds, and two thirds for $368,766 in earnings. He chased early fractions set by Fly to the Bank of :22.15 for the first quarter-mile, :45.30 for the half-mile, :57.68 for five-eighths of a mile, and a final time of 1:10.12. He was bred by B and S Racing of Springfield, Mo., the owner.

The Sprint was the first win in the Oklahoma Classics for all of the connections.

Welder was sent off as the wagering favorite at 4-5 odds in his final race. He finishes his career with 16 wins at Remington Park and a final record of 44 starts, 27 wins, five seconds, and seven thirds for $1,265,031 in earnings. He holds records at Remington Park as the only three-time Horse of the Meet, the six-furlong sprint record of 1:08.13 in the 2019 David M. Vance Stakes, three-time Oklahoma Horse of the Year, the only horse to win four stakes races in one meet at Remington Park, and a record 11 stakes wins in a row here.

The Oklahoma Classics is a $1,000,000 series of stakes races devoted to Oklahoma-bred Thoroughbreds.

Remington Park racing continues Saturday, Oct. 16 with the first race at 7:07 pm Central.

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Top Oklahoma-Bred Welder Preparing For Rare Out-Of-State Appearance At Oaklawn Park

Oaklawn will run two $1 million races Saturday (Apple Blossom and Oaklawn Handicap) and have a millionaire running in an allowance event when Welder makes a rare appearance outside Oklahoma for trainer Theresa Sue Luneack and owner Ra-Max Farms LLC.

Oklahoma-bred Welder is the 2-1 program favorite for the 10th race – the Oaklawn Handicap and Apple Blossom are bookends – a conditioned sprint for older horses. Welder will be making his first start since a Dec. 19, 2020, allowance victory at Remington Park. It was his record-tying 15th career victory at the Oklahoma City venue.

Luneack said the 8-year-old gray gelding was rerouted to Oaklawn after the $50,000 Highland Ice Stakes Tuesday at Will Rogers Downs near Tulsa was canceled because of lack of entries. Will Rogers is Welder's home track and he is based just a couple of miles away.

“He's fit, ready to run and ready to rock,” Luneack said after Welder galloped Thursday morning at Oaklawn under regular rider David Cabrera. “Jose Santos said, 'Bring him to Oaklawn.' I said, 'Well, I'll see what I can do.' The race came up on the extras and it was a perfect fit.”

Santos is the agent for Cabrera. In Welder's only Oaklawn appearance, he finished third, beaten two lengths by future Eclipse Award winner Whitmore, in the $150,000 Hot Springs Stakes for older sprinters in 2019. Welder is a legend in Oklahoma, amassing 15 career stakes victories between Remington Park and Will Rogers Downs and has a 26-5-4 mark from 38 starts overall and earnings of $1,204,042.

Luneack said Welder was under consideration for the $500,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap (G3) last Saturday at Oaklawn, but the gelding's priority has always been Oklahoma.

“We try to help Oklahoma racing, so we really wanted to run in the Oklahoma stake,” Luneack said. “We passed on the Count Fleet because we were trying to promote Oklahoma, but obviously that didn't work. He probably should have run in the Count Fleet.”

Luneack said Welder arrived Wednesday night for Saturday's 6-furlong race, which has a $108,000 purse – roughly three times higher than his last start.

“It's always a challenge for us,” Luneack said. “We don't haul him a lot. But now that we have to be here three days prior, I actually think that might be to Welder's advantage because he can come in and go to the racetrack to gallop and relax. Maybe a couple of trips to the track without racing will help him settle in a little better.”

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Luneack Living The Dream With Specially-Named Star Oklahoma-Bred Welder

When trainer Teri Luneack was a little girl she would lie in bed and stare at her Barbies on horseback and the horses on the curtains that covered her bedroom windows.

When Luneack fell asleep, however, she never in her wildest dreams saw herself training a racehorse to a million dollars in earnings. She has done that, and will once again saddle that millionaire, Welder, in an attempt to win his 10th stakes race in a row at Remington Park when he runs in Friday night's $130,000 Oklahoma Classics Sprint. Welder is also trying to extend his record of nine consecutive stakes victories at this track.

If you didn't believe in destiny before, the storied road that led Luneack to Welder and his owner Clayton Rash (Ra-Max Farms) of Claremore, Okla., might change your mind.

Luneack grew up in Michigan and when she graduated from Traverse City Senior High she walked out the doors of the high school and straight into the United States Navy.

“I was 17 years old and immediately joined,” she said. “While I was in the Navy from 1984-88, I learned to be a welder.”

Insert goose-bump music here. That was long before she started working with horses and years before meeting Rash, who had built an international welding business.

“That's crazy, isn't it?” she said of the welder connection. “To think years later I would go to work for Clayton and him saying, 'Let's name one horse Welder.'”

Luneack learned her hard-nosed work ethic in the Navy and that led to success as she moved into the horse world. She began training horses in the show horse industry when her kids, Taylor (son) and Haley (daughter), were young.

“I showed dressage for years before my children were old enough to show,” she said. “Once they got bigger, we started showing together. Both of my children are extremely good horsemen.”

Luneack and her crew in Michigan won many world championships in both halter and riding. She had never met Rash before, but he had show horses at the time.

“Taylor actually introduced me to Clayton and we all decided it would work great for me to come down to Oklahoma and run Clayton's farm there,” she said.

So, while the Navy had shown her places like Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Diego Garcia, Thailand and the Philippines, the horse world had plopped her down in Claremore, Okla.

On one bright morning while searching for yearlings to buy in nearby Pryor, Okla. at the Mighty Acres farm, fate struck this outfit like lightning in a thunderstorm. Rash had put aside enough money to buy about five yearlings priced at $6,400 apiece. They had just about wrapped up the deal when Luneack said she spotted a little, gray guy standing in the corner of his stall.

“He was perfect; straight as an arrow,” she said. “We asked if they would throw him in and eventually they said yes.”

Shortly thereafter, Rash suggested to Luneack that they name one of the horses in the bunch “Welder.”

“I said, 'How about this gray one? He's a welder's colors.'”

The rest is history in Oklahoma horse racing. Here is a litany of the things Oklahoma-bred Welder, a son of The Visualiser, out of the Tiznow mare Dance Softly, has accomplished under the keen eye of Luneack's training:

Two-time Oklahoma Horse of the Year.
Only horse in Remington Park history (since 1988) that has won back-to-back Horse of the Meet trophies.
Set the track record for six furlongs in 1:08.13 seconds winning the David M. Vance Sprint on Sept. 29, 2019.
Nine consecutive stakes wins in a row at Remington Park – two Remington Park Turf Sprints (one was taken off the turf and moved to a sloppy main track), three wins in the Silver Goblin Stakes, two wins in the Oklahoma Classics Sprint, and two Vance Sprints.
Crept up on Slide Show's all-time 11-race win streak at Remington Park before losing an open allowance on Dec. 14, 2019. He had nine wins in a row, settling for second longest streak in Oklahoma City.
Four-time Horse of the Meet at Will Rogers Downs in Claremore.
Winner of Thoroughbred Racing Association Oklahoma Classic Sprint five years in a row at WRD.

He is the prohibitive 1-2 favorite to win his third Oklahoma Classics Sprint in a row. Highland Ice and Okie Ride won this race four times. Medium Rare won it three times. Jockey David Cabrera has been aboard for eight of the nine stakes wins at Remington Park, Travis Cunningham started the streak in 2017 in the Silver Goblin.

Now the story has come full circle for Luneack as Welder's numbers – 35 starts, 23 wins, five seconds and four thirds for total earnings of $1,059,018, tends to make her head spin, much like the feeling she used to get staring at her Barbies and curtains as a child.

“I've always been horse crazy,” she said. “I'm thinking I was born with it.”

Remington Park racing continues Wednesday through Saturday, Oct. 14-17, with the first race nightly at 7:07pm. The Oklahoma Classics, a million-dollar night of divisional stakes events for top Oklahoma-breds, is on Friday.

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