Rags-to-riches Wings Locked Up retired

Wings Locked Up, a $25,000 claim who went on to win five stakes for Sad Sac Racing, has been retired, trainer Clinton Stuart said Monday.

The 7-year-old gelding by Munnings won 19 races from 58 starts and earned $645,132. His most recent stakes win came in January in the $75,000 Frontier Utilities Turf Sprint at Sam Houston Race Park. Wings Locked Up also won stakes at Canterbury Park and Prairie Meadows and set a track record at Remington Park.

“He liked to do what he did,” Stuart said.

“He’s got such a personality – just a really nice horse to be around. And he’s a peppermint-holic.”

Wings Locked Up last raced Aug. 24 and was sixth in the Mystic Lake Turf Sprint at Canterbury.

“He bled the other day,” Stuart said.

Stuart said Wings Locked Up required time off, and the partnership decided to retire him because he’d be getting up in age by the time he was ready to return to the races again.

“We didn’t want to see him go through the claiming ranks,” said Stuart, who trains the horse for his wife, Georgie, as well as Sam Guarino, Dave Ramold, and Stewart Levine.

Stuart said Wings Locked Up will in time embark on a new career. The horse, who stands 17-2 hands tall, is scheduled to be trained in a new discipline and will likely be working with a noted equestrian in Nebraska.

“She makes hunter-jumpers and they compete in the Retired Racehorse Project event in Lexington, Kentucky,” he said. “I think he’ll be a heck of a jumping horse.”