Multiple graded stakes-winning sprinter Skelly retired

Skelly, who has been one of the most prolific sprinters to compete at Oaklawn Park, has been retired, it was announced by a representative of the owners on social media. Skelly finished a troubled fifth in Saturday’s $150,000 Ring the Bell Stakes.

Skelly is a 6-year-old gelding by Practical Joke who retires with a record of 12 wins from 25 starts for earnings of $2,018,963.

“He just such a cool horse, he really is,” trainer Steve Asmussen said. “I think what’s very rewarding about Skelly is the fact that he wasn’t easy [to develop], and we didn’t know if we’d get there, and then he goes on to make a couple million dollars and goes on to run some of the fastest races I’ve ever had one run.”

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Skelly earned a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 110 in May at Oaklawn for a win in the Lake Hamilton Stakes. Overall, he won seven stakes and registered six of them at Oaklawn. Skelly twice won the track’s richest offering for his division, the Grade 3, $500,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap. He had won 10 consecutive Oaklawn races leading up to the Ring the Bell.

Asmussen said Skelly is returning to the farm from which he originally came to his stable and that he believes plans are to make a riding horse out of Skelly.

Other highlights of Skelly’s career include a runner-up finish in the 2024 edition of the $1.5 million Riyadh Dirt Sprint on Saudi Cup Day.

He was bred by H. Allen Poindexter and raced for Red Lane Thoroughbreds.

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