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Fourth Time’s A Charm: Whitmore Stages Bold Rally To Win Breeders’ Cup Sprint

In a career that's seen him do just about everything, Whitmore ticked one of the few boxes left to check on Saturday at Keeneland with a convincing score in his fourth attempt at the Breeders' Cup Sprint.

The 7-year-old Pleasantly Perfect gelding settled in the middle of the pack across the backstretch as Japanese longshot Jasper Prince shot to the lead from one of the outside posts, followed a couple lengths back by Empire of Gold and favorite Yaupon. Jasper Prince and jockey Jose Ortiz led the field through an opening quarter-mile in :21.64 seconds, and he continued to guide it to the half-mile mark in :44.66 seconds.

As the field turned for home, Empire of Gold drew up to the outside of Jasper Prince, while a crush of horses ran behind them trying to stage a stretch drive. Those potential challengers bottlenecked in the stretch, which opened up a seam for jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. to continue a rail rally he'd begun staging in the turn. As Jasper Prince faded, Irad Ortiz took his mount off the rail to pass the tiring pacesetter, and swung three-wide to take aim on upset candidate Empire of Gold.

Whitmore's momentum blew him past Empire of Gold as they passed the eighth pole, and he was well clear by the final sixteenth. He crossed the wire 3 1/4 lengths ahead of a steadily-gaining C Z Rocket, who was himself a neck ahead of Firenze Fire on the rail. Empire of Gold carried on for fourth, three-quarters of a length behind Firenze Fire.

Whitmore won the six-furlong Breeders' Cup Sprint in 1:08.61 over a fast main track at Keeneland. He paid $38.80 to win.

Ron Moquett trains the winner, and he co-owns the gelding with Robert LaPenta, and Head of Plains Partners. The Sprint was Moquett's first Breeders' Cup win in six attempts.

Four of those tries have come with Whitmore in the Sprint. He finished eighth in the 2017 edition, then finished second and third in the years that followed.

What Whitmore has become runs in stark contrast to the early years of his six-year career, when he was groomed to be a classic contender. After consistently performing well on the Oaklawn Park branch of the Triple Crown trail, he was entered in the 2016 Kentucky Derby, where he finished second-to-last. He was moved to the sprint ranks after the Derby, and established his place as one of the division's top runners for the years to come.

The 7-year-old Whitmore is a Kentucky-bred son of Pleasantly Perfect out of the Scat Daddy mare Melody's Spirit. The victory was worth $1,100,000 and boosted his earnings to $4,307,850 with a record of 38-15-11-3. It is his second Grade 1 victory to go with a score in the 2018 Forego at Saratoga.

To view the full chart, click here.

Race Quotes:

Winning trainer Ron Moquett (Whitmore) – “I said in the pre-race interview that whenever there are this many track records, it's almost impossible to think a closer is going to do well. For him to run against the bias the way he did and the patience of the rider, the willingness to listen, it all worked out. I'm so proud of the horse, proud for the connections. I'm proud for everyone out there that's thinking when you run last in the Kentucky Derby, kick them out, do right by the horse come back, and you have a shot to reach other dreams. You don't discard them. You just do right by the horse and it keeps working out.

“I'm just grateful. Grateful for the horse. Grateful to everyone that sends me well wishes and congratulations after the race. Just grateful.”

Winning jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. (Whitmore) – “He had a great trip. We wanted to break and have him relax and that's what we did. He relaxed so good. I was able to cut the corner on the turn and when I tipped him out he just exploded. He's a nice horse. He's been running for so many years. He's a warrior.”

Second-place trainer Peter Miller (C Z Rocket) –“He ran his eyeballs out. I think the draw really hurt us. If we drew where Whitmore drew, I think it's a different deal, but that's horse racing. We had to ride him away from there and that's not the way he really wants to run, but he had no choice on this speed-favoring racetrack. From the inside, you don't want to get shuffled back to last. He rode a super race. It was just circumstance. Speed favoring track and an inside draw on a horse who wants to sit and doesn't want to be ridden away from there, but I couldn't be prouder of the horse. He's shown up every time we ran him.”

Second-place jockey Luis Saez (C Z Rocket) – “He had a beautiful trip. I thought he was going to win but he just kind of stayed there. But he ran a nice race.”

Third-place jockey Jose Lezcano (Firenze Fire) – “We kind of lost a little bit of contact early. The pace was very fast early and he was a little bit more behind than I wanted to be. From the five-sixteenths to the three-sixteenths I didn't have any place to go. I was waiting and waiting and when I really asked him to go he gave me a good kick. He really came running. If we could have gotten a little clear earlier we would have been right there. He gave me a good race.”

Eighth-place jockey Joel Rosario (Yaupon, favorite) – “Coming out of the gate he kind of hesitated for a little bit. I think that cost the chances for us to probably win the race.”

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Fourth Time Lucky In the Sprint for Fan-Favorite Whitmore

Making his fourth consecutive appearance in the GI Breeders’ Cup Sprint, the 7-year-old gelding Whitmore (Pleasantly Perfect) did what few have done over the course of the weekend–rally from far back on the main track to score an 18-1 upset in the GI Breeders’ Cup Sprint Saturday at Keeneland.

The $4.2-million earner lagged in the latter third of the field early as Japanese raider Jasper Prince (Violence) ensured a fast pace, chased along by fellow longshot Empire of Gold (Goldencents). Traveling nicely within himself on the turn, Whitmore crept into it while steadily gaining on the leaders, angled out into the three path entering the final furlong and outran C Z Rocket (City Zip) to the wire to take it by 3 1/4 lengths. Firenze Fire (Poseidon’s Warrior) rallied up the inside to just touch Empire of Gold out of third.

Heavily favored sophomore Yaupon (Uncle Mo), unbeaten in four prior attempts racing on the engine, including Saratoga’s GII Amsterdam S., tired to eighth after chasing the early leaders on the outside from third.

“I said in the pre-race interview that whenever there are this many track records, it’s almost impossible to think a closer is going to do well,” winning trainer and co-owner Ron Moquett said after saddling his first Breeders’ Cup winner. “For him to run against the bias the way he did and the patience of the rider [Irad Ortiz, Jr.], the willingness to listen, it all worked out. I’m so proud of the horse, proud for the connections. I’m proud for everyone out there that’s thinking when you run last in the Kentucky Derby, kick them out, do right by the horse come back, and you have a shot to reach other dreams. You don’t discard them. You just do right by the horse and it keeps working out.

Moquett continued, “I’m just grateful. Grateful for the horse. Grateful to everyone that sends me well wishes and congratulations after the race. Just grateful.”

Two years ago Moquett was diagnosed with autoimmune disease, which affects the lungs and can make breathing difficult. The disease forced him to avoid the racetrack for several months.

Whitmore, who gave Moquett his second career Grade I victory in the 2018 Forego at Saratoga, has helped the affable trainer get through his darkest days.

“Right after the race they come up and they want to do interviews, and for a little bit, for a guy that’s lung compromised, I’m sitting over here trying to go, ‘Okay, first you catch your breath and then you can talk and then when you put these, what I call life restrictors on me, then it makes it that much harder to get air through there,'” Moquett said.

“He’s everything. You get a horse like this, and all horses, I mean, we drive across the country all the time just to see horses. But a horse like this that tries and fights and gives you everything consistently, you want to be there. I’m not saying that even in one of these big barns that he wouldn’t have performed beautifully and done just as well, but I am saying that Whitmore in a big outfit may not have received the exact attention that he needed to get there. So, I use that as motivation. If I’m not there to do my job, who is going to do it?”

Whitmore, a Classics hopeful after finishing third in the GI Arkansas Derby in 2016, finished 19th in that year’s GI Kentucky Derby.

Re-invented as a sprinter since, Whitmore finished eighth in the 2017 Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Del Mar, second to Roy H (More Than Ready) at Churchill two years ago and third to Mitole (Eskendereya) last year at Santa Anita.

Whitmore lined up six previous times this season, led by wins in Oaklawn’s Hot Springs S. (4x winner) and GIII Count Fleet Sprint H. (3x winner). This term’s GI Alfred G. Vanderbilt H. runner-up entered off a flat fourth in the local GII Phoenix S.

Whitmore is campaigned in partnership by Robert LaPenta, Moquett and Sol Kumin’s Head of Plains Partners LLC.

“It’s just an incredible win,” said Kumin, also a co-owner of Friday’s GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf heroine Aunt Pearl (Ire) and Saturday’s GI Breeders’ Cup Distaff heroine Monomoy Girl (Tapizar). “You own lots of horses, but very rarely do you find one that is a fighter like this guy, with so much heart. All the credit goes to Ron and his team and Whitmore because he’s just, you know, he’s a warrior and it was just amazing to see today.”

Will we see the popular gelding back again at age eight?

“I see no reason, as long as Whitmore wants to do it. I see no reason to do anything but what he wants to do,” Moquett concluded.

Pedigree Notes:

The veteran Whitmore, who would undoubtedly win any popularity contests of the 2020 Breeders’ Cup, is the most accomplished horse sired by 2003 GI Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Pleasantly Perfect–although the latter also sired 2010 GI Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf winner Shared Account, who in turn foaled 2019 GI Breeders Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf winner Sharing (Speightstown)–from his 20 black-type winners and seven graded winners. Pleasantly Perfect died in June in Turkey, where he had stood from 2015-2019. Whitmore is out of the Scat Daddy mare Melody’s Spirit, who was unraced and produced Whitmore as her first foal. Her 2-year-old colt Skip Intro (Liam’s Map) is a barnmate of Whitmore’s in Ron Moquett’s shedrow and was second in a Churchill maiden special weight Nov. 1. Melody’s Spirit’s yearling colt by Arrogate–named Arrogates Spirit–was a $170,000 RNA at Keeneland September. The mare has been bred back to Constitution. The late Scat Daddy’s record as a sire has been well documented, but he also has nine black-type winners out of his daughters, led by Whitmore.

Saturday, Keeneland
BREEDERS’ CUP SPRINT-GI, $1,840,000, Keeneland, 11-7, 3yo/up, 6f, 1:08.61, ft.
1–WHITMORE, 126, g, 7, by Pleasantly Perfect
                1st Dam: Melody’s Spirit, by Scat Daddy
                2nd Dam: Capture the Cat, by Tale of the Cat
                3rd Dam: Ten Flags, by Seattle Slew
O-Robert V. LaPenta, Ron Moquett & Head of Plains Partners
LLC; B-John Liviakis (KY); T-Ron Moquett; J-Irad Ortiz, Jr.
$1,040,000. Lifetime Record: MGISW, 38-15-11-3, $4,247,850.
Werk Nick Rating: A++.
Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–C Z Rocket, 126, g, 6, City Zip–Successful Sarah, by Successful
Appeal. ($800,000 2yo ’16 OBSOPN). O-Madaket Stables LLC,
Gary Barber & Tom Kagele; B-Farm III Enterprises LLC (FL);
T-Peter Miller. $340,000.
3–Firenze Fire, 126, h, 5, Poseidon’s Warrior–My Every Wish, by
Langfuhr. O/B-Mr Amore Stables (FL); T-Kelly J. Breen.
$180,000.
Margins: 3 1/4, NK, 3/4. Odds: 18.40, 5.90, 8.80.
Also Ran: Empire of Gold, Manny Wah, Diamond Oops, Hog Creek Hustle, Yaupon, Lasting Legacy, Bon Raison, Frank’s Rockette, Collusion Illusion, Echo Town, Jasper Prince. Scratched: Vekoma. Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.

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This Side Up: A Coup d’Etat to Benefit Us All

In these days of wilful division and reluctant separation, perhaps the wider world could for once learn something from our own community. For while our preoccupations may be frivolous, relative to such momentous challenges as the securing of democracy or public health, they do at least inculcate precisely the kind of calm forbearance most needed, right now, to quell the hysteria and despair infecting national wellbeing.

It’s pouring with rain? Go feed your horse and clean out the stall. Middle of a heatwave? Go feed your horse and clean out the stall. The trough has frozen to the depth of your fist? Go feed your horse and clean out the stall. You have no choice; and you have no guarantees. How often does it happen that your reward, for all your dependability and patience and exertion, is a split-second that instantly unravels daily increments of endeavor amounting to months, seasons, years? Yet still we persevere, ever animated by faith in what we are doing; faith in our horses. Or, if not faith, at least hope. And it just feels like a lot of people out there could do with a little more of that.

Even the Breeders’ Cup, the game-changing innovation of the modern industry, is now into its 37th cycle. And if the differences in the experience this year could scarcely be less welcome, the host city and its racetrack have banked enough Turf history to absorb even the bleakest addition to precedent. If the stands loom emptily over the stretch, they still teem with the glad spectres of horsemen and women past–whose lore, whose length of perspective, has seeped into the Bluegrass generation by generation, as gradual as the dew laid through cold hours of darkness to offer a sparkling welcome to a new day.

Because we know that dawn will come. It will bring fresh challenges, no doubt, as well as fresh hope. But the sun will rise in the same place, to the same clatter of buckets, the same impatient nickering.

That’s why there could be no more fitting winner of the American sport’s richest prize than Tom’s d’Etat (Smart Strike). Especially if he could be preceded to the winner’s enclosure by Starship Jubilee (Indy Wind), or Whitmore (Pleasantly Perfect), or another from a handful of runners foaled in 2013. For these are living monuments to the shared resilience of the Thoroughbred and its custodians; and, whatever happens here, the light they have collectively shed on this gloomiest of years has already shown us how to keep the faith.

It is five years and one day since Whitmore won by seven lengths on debut at Churchill. Before discovering his true vocation as a sprinter, he proceeded to finish last in the GI Kentucky Derby. And some of those ahead of him, from winner Nyquist (Uncle Mo) to seventh Brody’s Cause (Giant’s Causeway) and 14th Outwork (Uncle Mo), were represented on Friday’s juvenile program by first foals.

Whitmore at Keeneland | Coady

That’s not an option available to Whitmore, whose castration means that Ron Moquett, having maintained his enthusiasm with such skill, may yet eke out a fifth start in the GI B.C. Sprint at Del Mar next year. Tom’s d’Etat, however, will very soon discover just what he has been missing when he retires to WinStar–a farm with a remarkable stake in the GI Longines BC Classic.

Losing Pioneerof the Nile just as he was entering his pomp was all the more unfortunate given the ageing profile, at that point, of its other elite stallions. But WinStar is regenerating with purpose and, even while joining other farms in a series of pragmatic cuts for 2021, has been able to more than double Constitution’s fee to $85,000. If his son Tiz the Law happens to win the Classic, then the guys at WinStar may be almost as pleased as Coolmore, who will someday be welcoming him to Ashford.

WinStar is further represented, moreover, by Improbable (City Zip) and Global Campaign (Curlin). Given the sad news this week about Sagamore Farm, his co-owners, it would be especially poignant if Global Campaign were to outrun his odds as I expect.

My pick, however, remains Tom’s d’Etat–and not merely on grounds of sentiment. After stumbling out of the gate in the GI Whitney S., he was stuck behind petrified fractions (:25.12 and :49.74) and did well even to close for third to Improbable. Feeding off splits of :22.90 and :46.09 at Oaklawn in the spring, however, he had cut down the same rival decisively. That performance showed how well this horse operates off a break, and he has been duly freshened by a trainer who has been working back from this assignment all year. It was in a Grade II round here last fall, moreover, that Tom’s d’Etat announced his belated coming of age: the only Keeneland stakes success in this field.

The one pity is that Al Stall, Jr., having been ungraciously cast as the villain when Blame (Arch) spoiled the immaculate record of Zenyatta (Street Cry {Ire}), would find himself saluted with even less acclaim this time round. Whatever happens, he deserves immense credit for so patiently bringing Tom’s d’Etat to his full potential after just seven races across his first four years in training.

Global Campaign | Horsephotos

In fairness, the horse has become very sound with maturity and–from the final crop of a sire of sires, and with his second dam a sister to none other than Candy Ride (Arg)–looks an extremely attractive stud prospect. At WinStar, after all, he will be joining another stallion who has bucked the general trend by advancing his fee to $90,000 from $70,000. And Speightstown, who didn’t retire until he was six, is now rising 23.

So patience, once again: our perennial watchword. Seven starts across four seasons will have encompassed an awful lot of mornings–rainy, sunny, foggy, snowy–when his manger has been filled, his bedding changed, with no gallop. And that’s before we wind back to his pre-training, with Frank and Daphne Wooten; his preparation for the sales, just down the road from Keeneland at Hunter Valley Farm; never mind to the original drawing board of breeders SF Bloodstock.

Unlike Whitmore, Tom’s d’Etat won’t be racing into a third presidential term. But all these venerable animals reprove us that even the Classic racehorse is only an adolescent. A few years ago, researchers studied 274 American Thoroughbreds and established their average peak at 4.45 years.

Some benighted farms, no doubt, would be nervous of starting a stallion at eight. But since they tend to give up on most sires by the time they reach that age anyway, it’s hard to see the rush. Far better, surely, to give them a chance to demonstrate the kind of genetic attributes we should want to replicate in the breed.

So patience, everybody. Go feed your horse. And keep hoping.

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Sprint: Weaver Not Worried About Outside Post With Vekoma, Whitmore ‘As Good As He’s Ever Been’

Vekoma – R. A. Hill Stable and Gatsas Stables' Vekoma arrived from Saratoga Springs, N.Y. by van early Tuesday morning before getting acquainted with the Keeneland racetrack during a 1 3/8-mile gallop.

“Everything's gone smoothly so far,” trainer George Weaver said.

Vekoma, who was installed as the 3-1 morning line favorite for Saturday's Breeders' Cup Sprint, drew post position 14.

“I like it. I'd rather draw outside than inside,” Weaver said. “You run the risk of being parked real wide on the turn, but I think he has enough tactical speed to clear horses and get in a favorable spot before he gets to that turn.”

Vekoma is 3-for-3 this year but hasn't run since capturing the July 4 Metropolitan Mile at Belmont Park.

“He's been training really well. We're looking forward to getting him back to the races. I don't know how he's going to run off a four-month layoff, but it's not a six-month layoff or a year layoff,” Weaver said. “It's four months. Once we got him into a breeze pattern he jumped back into fitness very easily.”

The 4yo son of Candy Ride popped a foot abscess about a month after the Met Mile.

“I would have obviously liked to see our horse run. He's such a star,” Weaver said. “I wanted to run him in the Forego at Saratoga – that didn't happen. We were hoping to make the Vosburgh, not so much needing a race but to see a star run.”

Vekoma, who won the Nashua at Aqueduct at 2 and the Blue Grass at Keeneland at 3, finished 13th in the 2019 Kentucky Derby before going to the sidelines for more than 10 months. He returned to win the March 28 Sir Shackleton at Gulfstream Park by 3 ¾ lengths before scoring by 7 ¼ lengths in the Carter at Belmont Park June 6.

“At the time I was worried that Gulfstream might get shut down [due to the COVID-19 pandemic]. Luckily, they got to keep going and we got the race in. From that point on we were looking at the Carter and the Met Mile,” Weaver said. “He's a good horse. I can't stress that enough. To win off a layoff like that, if you have a good one, all those things don't matter that much. I'm not saying he's going to win, but it won't be the fitness, it won't be the layoff (that would get him beat).”

Whitmore – The veteran Whitmore got reacquainted with the Keeneland track Tuesday morning after arriving Monday afternoon from his Churchill base and jogged 1 1/2 miles under regular rider Laura Moquett, wife and assistant to her husband trainer Ron Moquett, as he prepares for his fourth start in the Sprint. Whitmore, who was second in the Sprint in 2018 and third last year, has prepped for each of his Breeders' Cup starts in the Phoenix at Keeneland and has a record of 1-2-0 in four tries. He was fourth in the race this year.

“He's doing great,” said Moquett, who also co-owns the gelding with Robert LaPenta and Sol Kumin's Head of Plains Partners. “He's doing very good right now, we're excited. I think he's coming in to this race as good as he's ever been.”

When asked about the accomplishment of getting a horse to the Breeders' Cup four times, Moquett said, “First off you have to have a horse that likes his job. They have to want to do this. And, we've been able find a routine that suits him.

“What I think is really awesome about Whitmore is how he's been able to connect with people over these last four years. I don't think a day goes by that someone doesn't reach out through social media to comment about how much they enjoy following him. A lot of people have been following him since he ran in the (Kentucky) Derby (in 2016). The connection he's made with fans is really cool.”

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