Pistolpackinpenny shortens up for Downthedustyroad Stakes

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Penny Fires does not pack heat, but the horse her husband, Jinks Fires, named for her might suggest otherwise. Pistolpackinpenny runs at Oaklawn on Friday, the same day that the couple will celebrate their 38th wedding anniversary. Pistolpackinpenny is one of the favorites in the $75,000 Downthedustyroad, which had to be rescheduled due to extreme winter weather last weekend.

“It might be ‘down the frozen road,’ ” Jinks Fires joked, with temperatures forecast to drop into the teens overnight Thursday.

The Downthedustyroad is a six-furlong sprint for Arkansas-bred fillies and mares ages 3 and up. It goes with a field of 14, including Jan’s Perfect Star, a stakes winner who is 3 for 4 at Oaklawn, and Little Miss Flurry, the winner of the Lady Razorback Futurity at Louisiana Downs in 2013.

KEY CONTENDERS

Pistolpackinpenny (Last 3 Beyers: 70-76-65)

◗ She was named for an incident about five years ago when Penny Fires, who owns the mare, was temporarily detained at a local airport for allegedly having a weapon in her suitcase. The “weapon” was a horse bit that looks like a pistol, which Jinks Fires packed for Penny to give to a boy who had asked for the item. Penny did not know what her husband had packed; she only knew to give the bag to the boy she was going to see upon her arrival in Kentucky.

“Normally, she checks her bags, [but] she didn’t check her bags,” Jinks Fires said. “I was running Prom Shoes, they were on the way to the gate, and I get a call from the Little Rock Police Department. I thought it was [trainer] Lynn Whiting or one of the other guys trying to play a joke on me. The voice said, ‘I have your wife detained at the airport.’ I kept trying to recognize the voice, and finally the man said, ‘I’ll have you know this is no laughing matter. Your wife had a weapon in her suitcase.’ ”

Fires knew immediately that it was the bit. He said Penny was questioned, had her picture taken, and was eventually allowed to board her flight, but without the bit. A friend suggested that Jinks Fires name a horse after the ordeal, and the moniker was submitted by Anderson Farms, the breeders of Pistolpackinpenny.

◗ Pistolpackinpenny will be turning back from a runner-up finish in a one-mile allowance for fillies and mares Feb. 19 at Oaklawn.

“I really feel like she’s a come-from-behind sprinter,” Jinks Fires said, noting that she ran around two turns last time because he could not get a sprint to fill for Pistolpackinpenny.

◗ Jon Court has the mount from post 12.

Jan’s Perfect Star (Last 3 Beyers: NA-76-76)

◗ A stakes winner, she might get an ideal tracking trip off the rail-drawn Miss Beautiful.