Post 12 no problem for Cool Arrow in Springboard Mile
Cool Arrow won his second stakes race in his last three starts on Sunday, when he overcame post 12 for a 3 1/2-length score over Totality in the $300,000 Springboard Mile at Remington Park. It was another head back in third to U S Officer.
The Springboard Mile, which was for 2-year-olds, anchored a closing-night card of five stakes. The races were worth a cumulative $600,000.
Cool Arrow became a stakes winner in September, when he captured the $75,000 Kip Deville at Remington. He proceeded to run second in the inaugural Spendthrift Farm Stallion Stakes at Churchill Downs before returning to Oklahoma City and making his two-turn debut in the Springboard Mile.
Cool Arrow ($5.20) called on his natural speed Sunday, and cleared the field into the first turn. He set fractions of 24.68 seconds for the opening quarter-mile, 49.79 for the half-mile, and 1:14.54 for six furlongs before going on to cover the distance on a track rated fast in 1:38.72.
“He got the lead comfortably,” said winning rider Luis Saez. “When we came into the stretch, he went on.”
Saez was aboard for Brad Grady and trainer Joe Sharp.
“Luis did a great job getting position early, making the best of a bad post,” said Sharp.
Cool Arrow has now won 3 of 6 starts. He picked up a first-place check of $180,000 on Sunday to improve his bankroll to $282,835. Cool Arrow is a son of Into Mischief. He shipped into Remington from Sharp’s division at Fair Grounds.
The Springboard Mile, which last year was worth $250,000, had its purse boosted for 2016. Discreetness won last year’s running over Suddenbreakingnews, and those horses came back to capture the Smarty Jones Stakes (Discreetness) and Southwest Stakes (Suddenbreakingnews), this year at Oaklawn.
* Hyper Drive ($10.20) rallied through the stretch for a four-length win in the final race of the meet, the $50,000 Jim Thorpe for 3-year-olds bred in Oklahoma. He covered the mile in 1:38.65. Lindey Wade was aboard the son of Don’t Get Mad for Henry Thilmony and trainer Randy Oberlander.
* An all-stakes pick four linking races 9-12 returned a season-high $14,941. The winning numbers for the 50-cent bet were 10-1-12-3. There was a minimum guaranteed pool of $30,000, and the final pool was $99,614.