Whitmore still eyeing Hot Springs for 2021 debut

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Champion sprinter Whitmore is still scheduled to launch his season in the $200,000 Hot Springs Stakes on March 13 at Oaklawn, but the start is not set in stone after a winter storm system led to 11 days of lost training over the local track.

Whitmore has won the Hot Springs each of the last four years. He last raced in November, winning the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.

“We definitely want to be going for five in a row in the Hot Springs, but obviously we’ll do what’s best for him,” trainer Ron Moquett said Monday. “We were sucker-punched with the weather.”

Moquett said no immediate decisions would be made on the Hot Springs. He wants to get Whitmore back into his normal training routine and make assessments on fitness. Oaklawn was able to open for training Tuesday for the first time since Feb. 11.

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“Obviously, we were impacted, we just don’t know to what level,” Moquett said. “We’re just going to let him tell us, as usual.”

Whitmore races for Moquett, Robert LaPenta, and Head of Plains Partners. Whitmore in January won the Eclipse Award as outstanding male sprinter of 2020. He is a winner of 15 of 38 starts and has earned $4.2 million.