Count Fleet Sprint Handicap coming up with strong, deep field

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby is the main event Saturday at Oaklawn Park, but the Racing Festival of the South stakes that was generating the most excitement Monday was the Grade 3, $500,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap.

The list of probables included champion Whitmore, C Z Rocket, Grade 1 winner No Parole, and Empire of Gold. Entries for the Count Fleet, one of four stakes here Saturday, were to be drawn Tuesday.

“It kind of looks like a mini Breeders’ Cup, actually, with three of the top four finishers from the Breeders’ Cup Sprint,” trainer Terry Eoff said.

Eoff is targeting the Count Fleet with Empire of Gold. The horse last raced in November, finishing fourth as a 3-year-old behind Whitmore and C Z Rocket in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Keeneland. Prior to that race, Empire of Gold was second in the Grade 2 Phoenix, also at Keeneland. He’s been prepping for the Count Fleet at Sam Houston and worked a half-mile in 52 seconds on Friday.

“We let him gallop out five-eighths and he was just full of himself – strong, really strong,” Eoff said. “He’s telling us he’s ready.

:: Bet horse racing on DRF Bets. Double Your First Deposit Up to $250. Join Now.

“It’s going to be a tough race. It’s going to be one of the toughest races of the year. I feel like we need to be in a race like this to get on the path to the Breeders’ Cup – to see where he’s at, see if he runs like last year.”

Eoff said David Cabrera has the mount on Empire of Gold. He said the horse was to arrive Tuesday at Oaklawn.

No Parole, winner of last year’s Grade 1 Woody Stephens at Belmont Park, has shipped to Oaklawn and is on deck for the Count Fleet, trainer Tom Amoss said Monday.

“Our decision to run there is primarily because he’s had success at Oaklawn in the past,” Amoss said, “but we realize what we’re walking into here, walking into the top two finishers from the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. But that’s our plan.”

Amoss said Ramon Vazquez has the mount on No Parole, who last year won an allowance at Oaklawn at the same six-furlong distance of the Count Fleet.

Whitmore, who is based at Oaklawn, worked Saturday. He went a half-mile in company in 48 seconds, situated along the rail under Greta Kuntzweiler. He went shortly after the track opened for training and galloped out strongly. The horse is three-time winner of the Count Fleet.

“He worked great,” trainer Ron Moquett said Saturday. “Today was just his annual pre-Count Fleet work.”

Moquett said Ricardo Santana Jr. has the mount Saturday.

Whitmore started his season last month at Oaklawn and finished second to C Z Rocket in the Hot Springs Stakes. He was beaten a neck and gets a rematch with C Z Rocket, who also worked Saturday, going a half-mile in 49 seconds for trainer Peter Miller at the San Luis Rey Downs training center in Southern California.

A plane bringing horses to Oaklawn from California was due to arrive Wednesday, said Pat Pope, racing secretary at Oaklawn.

Pope on Monday was looking for a field of seven to eight horses for the Count Fleet.

“That’s going to come up a heck of a race,” he said.

Whitmore has been made the 123-pound highweight for the fact that he won the Breeders’ Cup Sprint and subsequently the Eclipse Award as champion sprinter, Pope said. C Z Rocket is next on the list at 122 pounds. No Parole is weighted at 118, and Empire of Gold, 117.