Welder a free space in Will Rogers pick four

Welder is not unbeatable at Will Rogers Downs. In the Highland Ice Stakes in April 2018 he finished fourth. His nine other Will Rogers starts? Nothing but wins.

In fact, Welder generally has built a remarkable record, currently standing at 32-21-4-4, and especially in Oklahoma, the state of his birth. At Remington Park, he has won nine of his last 10 starts.

At Will Rogers, Welder captured the 2017, 2018, and 2019 renewals of the $55,000 Thoroughbred Racing Association of Oklahoma Sprint, and on Tuesday, Welder will be an odds-on favorite to make it four TRAO wins in a row. He’s a 2-5 favorite on the morning line as one of eight entrants in this six-furlong dash restricted to Oklahoma-breds.

The proud owner of this 7-year-old beast is the Oklahoman Clayton Rash, who campaigns his horses as Ra-Max Farms. Rash, who resides in Claremore, site of Will Rogers, established the wherewithal to race horses after founding an international welding company.

Welder has not gone international, and in fact has failed to produce his very best form in several trips to Prairie Meadows in Iowa, but he began his 2019 campaign in the Hot Springs Stakes at Oaklawn, contested a strong pace, and finished a solid third behind the very high-class Whitmore.

Welder is by an obscure stallion, The Visualiser, and is out of an unraced Tiznow mare named Dance Softly. Rash has said on multiple occasions he bought Welder as a yearling for a little more than $6,000, and Welder now stands at the threshold of millionaire status with $973,393 in earnings.

Trained by Teri Luneack and with regular rider David Cabrera named Tuesday, Welder won the 2019 TRAO Stakes at odds of 1-10 and will be a similar price again despite capping his 2019 campaign with his worst performance since the surprise Will Rogers defeat in the Highland Ice two years ago. In that Dec. 14 Remington allowance race, Welder chased the leader and faded to finish fourth at odds of 1-20, but even another subpar showing in that performance range might win Tuesday’s race.

Welder’s main competition – if he faces any – figures to come from Shannon C, whom Welder twice thumped when they met during April 2018 at Will Rogers.

Welder looks virtually impossible to get around in the late pick four, which spans races 7 through 10, with the feature carded as race 9.

Race 10, a low-level conditioned-claiming sprint, looks ripe for some pick four-boosting chaos, while race 8 is a competitive open allowance race carded at one mile. The field includes Vangilder, who makes his 4-year-old debut for trainer Steve Asmussen and last was seen finishing second in the Super Derby on Sept. 7. Miltontown, drawn on the rail, has won consecutive Will Rogers allowance races for trainer Robertino Diodoro and stands a solid chance of extending his winning streak.

Race 7 is an open maiden special weight sprint where R Lukki Song is the pick to win. Trainer Chris Davis, who never has run a horse at Will Rogers, said he was training the first-time starter for a Keeneland debut before the coronavirus pandemic forced that meet’s cancellation. R Lukki Song got as far as being entered in a maiden race last summer at Arlington before suffering a mild injury.

“She was ridiculously quick early on in her works, and she’s very fast,” Davis said.

Ty Kennedy, who worked R Lukki Song last summer at Arlington, has the mount. Hallies Dream returns on two weeks’ rest, a somewhat quick turnaround after a strong race, but should benefit cutting back to 5 1/2 furlongs.