Count Fleet Sprint H.

Trainer Brad Cox confirmed that FMQ Stables' Saudi Crown (Always Dreaming), a brave third in the G1 Saudi Cup after setting bruising fractions up front, has shipped to Dubai and has settled in at Meydan Raceourse. The $45,000 Keeneland January short-yearling turned $240,000 OBS April breezer holds an entry for the G1 Dubai World Cup, where he would face a rematch with the two horses that finished ahead of him last weekend--Senor Buscador (Mineshaft) and Ushba Tesoro (Jpn) (Orfevre {Jpn}). But Cox aid that the tentatively target is the Mar....

One of the most progressive horses to race during this year's meet at Oaklawn Park, Red Lane Thoroughbreds' Skelly (Practical Joke) took Saturday's $500,000 GIII Count Fleet Sprint H. by the scruff of the neck and never gave any of his rivals a chance, as he led past every pole for an impressive first victory at the stakes and graded stakes level. Having earned the right to contest a race of this caliber off big-figure allowance scores in the slop Feb. 25 and over a fast strip Mar. 17, the...

The ageless champion Whitmore (Pleasantly Perfect) will try for an unprecedented fourth victory in the GIII Count Fleet Sprint H. in a competitive seven-horse field Saturday at Oaklawn. Annexing the Count Fleet in 2017 and 2018, the chestnut ran into a buzzsaw in champion Mitole (Eskendereya) when second in 2019 and gutted out his third score in the race last year. Winless in his next three, he finished his campaign with an 18-1 upset of the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint to earn an Eclipse Award for champion male sprinter. Making...

Autumn Hill Farms Racing Stables Inc.'s Bobby's Wicked One (Speightstown), who was eased home last of 11 as the 9-2 fourth choice after attending a hot early pace in Saturday's GIII Count Fleet Sprint H. at Oaklawn, has emerged none the worse for wear from the effort, trainer Al Stall, Jr. said Monday. "Not so far, he's had a couple of days off, but he goes back to the track [Tuesday]," the conditioner said when asked if anything came to hand post-race. "He will throw in a clunker sometimes. He...

In 13 previous trips to the races at Oaklawn Park, Whitmore (Pleasantly Perfect) had never finished out of the top three, including a third-place effort to future GI Belmont S. hero Creator (Tapit) in the GI Arkansas Derby some four Aprils ago. Since reinvented as a top sprinter--not entirely shocking given that he won his first seven starts going one turn--the popular 7-year-old made history Saturday in Hot Springs, withstanding a run from last by Flagstaff (Speightstown) to land the GIII Count Fleet Sprint H. for the third time in...

A full and competitive field, headed by Grade I winner Whitmore (Pleasantly Perfect), will line up at Oaklawn Saturday for the GIII Count Fleet Sprint H. Third in the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint S. in November, he was off the board in the GI Cigar Mile, but bounced back with a runner-up effort behind the reopposing Share the Upside (Maclean's Music) in Oaklawn's King Cotton S. Feb. 8. The chestnut captured this venue's Hot Springs S. last time Mar. 7. Flagstaff (Speightstown) makes his first start outside of California here...