I won $35.00 and am up $18.00 after seven trips. For a $6-total bet, I hit a $2-exacta on the Southwest Stakes that paid $48.60.
My story from tonight, written under deadline in an hour and a half, pleased me.
BY PETE PERKINS
HOT SPRINGS — It seemed as if there were two winners.
Suddenbreakingnews and Whitmore both came from far back in the 1 1/16-mile $600,000, Grade III Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park on Monday. But Suddenbreaking News, the eventual winner, behaved as if his preference were to pass every other entrant in the field of 14.
On the other hand, Whitmore’s jockey Mike Smith had his hands full of a horse so eager to cut and run that his only choice was to hold on as tightly as possible.
Before a crowd estimated by Oaklawn management of 22,500, Smith had to use most of his strength to prevent Whitmore from bolting just past the half-mile pole when he was 11th, nine lengths behind longshot leader Siding Spring.
But next, just like that, Smith’s ride appeared geared to win. He took to the middle of the track and reeled in the field around the final turn, was third at the top the stretch and took command with an eighth of a mile to go.
“We was very rank, very rank, I mean extremely rank,” Smith said. “Five jumps out of the gate he jumped on the bridle way too hard. I mean it was b---- to the wall, that rank. I had to really, really hold him. Once I finally got him to settle, man that was a lot of pulling on a horse. I was surprised he ended up running as well as he did.”
Unknown to Smith, Suddenbreakingnews coasted along under rider Luis Quionez and was last of all through the half, far back of frontrunners Siding Spring and American Dubai as they opened through a quarter mile of 23.10 seconds and a half in 47.06.
Quinonez said he was pleased by the relaxed state of his gelding and decided to take the long way home. “My horse was running nice,” he said. “I didn’t have nobody around me. This guy is just long-strided. With this crowd, I just knew it was going to be hard to go through horses that weren’t going anywhere, so I took him outside.”
He took Suddenbreakingnews who, coupled with Synchrony started at 4-1, wide on trip that took him past seven horses in the last turn. The winner was fifth at the head of the stretch and Quinonez said his confidence soared.
“I knew we would win at the top of the lane,” Quinonez said.
Suddenbreakingnews trainer Donnie K. Von Hemel laughed when told of Quinonez’s early faith. “I felt good at the eighth pole,” Von Hemel said. “I might not have been as confident as Luis was, but you could see he had some momentum going. He’s a big, long-striding horse, and once he got that going, it looked like he was going to have a big chance.”
Suddenbreakingnews passed Whitmore with 100 yards left and pulled away to win by 2 3/4 lengths. He had followed Whitmore as they passed American Dubai and the 5-2 favorite Collected near the 1/8th pole.
“When I finally got him out and I was able to drop his head, instead of just folding like most horses would do, he took off,” Smith said. “I thought, ‘Wow, I still got a shot to win this.’ Then I thought, “I’m gonna win this. I’ll just win easy. He’s already tired. I’m not going to beat him up too much. I got this.’ And then I heard the footsteps on the outside and it was like, ‘Ah, man.’ But I’m just beside myself that he continued to run as well as he did.”
American Dubai finished third at 21-1, 1/2 length behind Whitmore, gambler’s second choice at 7-2. Collected, trained by Bob Baffert, was fourth.
Suddenbreakingnews, a son of Mineshaft, paid $10.20, $4.40, and $3.20.
Last year Baffert-trainee American Pharoah won Oaklawn’s Grade II Rebel Stakes and Grade I Arkansas Derby as his final preps for the Triple Crown, which he became the first horse to win since Affirmed in 1978.
Baffert’s assistant Jimmy Barnes sounded disappointed by Collected’s result. “A lot of horses in the race and you get shoved around,” he said. “You’re in the gate forever. But the bottom line is you’ve got to get out there and run, and he didn’t.”
Fields of 12 or more at Oaklawn require couplings for betting purposes. Suddenbreakingnews and Synchrony were coupled because of their common trainer in Von Hemel. American Dubai was coupled with Torrontes, who finished last, because Oaklawn authorities estimated they had the most likely chance to start with similar odds.
Von Hemel said Oaklawn’s Grade II Rebel Stakes, scheduled for March 19, would be Suddenbreakingnews’ next target.
“I think this horse pedigree-wise can go a mile and a quarter, a mile and a half, however far he wants to run,” Von Hemel said.
Considering the trouble overcome by Whitmore, his connections seemed delighted.
“Mike knows there’s tons of room for improvement,” trainer Ron Moquett said. “We know we didn’t get all of our best today.”
“It was a great effort,” owner Harry Rosenblum said. “He’s still inexperienced. He had a little trouble in the race, and if he didn’t have it, he might’ve had a different outcome. We’re pleased by the effort and pleased we have a horse to run in this kind of a race.”
Smith said he thinks there may be better things to come for Whitmore.
“Man he really wanted to take it to them,” Smith said. “If we had started well, I would like to see what would’ve happened, though he still ran very well. I think there’s a lot of room to improve, so he’s going to get better. You’d hate to see he had a picture-perfect race and was all-out and just got run down. Then you’d think, ‘Well, it probably is what it is,’ but it’s clear he has room to grow.”
Perhaps things were a bit easier for Suddenbreakingnews, but Smith said he was nevertheless greatly impressed.
“For all the things I’ve said, man, that winner looked very, very good,” Smith said. “He was so relaxed.”
“I had a good, great trip,” Quinonez said. “I could see everyone in front of me, and they were all bumping, and my horse was just relaxing. Every stride he was just reaching out.”
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