Ajs High opens 5-year-old season in Grade 1 Sooner State

Ajs High established himself as one of the top older Quarter Horses in training last year and he will be looking to pick up where he left off Saturday in the Grade 1, $100,000 Sooner State at Remington Park.

Ajs High will be making his first start at 5 in the 400-yard race he won a year ago. The Sooner State is a restricted Grade 1 and is limited to horses bred in Oklahoma. The field of six includes Sam Crow, who with a win would go over $1 million in earnings, and Valiant Rouge, the winner of last year’s Grade 1 Rainbow Derby at Ruidoso Downs.

The card Saturday has a special first post of 3:45 p.m. Central.

Ajs High won three graded races last meet at Remington before closing out his season at Los Alamitos, where he won the Grade 1, $350,000 Challenge Championship in October and finished a close fourth in the Grade 1, $500,000 Champion of Champions in December. He has since been working at Remington.

Ajs High, who races for his breeder, Mike Teel, will break from the rail in the Sooner State. He is a son of Apollitical Jess and is trained by Charles Hunt. Stormy Smith is the horse’s regular rider, and will again be aboard as Ajs High seeks to nail down career win No. 14.