Count Fleet winner Whitmore will be kept in light training; Breeders' Cup Sprint is longterm goal

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - The Breeders’ Cup Sprint remains the endgame for Whitmore, who emerged from his record third Count Fleet Sprint Handicap win in good order and has resumed training at Oaklawn Park.

“He’s happy,” said co-owner and trainer Ron Moquett. “We’re training him lightly. We’re not training him toward anything. Just keeping him happy.”

Moquett said pinning down plans is difficult right now due to the coronavirus pandemic that has disrupted the racing schedule in North America.

However, the horse has two fall objectives. Moquett would like to run Whitmore in the Grade 2 Phoenix at Keeneland and the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at the same track Nov. 7.

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“We’re just going to try to get to this fall and if I can run him somewhere a couple of times before this fall,” Moquett said Friday.

Moquett said ideally, he would prefer those races to come in Kentucky.

Whitmore was third in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Santa Anita, one start after finishing a close second in the Phoenix at Keeneland.

Whitmore on April 18 became the first three-time winner of the Count Fleet Sprint. The success came one start after he won a record fourth Hot Springs Stakes, also at Oaklawn. Overall, the 7-year-old gelding has won 14 of 34 starts and earned $3.1 million.

Whitmore, who is stabled in the Count Fleet barn at Oaklawn, also races for Robert LaPenta and Head of Plains Partners.