Whitmore wins Hot Springs Stakes for fourth consecutive year

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Whitmore won the Hot Springs Stakes for a record fourth consecutive time on Saturday, beating Mr. Jagermeister by 2 ½ lengths in the $150,000 race. It was another two lengths back in third to Wendell Fong.

Whitmore covered six furlongs in 1:08.54, his best time for the race, which he first won in 2017.

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Whitmore ($3.60) let the speed go Saturday and stalked along the rail as Mr. Jagermeister set fractions of 22.25 for the opening quarter and 45.22 for the half-mile. Jockey Joe Talamo angled Whitmore off the fence into the stretch and the pair moved past the leader at the sixteenth pole.

“It was a very good ride,” winning trainer Ron Moquett said in a post-race interview broadcast by Oaklawn. “Joe is smart. He’s still young and athletic, but quite seasoned. He knew what he had underneath him.”

The win was the first of two stakes victories Talamo would have on the card, as he returned one race later to capture the Grade 3, $300,000 Honeybee with Shedaresthedevil.

Whitmore, going into Saturday, had shared a record for Hot Springs Stakes wins with E J Harley, who won three consecutive runnings between 1998-2000.

Whitmore, who is 7, was winning his ninth stakes race overall, and the first-place check of $90,000 on Saturday pushed his career earnings to $2,936,350.

“It’s so good to see him doing what he loves to do,” said Moquett.

The final sprint stakes of the meet for Whitmore's division is the Grade 3, $500,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap on April 11. Whitmore won the race in 2017 and 2018 and finished second in it last year to Mitole, who went on to win the Eclipse Award as champion sprinter of 2019.