Breeders' Cup Sprint possible for Ivan Fallunovalot

OKLAHOMA CITY – The Breeders’ Cup Sprint is an outside possibility for Ivan Fallunovalot, who won the David M. Vance Stakes for the fourth year in a row last Sunday at Remington Park.

“We’re considering it, but it’s got to be a perfect situation,” owner Lewis Matthews Jr. said.

Ivan Fallunovalot has been a constant in the David M. Vance, winning the race at ages 4 through 7. He covered six furlongs in a stakes-record 1:08.19 on Sunday and earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 98.

“He came back real good, and we’re going to wait a few days to make any decisions on what we do,” trainer Tom Howard said. “There’s several options on the table.”

Matthews and Howard both said one of them is the $200,000 Fabulous Strike, a six-furlong race Nov. 22 at Penn National. Last year, after Ivan Fallunovalot won the Vance, he shipped to Laurel and won the Grade 3 De Francis Memorial Dash, but that race was run earlier on the calendar this year on Sept. 16.

“If nothing works out, we’ll save him for Oaklawn,” said Matthews, who would like to target the track’s sprint series that culminates with the Grade 3, $400,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap in April.

“One of our secondary goals before we hang it up,” he added, “is we want to make him a millionaire. [Sunday’s race] took him to $945,000, so we’re close.”

Matthews is a resident of Arkansas, and his home track is Oaklawn in Hot Springs, Ark.

Ivan Fallunovalot is a Texas-bred son of Valid Expectations who has won 17 of 28 starts. The gelding ran in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint in 2015 at Keeneland and finished a troubled ninth, six lengths behind winner Runhappy.

This year’s $1.5 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint is being run Nov. 4 at Del Mar.

Golden Mischief runs a corker

The other sprint stakes for 3-year-olds and up at Remington last Sunday was won by Golden Mischief, who was facing older rivals for the first time when she defeated Wheatfield in the $50,000 Flashy Lady. Golden Mischief covered six furlongs in 1:08.40 and earned a career-high 93 Beyer.

“She’s fabulous, she really is,” said Steve Asmussen, who trains Golden Mischief for Bill and Corrine Heiligbrodt.

Asmussen said the win was a highly satisfying one after the talented Golden Mischief had run fourth in both the Grade 2 Prioress at Saratoga and the Grade 3 Victory Ride at Belmont.

“She has not run her race in New York for whatever reason,” he said, “and I look back, and I think about when I sent her up there for the Astoria as a 2-year-old – she didn’t run her race. She’s capable of brilliant races, and I was glad to see her win again. She’s a good filly.”

Golden Mischief is a four-time stakes winner by Into Mischief and has earned $355,830.

Asmussen said Golden Mischief is scheduled to be sold at auction in Kentucky in November.

Golden Mischief was the first of four stakes winners for Asmussen on the Sunday card. He also saddled Untrapped to win the Grade 3, $400,000 Oklahoma Derby, Iron Fist to capture the $175,000 Governor’s Cup, and Turbo Street to win the $100,000 Remington Green.

Turbo Street, like Golden Mischief, came out of a Saratoga race. The horse was second by a neck in a turf route and was claimed out of the Sept. 2 race by Clark Brewster. Turbo Street was a neck winner of the Remington Green.

“Clark spends a lot of time up at Saratoga, and that was a horse he had targeted, followed,” Asmussen said. “He wanted to claim him for this race, and he was 100 percent right.”

Asmussen said he will discuss plans for Turbo Street with Brewster, a resident of Oklahoma.

◗ Rita Wade, a former jockey and the mother of Remington-based jockey Lindey Wade, died Sept. 22 in Bristol, Tenn., according to family members. She had been battling health issues. Wade was 62.

Wade rode her first winner, Tosy, on April 18, 1980, at Jefferson Downs in Louisiana. She also rode at Louisiana Downs and was active in racing in Illinois and Maryland.

She is survived by sons Lindey Wade, a leading rider at such Mid-South tracks as Lone Star Park and Remington, and Constantin E. Rieger, an active-duty captain in the U.S. Army. Services for Rita Wade will be private.

◗ Jerry Bish, a longtime breeder, owner, and trainer based in Iowa, died earlier this month, according to friends of the family. Bish had regularly wintered at Oaklawn Park.

◗ Pat Pope, racing secretary at Oaklawn, is scheduled to visit Santa Anita over opening weekend to talk with horsemen about the meet, which opens in January.