Midnight Ruler, Pinson in their element

The experience Midnight Ruler and Pinson have on smaller ovals such as the five-furlong track at Fonner Park played into the decision to send them to Fonner for Nebraska’s richest race, the $75,000 Bosselman Pump & Pantry/Gus Fonner Stakes on Saturday.

The Bosselman is a 1 1/16-mile race run around three turns. It drew seven older horses, including Pinson, who has been racing at Oaklawn, along with World Famous Sam T, and Academy Bay, the one-three finishers in the $25,000 Dowd Mile on April 21 at Fonner, and Pain and Misery, a stakes winner from New Mexico.

Midnight Ruler was shipping Thursday from Tulsa, Okla. It’s a 6 1/2-hour drive, and the reasonable haul along with the experience on smaller tracks in Louisiana and Oklahoma made the race appealing, trainer Tim Dixon said.

“He’s run good on the bullring, like on Delta and Fair Meadows, and we thought he’d work in this race,” Dixon said. “He ran a real good race in the stakes at Delta on March 10 – beat some nice horses.”

Midnight Ruler won the $80,000 Owners’ Appreciation Cup on the six-furlong track at Delta. Last year, he won by 10 lengths at three turns in a $17,500 overnight handicap run on the five-furlong track at Fair Meadows in Tulsa.

Curtis Kimes, who was aboard, will have the mount again Saturday from post 3. .

Midnight Ruler will be looking to rebound from a ninth-place finish in the $100,000 Arkansas Breeders’ on April 7 at Oaklawn. Midnight Ruler, who has proven to be at his best on the front end, encountered trouble soon after the start.

“We kind of got bumped around, pinched around, at the start in the slop and the horse got tired of taking that mud,” Dixon said. “He really didn’t run his race.”

Midnight Ruler was an orphan who races for Sunny and Paul Carson of Hot Springs, Ark.

Pinson last raced at Oaklawn, finishing fourth in an optional $65,000 claiming allowance after leading to the late stages. Earlier in his career, he ran well at Delta.

“He’s run on a so-called bullring at Delta and ran third in the Delta Mile, so I don’t think the turns should bother him,” trainer Randy Morse said.

Morse said there was another reason to target the Bosselman with Pinson.

“Richard Bahde, who owns him, lives in Omaha, so being from Nebraska, he’d like to run,” Morse said.