Ten Strike Racing partners psyched to be running Warrior's Charge in Oaklawn Handicap

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Warrior’s Charge will start for a home team of sorts next Saturday in the Grade 2, $600,000 Oaklawn Handicap.

Ten Strike Racing is the majority owner of Warrior’s Charge. The syndicate’s co-founders, Marshall Gramm and Clay Sanders, are based in nearby Memphis, Tenn.

Warrior’s Charge will start as a top contender off his win in the Grade 3, $500,000 Razorback Handicap here Feb. 17. He set the pace and dug down deep for a head win in what was his second stakes appearance behind a close fourth-place finish in last year’s Preakness.

“There are 32 partners in the horse with varying degrees of [ownership],” Sanders said. “I’d say probably half of them live in Arkansas and half live out of the state. We had 75 people at the Preakness, with their friends, wives, and kids. We had a cheering section at the Preakness.”

At the Razorback, the winner’s enclosure was packed.

“I’d never won a stakes race at Oaklawn, which I consider my home track,” Sanders said. “It was something very special.”

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Madaket Stables also is a partner in Warrior’s Charge.

Ten Strike stems from the initial racing involvement of Sanders, who works in finance, and Gramm, who is a college professor. Both are in their mid-40s.

“When we started out, Marshall and I had been partners for eight to 10 years and had friends that said, ‘Hey, we’d like to own a horse with you guys,’ ” said Sanders.

The circle of interested parties grew, and the operation became a larger scale racing partnership. Ten Strike is named for the first winner of the Tennessee Derby, which was run in the late 19th and early 20th centuries at a track in Memphis.

“It was always about getting more people interested in, and involved in, racing,” said Sanders.

Sanders grew up in Mountain Home, Ark., and his family took trips to Oaklawn.

“Just seeing everybody and the sights and sounds, I was mesmerized,” he said.

Through the years, Sanders has been partners in some top-class runners, including champion Dayatthespa.

Warrior’s Charge on Saturday gives him a chance to win a “bucket-list” race. The Oaklawn Handicap, along with the Kentucky Derby and Arkansas Derby, are the three races he said he’d most like to win.

Sanders said it will be very meaningful Saturday to have a horse in a race that “you always look forward to.”

“It would be special to win,” he said.

Florent Geroux has the mount for trainer Brad Cox.