Springboard Mile could cap big week for Quinonez

Jockey Luis Quinonez is positioned to have a memorable closing weekend at Remington Park. He will enter the Oklahoma Horse Racing Hall of Fame on Friday night, and on Sunday has mounts in five of the card’s six stakes, including the $400,000 Springboard Mile.

Quinonez will team with Kingsville in the Springboard Mile. The race drew a full gate of 12, including Greyvitos, winner of the Grade 3 Bob Hope at Del Mar.

Trained by Danny Pish, Kingsville will break from post 11 and will be looking for his second win of the meet. Quinonez was aboard for Kingsville’s win in a maiden special weight at a mile Oct. 18 at Remington and was up for his last start, a runner-up finish in a first-level allowance Nov. 25 at Remington.

“He’s a good little horse,” Quinonez said. “The other day, I had to go back inside, wait for a spot, wait to get through, and couldn’t get to the leader. He came running, but we couldn’t catch the leader. He’s been competitive.”

Quinonez has won 285 stakes in his career, according to Daily Racing Form statistics, including the 2013 edition of the Springboard with Louies Flower. He’s also been second in the race twice, finishing a head back in 2014 with Shotgun Kowboy and a nose back in 2015 with Suddenbreakingnews.

“I couldn’t sleep for a week after that,” Quinonez said of the race with Suddenbreakingnews, who would end up being the rider’s first mount in the Kentucky Derby.

The Springboard Mile was created with the hope of producing starters for the Kentucky Derby, and this will be the first year the Springboard has offered Kentucky Derby eligibility points. Remington boosted the purse by $100,000 to make it the co-richest stakes of the meet alongside the Oklahoma Derby.

The complete Springboard field from the rail with riders is: Combatant, Ricardo Santana Jr.; Major Brown, DeShawn Parker; Brangelina, Danny Sorenson; Bode’s Maker, Floyd Wethey Jr.; Flip the Coin Jan, Mario Gutierrez; Night Strike, Iram Diego; Soul P Say, Jareth Loveberry; Flat Lucky, Ramon Vazquez; Redatory, David Cabrera; Believe in Royalty, Robby Albarado; Kingsville, Quinonez; and Greyvitos, Victor Espinoza.

The race will go as the 11th on a 12-race program that starts at 3 p.m. Central. Remington will offer an all-stakes pick four on races 9-12, and the 50-cent wager will have a minimum guaranteed pool of $100,000.

The $100,000 Trapeze closes out the sequence. The race for 2-year-old fillies will be run at a mile, and Quinonez will team with last-out stakes winner Sydney Freeman.

“It was her first time going long, and she did good,” Quinonez said.