Asmussen stablemates will utilize familiar tactics in Tinsel Stakes

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Red Route One and Unload have been running the same pace racket since they were foals and will attempt to pull the trick again Sunday in the $175,000 Tinsel Stakes at Oaklawn Park.

Unload would lead the pair’s peers during runs around the pasture, then Red Route One would sail past the herd.

“He set the pace for him in the field,” trainer Steve Asmussen quipped of Unload. “They know the drill.”

All fun aside, the 5-year-old homebreds owned by Winchell Thoroughbreds are among the chief contenders in the Tinsel, a 1 1/8-mile race that was rescheduled after inclement weather led to its cancellation last week. A field of eight is set to start, with the new faces being Full Screen and Laughing Boy.

Red Route One, who is the class of the field as a Grade 2 winner of $1.8 million, and Horace Mann, who has taken his game to a new level since moving to dirt, figure to vie for favoritism in the Tinsel.

Red Route One will break from post 3. He is making his second start since winning the Grade 3 Cornhusker by a half-length over Unload in July. In his return race, Red Route One finished seventh behind slow fractions of 49 seconds for the opening half-mile and 1:13 for six furlongs in the Grade 2 Clark on Nov. 29 at Churchill.

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“I think that he had a nice year with the win in the New Orleans Classic and winning the Cornhusker, and we need to get him back in the winner’s circle,” Asmussen said. “We did enter Unload in there to guarantee him plenty of pace. A couple of races last year that were completely paceless I thought jeopardized his chance of winning, and he’s got his little stablemate in there to ensure a solid pace for him.”

Red Route One will be ridden by Ricardo Santana Jr. He is a four-time stakes winner, and all of those wins have come at the distance of the Tinsel.

“I feel very comfortable with him at a mile and an eighth – that’s for sure,” Asmussen said.

Unload won at the distance in the Governor’s Cup in August at Remington Park. It came one start after he set the pace in the Cornhusker until the very late stages, getting caught by the freight train of a closer that is Red Route One.

Unload figures to be pushing the tempo Sunday when he breaks from post 8 under apprentice Erik Asmussen.

“He’s run some fairly quick races previously – called upon him for this exact same purpose in the Cornhusker – and it was kind of his coming-out party,” Steve Asmussen said. “So, I think that his services are to be called upon again Sunday. You know, he’s a stablemate in every sense of the word.”

Horace Mann will be looking for his third straight win when he starts from the rail under Martin Garcia. He’s won three of his last four starts since moving to dirt for an off-the-turf race in July at Ellis Park. Phil D’Amato trains Horace Mann for Little Red Feather Racing.

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