Stewart Elliott | Horse Racing Free Tips

Morning Twilight Stays Undefeated With Oklahoma Classics Lassie Win

Just nine days after breaking her maiden status in a hard-fought effort, Morning Twilight made things look easier in winning her second start, the $130,000 Oklahoma Classics Lassie, sponsored by Coors Light, on Friday, Oct. 15 at Remington Park in Oklahoma City, Okla.

Owned by the Saratoga Springs, N.Y. partnership of West Point Thoroughbreds, Edwin Barker, and Titletown Racing Stables, Morning Twilight was bred in Oklahoma by Joe Merrick of Sayre. The filly was a $310,000 purchase at the Ocala Breeders' 2-year-old in training sale this year. Trained by racing's all-time leading winner Steve Asmussen, Morning Twilight was confidently ridden by Stewart Elliott.

When Morning Twilight won her first career race to break her maiden status on Oct. 6 at Remington Park, she scored a six-furlong event by one length. In the Lassie, the 2-year-old filly by Morning Line from the Medaglia d'Oro mare Sweet Golden Carol won by a widening 7-1/2 lengths.

After stalking the early pace set by Bring It On Baby, Morning Twilight made her move coming off the lone turn of the six-furlong event. The pair rolled to the top of the stretch together before Morning Twilight had enough of her company and kicked forward to an open lead, finishing in 1:11.20 over the fast track. Hits Pricey Legacy made a wide move down the stretch to gain second while Circle Back Girl (50-1 odds) came up the rail and just missed getting into the exacta, settling for third a head behind the runner-up.

Bring It On Baby set the opening fractions of :22.30 for a quarter-mile and then :45.70 for the half-mile. She would fade to finish fourth, beaten 9-3/4 lengths.

Morning Twilight was at 6-1 in the wagering and paid $15 to win, $5.80 to place and $4.20 to show. Hits Pricey Legacy paid $2.20 to place and $2.10 to show as the beaten wagering favorite at 1-2 odds. Circle Back Girl returned $9.80 to show.

The remaining order of finish in the Lassie was Smokin' Okie (5th), Lil' Jimmi Sue (6th), Tiptoe Henny (7th), Boujee Britt (8th), Take Me Serious (9th), Freccia d'Argento (10th), and Presley's Artwork (11th).

The Lassie win was the first for the owners of Morning Twilight. It was the second Lassie win for Asmussen and his fourth overall win in the Oklahoma Classics series. Jockey Stewart Elliott won his first Oklahoma Classics race.

The Oklahoma Classics is a million-dollar night of stakes racing, featuring the top Oklahoma-bred Thoroughbreds.

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

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Jockey Stewart Elliott Wins Final Four Races On Wednesday’s Card At Remington

Jockey Stewart Elliott pulled off quite the feat Wednesday night at Remington Park, winning all four races of the Primetime Pick 4 for four different trainers.

Elliott solidified his second spot in the jockeys' standings with 25 wins, seven behind three-time defending champion David Cabrera with 32. Richard Eramia is third with 17 trips to the winner's circle and rounding out the top five are Leandro Goncalves and Ramon Vazquez tied for fourth and fifth with 16 apiece.

Elliott had lost on his mounts in the first and fourth races on Wednesday, but he awoke in the last half of the nine-race card. Afleet Okie, who went off at 7-2 odds with two other horses, broke from the 10-hole in a claiming $7,500 race in the sixth for 3-year-olds and older, fillies and mares, and bided her time down the backstretch, sitting seventh. Elliott circled horses from the outside and passed the other two 7-2 horses in the stretch as they ran 1-2-3 in the race. The 9-5 favorite, Hunny Hush, broke very poorly from the gate and was pulled up on the backstretch when she faltered about 20 lengths back.

Afleet Okie scored a 1-1/2 length victory and paid $9.40, $4.80 and $3.40 across the board. Her running time for the 6 furlongs was 1:12.92. The early fractions she cut into were :22.44 for the quarter-mile, :46.11 for the half-mile and :59.26 for 5 furlongs. Elliott's first win came for owner Ross Burdette of Sallisaw, Okla., and trainer Jesse Oberlander. Afleet Okie beat runner-up S C Tiny Secret, who was another three-quarters of a length ahead of third-place finisher Cherokee Lass.

The second win for Elliott came in the seventh aboard Medalla Match for owner Twisted Chaps Racing Stables (John Morris) of Edmond, Okla., and trainer Michael Biehler. Elliott's mount, a 3-year-old filly in a second-level allowance sprint on the turf at about 5 furlongs, was a winner by three-quarters of a length at 5-2 odds. She was the co-favorite with slightly less win money on her nose. Italian Justice had a bit more win money on her and was the actual betting favorite. She finished fourth.

Medalla Match sat just off the pace for Elliott in third and then pounced in mid-stretch to pass front-runner Honeyfromthesouth (17-1), who faded to third as Chikara (7-1) closed strongly off the flank of the winner to lose by less than a length. Medalla Match returned $7.60, $4.40 and $3.20 across the board.

Elliott and his filly's winning time was :57.73 seconds after the early speed covered the grass like lawnmowers, setting fractions of :21.86 for a quarter-mile and :45.77 for the half. Chikara swept past Honeyfromthesouth to finish two lengths ahead of her.

Elliott's third win came for owners Amy Hardy and Westside Racing Stable (Cindy Perez) of El Paso, Texas, and trainer Mindy Willis aboard heavy favorite Favorable Outcome (6-5) in the eighth race, a one-mile allowance-optional claiming $50,000 race for 3-year-olds and older that had not won two races this year. That race scratched down to four horses from its original eight starters. Favorable Outcome made every pole a winning one, extending his lead with each stride. The 7-year-old horse eventually hit the wire 6-1/2 lengths in front of Catdaddy (3-1), who was another 2-1/2 lengths ahead of third-place finisher Drifting West in a strung out field. Fourth-place Popularity finished last, three lengths behind Drifting West.

Elliott sat chilly for most of the race as he looked like a statue in the saddle of the winner. His steed paid $4.60 to win and $2.40 to place in the short field. There was no show wagering. Favorable Outcome handled the distance in :23.94 seconds for the first quarter-mile, :47.56 for the half, 1:11.78 for three-quarters, 1:24.20 for seven-eighths and 1:37.03 for one mile at the finish line.

The final win of the night came in the nightcap aboard Morning Twilight, a $310,000 purchase at the 2021 Ocala (Florida) Breeders' Spring Sale of 2-year-olds in training for owners West Point Thoroughbreds, Edwin Barker and Titletown Racing Stables of Saratoga Springs, N.Y. The 2-year-old filly by Morning Line, out of the Medaglia D'Oro mare Sweet Golden Carol, was bred in Oklahoma by Joe Merrick. She is trained by the nation's leading conditioner, Steve Asmussen.

Morning Twilight went off as the even-money favorite, but was hard-pressed to win until she changed leads in deep stretch to get up by one length. The filly was followed in second by Diamond N Gasoline (18-1), who was 3-3/4 lengths ahead of third place finisher Presley's Artwork (15-1). Morning Twilight paid $4, $3.40 and $3 across the board. Her winning time for the 6 furlongs was 1:13.87.

That concluded the Primetime Pick 4 with Elliott up on all four winners. The 50-cent wager returned $72.10.

Racing continues this week with a Thursday-Saturday, Oct. 7-9, schedule remaining. First post time is 7:07 p.m. each night.

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Cabrera Continues To Dominate Jockey Standings At Remington Park

Remington Park's three-time defending riding champion David Cabrera continues to reign dominantly at this Oklahoma City, Okla., track, winning four of the nine races on Saturday night.

Cabrera padded his lead in this year's standings to 25 wins to Stewart Elliott's 14. His four wins Saturday came with four different trainers – Karl Broberg, Ron Moquett, Austin Gustafson, and Danny Pish. Cabrera took both halves of the early Daily Double with Broberg-trained Tiz Showbiz (6-1 odds, $14.40 to win) in the first race and with Moquett's Pure Courage (8-5, $5.40) in the second. The $2 Daily Double paid $65. Cabrera rode Gustafson's first-time starter Steels All In (3-1, $8), hitting the line first in race five, as he did with Pish's Give It Everything (6-5, $4.60) in the eighth.

If that's not enough to solidify his riding prowess to fans, Cabrera, with all eight of his mounts Saturday, ran either first or second. The only race he didn't run first or second was the seventh race and he didn't have a mount in that race. He finished as the runner-up in the third, fourth, sixth, and ninth races.

It would have been five wins Saturday had Cabrera not been caught by a nose in the sixth race aboard Dont Float the Ice. Cabrera's mount had the lead the entire race except at the wire.

Cabrera, with his 25 victories, leads Elliott in second, 14; Leandro Goncalves, 12; Richard Eramia, 11; and Alfredo Triana, Jr. rounding out the top five. Elliott did his best to keep pace, winning two races on the Saturday program.

The trainers' race also is a tight one this meet with perennial winner Steve Asmussen scoring 11 wins thus far, followed by Broberg and Kari Craddock tied for second with eight each. Scott Young has seven and then tied for fifth are Danny Pish and Austin Gustafson with six victories each.

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Lone Star Handle Biggest In 15 Years

The 25th season of Thoroughbred racing at Lone Star Park at Grand Prairie just outside of Dallas concluded July 11 with handle figures their largest since 2006. The figures do not include last year's pandemic season.

Daily merged (i.e. live, on-track plus export) handle totaled $1,693,866 for the 48-day meet, while a daily average of $1,459,096 in export handle. On-track fans wagered $234,770 daily, the most since 2018. Average daily attendance on weekends and holidays for the meet was just over 4,000 per day, just a 4% decline from 2019.

“The attendance figures were a very positive takeaway for the meet,” said Brandon Leigh, Lone Star Park's Director of Marketing & Player Development. “There is lots of momentum to build upon for next year, considering that a majority of our indoor reserved seating areas were limited to just 50% capacity this year.”

The highlight of the meet was Lone Star Million Day on Memorial Day, when on-track handle topped $900,000, with export handle nearly $5.5 million, a single-day record not including the Breeders' Cup.

Steve Asmussen finished the meet as leading trainer, while Stewart Elliott topped the jockeys' table. Karl Broberg's End Zone Athletics' Inc won 40 races from 184 runners.

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