Whistle Stop Cafe opts for All American Oaks trials
Whistle Stop Cafe, the 2020 All American Futurity winner and Quarter Horse World Champion that year, and Empressum, the nation’s leading 3-year-old this season, will not meet at Ruidoso Downs this summer.
Sunday, they start in time trials for different 440-yard stakes on Sept. 5.
Whistle Stop Cafe, unbeaten in eight career starts, will be an overwhelming favorite in the second race, the second of four trials for the $439,884 All American Oaks for 3-year-old fillies.
Empressum starts in the eighth race, the fourth of eight trials for the $929,225 All American Derby.
The runners with the 10 fastest times, regardless of finishing position, advance to finals of each race.
The All American Oaks will be the third start of the year for Whistle Stop Cafe. Trained by Trey Wood for Lainie and Raymond Whitmire of Sallisaw, Okla., Whistle Stop Cafe won a trial and the final of the Rainbow Oaks in July.
Whistle Stop Cafe was vanned from the winner’s circle to the barn area after the Rainbow Oaks. Wood said after the race that the filly was tired and suffered no injury and that she was vanned at the insistence of track stewards.
Last year, Whistle Stop Cafe won the Rainbow and All American futurities. Aside from being named World Champion, she was recognized as outstanding 2-year-old filly and overall 2-year-old.
The most competitive trial for the Oaks is the third race. The field is led by Valiant Stars and Miss Famous Eagle, who were second and third in the Rainbow Oaks, and Caliente Caramelo, who was fourth in the 2020 All American Futurity and a troubled seventh in the Rainbow Oaks.
Empressum, trained by Heath Taylor for Steve Holt of Guthrie, Okla., and Jeff Jones of Pembroke, N.C., is unbeaten in six starts this year – trials and finals for the Remington Park Oklahoma-Bred Derby in April, the Ruidoso Derby on June 12, and the Rainbow Derby on July 24.
In Sunday’s trial, Empressum’s leading rival is Cyber Monday, who won the Ruidoso Futurity in June 2020.
The other seven trials have entrants that have won or placed in major derbies or futurities since the spring of 2020.
Instygator, second in the 2020 All American Futurity, starts in the fifth race, while Apollitical Gold, third in the All American Futurity, runs in the sixth. Apollitical Gold won the Golden State Million Futurity at Los Alamitos last November.
A Dangerous Flash, third in the Rainbow Derby, runs in the ninth race. Flash Bak and Candy Blood, the first two finishers of the Los Alamitos Winter Derby in February, lead the 10th race.