Whitmore takes third consecutive Hot Springs Stakes triumph

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - He’s back!

Whitmore put in his patented stretch run Saturday at Oaklawn Park, where he won the $150,000 Hot Springs Stakes for the third year in a row. He rallied for a 1 1/2-length win over Share the Upside, while it was another half-length back to Welder in third.

Whitmore was making his first start since a runner-up finish in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Nov. 3 at Churchill Downs. He was part of a Hot Springs field that was scratched down to five with the defection of stablemate Petrov.

Whitmore ($3.20) broke last from the rail and moved up along the fence to sit in a stalking position behind Share the Upside and Welder, who raced together through fractions of 22.22 seconds for the opening quarter and 45.08 for the half-mile. The leaders carried on into the stretch, as Whitmore angled off the rail on the second turn and worked his way past Welder and Share the Upside just inside the furlong grounds. Whitmore went on to cover six furlongs on a track upgraded to good in 1:09.39.

“Amazing horse,” regular rider Ricardo Santana Jr. said.

“I stayed behind the speed. That’s where I wanted to be. In the stretch, he looked for the clear and he took me to the wire.”

It was the seventh Oaklawn win for Whitmore, who also has won the past two runnings of the Grade 3 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap. The race is Oaklawn’s premier offering for sprinters. This year the race's purse has been boosted from $400,000 to $500,000 for its running here April 13.

“We want to win the Count Fleet,” co-owner and trainer Ron Moquett said of next-race plans for Whitmore.

Whitmore is now 7 for 10 at Oaklawn. The horse overall has won 12 of 25 starts, earned $2,471,000, and reached a pinnacle last year when he won his first Grade 1 race in the Forego at Saratoga. He is a 6-year-old son of Pleasantly Perfect and races for Moquett and Robert LaPenta and Head of Plains Partners.