Whelen Springs cuts back in loaded allowance race

Whelen Springs is arguably the top Arkansas-bred in training at Oaklawn Park. On Friday, he will launch his local campaign in a conditioned allowance that drew fellow graded stakes winners Silver Prospector and Double Crown.

The 1 1/16-mile feature goes as the ninth race of 10, and the purse is $142,000. The field of 11 includes stakes winners Buck Moon, Hozier, Full Screen, and Frosted Departure. Commandperformance will bring the best last-race Beyer Speed Figure to the table, a 95 earned for a two-other-than allowance win at Churchill Downs.

“I think you could pick half the field on top,” said Lindsay Schultz, who trains Whelen Springs.

Schultz has won four stakes in 2023, her second year as a head trainer. Whelen Springs won the Grade 3 Philip Iselin in August at Monmouth Park in a performance that makes him the very early favorite for the $200,000 Arkansas Breeders’ Championship on the closing-day card May 4.

The Breeders’ Championship is around two turns, Whelen Springs has successfully transitioned to route racing after winning back-to-back sprint stakes at 3 at Oaklawn.

“We tried going a flat mile first at Monmouth and it worked out, so we tried to keep him around two turns,” Schultz said. “I like the mile and a sixteenth a little better than the mile and an eighth he ran last time.”

Whelen Springs was seventh at nine furlongs in the Grade 2 Lukas Classic on Sept. 30 at Churchill Downs. The effort came one start after he put up a Beyer of 100 winning over 1 1/16 miles in the Iselin.

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“We backed off him a little bit since the race at Churchill, which was a pretty tough race,” Schultz said. “He’s turned in good works since then.”

Francisco Arrieta has the mount from post 7 on Whelen Springs, who races for breeder Shortleaf Stable. Whelen Springs is a son of Street Sense and the mare Holy Nova, a Grade 3 winner of 16 races who earned nearly $500,000.

Schultz has seen her stable double in size since winning her first career race in January 2022 at Oaklawn.

“We’ve grown a little, had some really good opportunities this summer,” she said. “We have 25 at Oaklawn. I think I had 14 last year, so it’s really exciting. We have some Arkansas-breds, some 2-year-olds, some older horses, some horses coming back from off layoffs. We’ve got a good mix.

“Whelen Springs, he’s at the top of the list.”

Double Crown experienced his graded success in the Grade 2 Kelso at Aqueduct in 2022. Silver Prospector won the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes at Churchill in 2019 and the Grade 3 Southwest Stakes here the following year.

Commandperformance could go favored. He is shortening up some in distance after closing for a head win in the 1 1/8-mile allowance at Churchill. Before that, Commandperformance was second by a neck at the same level, over 1 1/16 miles at Keeneland. Cristian Torres, the leading rider last season at Oaklawn, has the mount from the rail for trainer Joe Sharp. Commandperformance was Grade 1-placed at 2. He is now 4.

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