Multiple stakes winner Awakino Cat retired at 11

The 11-year-old gelding Awakino Cat, who won stakes at Saratoga and Suffolk Downs, was retired Thursday night after he finished sixth in the seventh race at Penn National, a $4,000 claiming race, in the 72nd start of his career.

Before the race, David Neilson, the owner and trainer of Awakino Cat, agreed to give the horse to Samantha Randazzo, an assistant to trainer Linda Rice, who had the horse for the first six years of his racing career. Randazzo said Awakino Cat was her favorite horse.

“He was a little difficult to train, but he was a joy to be around,” Randazzo said.

Randazzo said Awakino Cat had a history of tying up, which made for some anxious moments.

“He was a horrible tie-up horse,” Randazzo said. “But he loved to be babied and coddled.”

Randazzo said the plan is to transfer Awakino Cat, a Kentucky-bred son of Stormy Atlantic, into a stable pony. If he doesn’t take to that, Randazzo said she would send the horse to New Vocations.

Awakino Cat won 17 races and earned $643,956. He won races at Belmont Park, Saratoga, Suffolk Downs, Parx, Penn National, and the Meadowlands.

He was particularly fond of the Saratoga turf course, winning 5 of 13 starts at the Spa. He won the Troy Stakes in 2009 and 2010 and the Frank Sullivan at Saratoga in 2010.