Craddock runners top Oklahoma Stallion Stakes divisions
Number One Dude established himself as one of the top 2-year-olds of the Remington Park meet last year when he went 3 for 4.
He’ll make his first start of the current meet in the $50,000 Oklahoma Stallion Stakes on Friday night.
The race shares a card with a $50,000 division for fillies. The stakes are for 3-year-olds at seven-eighths of a mile and are restricted to the offspring of eligible stallions.
Number One Dude won the first three races of his career by a combined margin of 14 1/2 lengths last season at Remington. The starts all came against Oklahoma-breds, in a maiden special weight sprint, the $100,000 Oklahoma Classics Juvenile Sprint, and the $75,000 Don McNeill at a mile in his two-turn debut Nov. 13.
The success earned Number One Dude a shot at the meet’s biggest prize for 2-year-olds, the Springboard Mile. He finished eighth, and was put away for the season.
This year, Number One Dude returned to the Oklahoma-bred ranks on May 25 and was a 5 1/4-length winner of the Will Rogers at Will Rogers Downs. He enters the Oklahoma Stallion Stakes off a runner-up finish in the Iowa Stallion Stakes on July 17 at Prairie Meadows.
Leandro Goncalves, the regular rider of Number One Dude this year, has the mount from post 4. Kari Craddock trains the son of American Lion for his breeder, Terry Westemeir.
The chief threat in the seven-horse field may be You’reobadboy, who was second to Number One Dude in the Will Rogers. You’reobadboy is moving back to the 3-year-old ranks after running fifth in a local allowance sprint against older rivals Aug. 21. The winner of that race, Pomeroy Haze, was to start as a top contender earlier on the card Friday.
For the fillies division, Craddock has the probable favorite in Gotta See Red. She won the $100,000 Oklahoma Classics Lassie last fall at Remington, one start after running third against open stakes rivals in the track’s E.L. Gaylord Memorial. Gotta See Red racked up another stakes win in May, taking the $55,000 Cinema at Will Rogers. The score came off an 8 3/4-length win in a first-level allowance in which she faced older Oklahoma-breds.
Goncalves has the mount from post 5 in the field of 10.
Gotta See Red, by Pollard’s Vision, races for her breeders, Hal Browning and David Faulkner.
Courtly, who was placed first in last year’s $75,000 Slide Show at Remington, is back racing with 3-year-olds after running third by a head against older Oklahoma-breds in a first-level allowance Aug. 20 at Remington.
Danny Whited dead at 77
Danny Whited, a retired jockey turned trainer who was a resident of Hot Springs, Ark., died Saturday, according to friends. He was 77.
Whited began his riding career at 16 at Sunland Park and retired after 26 years in the saddle, according to an obituary from Carrigan Memorial Funeral Services. During a training career that spanned three decades, his top runners included the multiple stakes-winning mare Zarb’s Ballerina.