Top Southwest finishers aiming for Rebel

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. -- Suddenbreakingnews remains a candidate for the Grade 2, $900,000 Rebel next month at Oaklawn Park after emerging from his win in the track’s Southwest Stakes in good order, trainer Donnie Von Hemel said on Tuesday.

Suddenbreakingnews was a 2 3/4-length winner of the Grade 3, $500,000 Southwest on Monday, and for the effort earned a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 93. He was bright and alert Tuesday morning, and is scheduled to return to the track on Thursday, said Von Hemel. The Rebel, at the same mile and a sixteenth distance of the Southwest, is March 19.

“We’ll target the Rebel,” Von Hemel said Tuesday. “That’s the most likely race.”

Suddenbreakingnews broke from the 13-hole in the Southwest and after trailing for much of the race put in a sweeping move through the stretch. He rolled down the middle of the track to cover the mile and a sixteenth on a surface rated “good” in 1:45.14.

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“I think that was the deepest field he’s ever run against -- certainly the largest field he’s ever run against -- and I think he showed a lot of quality,” Von Hemel said. “His last quarter had to be his best quarter.”

Luis Quinonez, the regular rider on Suddenbreakingnews, unleashed his mount once clear on the outside Monday.

“I just let him run,” Quinonez said. “He’s a long-striding horse. I said, ‘Just let the stride go and do it.’ And he did. He was covering a lot of ground.”

Suddenbreakingnews was making his first start at 3 in the Southwest, and picked up 10 eligibility points for the Kentucky Derby. He had last raced on Dec. 13, finishing second by a nose in the $250,000 Springboard Mile at Remington Park. Discreetness won that race and proceeded to capture the $150,000 Smarty Jones in January, but Suddenbreakingnews passed on that first 3-year-old prep at Oaklawn.

“He’d run enough last fall that I thought the two months off was a good way to go,” Von Hemel said. “There’s always that question in your mind, ‘Are we going to need a race?’ But he helped me out there.”

Suddenbreakingnews, who races for Samuel F. Henderson of west Texas, won the first stakes race of his career in November in the $100,000 Clever Trevor. The seven-furlong race was run at Remington.

The Southwest runner-up, Whitmore, is a candidate to run back in the Rebel, co-owner and trainer Ron Moquett said Tuesday. A final decision will come based on the how the horse trains up to the race and following talks with partners Harry Rosenblum and Bob LaPenta.

“It’s a logical first choice for us,” Moquett said. “We’re here.”

Moquett said Whitmore is a horse who also needs racing experience. He was making just the fourth start of his career in the Southwest.

“We need seasoning more than anything,” the trainer said. “We need to try to get more experience. I would have been more comfortable [Monday] if he was making his sixth start versus his fourth.”

Whitmore broke poorly in the Southwest and encountered his share of trouble. Moquett is hoping for an improved trip next time for the son of Pleasantly Perfect.

Discreetness, who finished seventh in the Southwest, is a candidate to run back in the Rebel, according to his trainer, Jinks Fires. The horse broke from post 14 on Monday, one race after winning the Smarty Jones.

“He came back good,” Fires said Tuesday. “Unfortunately, we drew a bad post position, got hung wide all the way around, and carried five to seven pounds more than every horse in there but [Collected]. But, no sour grapes. The horse came back great, so we live to fight another day.”

Oaklawn on Monday handled a meet-high $5.1 million on its 10-race card from all sources. The estimated attendance ontrack was 22,500.