Whitmore quietly slips into closing-day sprint

Fearing that perhaps the race wouldn’t fill if it was known Whitmore was going in it, Ron Moquett wasn’t telling many people he intended to run the star sprinter in a wide-open allowance that landed as race 8 on the closing-day card at Keeneland.

No worries, since the $80,000 race at 6 1/2 furlongs drew an oversubscribed field of 13. But even with his outstanding recency and overall record of 14 wins and 10 seconds from 34 starts, Whitmore is no cinch.

“It’s a Grade 2 allowance,” said Moquett, referring to the presence of Mr. Money, a multiple graded winner, and such capable opponents as C Z Rocket, Copper Town, and The Tabulator.

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Whitmore, a stretch-running 7-year-old gelding, got about three weeks’ rest “when everything was shutting down” at the outset of the coronavirus crisis, said Moquett.

“There were a couple of things we could’ve maybe run in, but I wasn’t going to put him in a van chasing anything we could,” he said. “I’m glad this race went because it’ll set us up for a solid campaign” ending with the Phoenix and Breeders’ Cup Sprint, both back at Keeneland.

Moquett, who more than two years ago was beset with the autoimmune disease sarcoidosis, joked that he “started a trend” by regularly wearing a mask long before everyone else was doing so. Mask-wearing became mandatory Friday in Kentucky.

“Everybody should thank me I didn’t start wearing a kilt,” he said with a laugh.

◗ Kurt Becker, the Keeneland race-caller since the track first began using a public-address system in 1997, has been more talkative at this meet than in prior seasons.

Becker has introduced every horse and their owner, trainer, and jockey during the post parade of all races. Previously, only stakes races got such treatment.

Becker said the procedure will be reviewed prior to the next time fans are permitted to attend.