Acting Out holds off Frank's Rockette in Carousel
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Acting Out got a first class ride to the wire in the $200,000 Carousel on Saturday at Oaklawn Park, with Martin Garcia guiding her to a half-length victory over a charging Frank’s Rockette.
But Garcia wasn’t alone in the saddle – at least in spirit.
“My wife and I were riding that filly the last 70 yards,” said Art Sherman, the retired jockey and trainer who co-owns Acting Out.
"That was exciting."
The Southern California-based Sherman spent a brief period riding at Oaklawn in the 1950s, and he won some races while he was in town.
Fast forward to 2022 and Acting Out has been his first “action” at Oaklawn since that period decades ago. She was running her second race at the meet in the Carousel.
Acting Out ($15.40) took a local allowance wire to wire March 11, then came back to use the same approach in the Carousel. She broke sharply and set fractions of 22.12 seconds for the opening quarter and a half-mile in 45.16 before winning the six-furlong race for fillies and mares in 1:09.26.
“She’s fast,” Sherman said. “She can smoke away from the gate, has that speed.
“She ran a great race. I was so proud of her. She’s just all heart.”
Jerry Hollendorfer trains Acting Out for a partnership that also includes Zvika Akin and Robert Harkins.
“It makes you feel so good when my good friend Jerry Hollendorfer – we’ve been friends for a lot of years – wins a stakes,” said Sherman, who retired from training in December.
Sherman intended to be at Oaklawn on Saturday.
“I was hoping I could have been there, but I had a bout with kidney stones,” he said. “I just recovered. I didn’t want to take a chance traveling.”
Acting Out is a daughter of Blame. She was winning her first stakes in the Carousel and now has a record of 5 wins from 12 starts for earnings of $323,840.
Novell Squall finished third in the Carousel, 2 1/4 lengths behind Frank's Rockette.
The stakes was the first of four on the Arkansas Derby Day card at Oaklawn.