Breeders’ Cup Sprint (Grade 1)

RON Moquett keeps a list of stakes wins on a door in his office in Arkansas. He uses it for motivation, to keep score and to keep dreaming. Most of the races on the list are sprints, “ones people who I thought were good trainers were winning with good, fast horses.”

The race at the top of the list has always been the Breeders’ Cup Sprint and Moquett can check that one off, too, after Whitmore made like a slingshot from outside the quarter pole into the stretch of the six-furlong fixture. Now seven, Whitmore and jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. stayed inside most of the way in the Sprint to win by three and a quarter lengths.

The victory improved Whitmore to three-for-seven, with two seconds, in 2020 and might have secured another first for Moquett if he lands the Eclipse Award for North America’s champion male sprinter.

“I was brought up, where I’m from, the border of Arkansas-Oklahoma, there’s a Quarter Horse track called Blue Ribbon Downs,” said Moquett, who deals with the autoimmune disease atypical sarcoidosis – a condition that affects the lungs, makes breathing difficult and makes him especially at risk for the coronavirus and seasonal flu. “And to be the fastest in the world you have to beat the fastest in the world. And today, today we’re the fastest. Now there’s others going to run faster times and going to get more accolades, but today this is the fastest horse in the world.”

Fourth start

Whitmore delivered in the Sprint in his fourth start in the race. He finished eighth in the 2017 edition at Del Mar. Whitmore finished second to Roy H in the 2018 running at Churchill Downs. Moquett, assisted by his wife Laura and ex-jockey and assistant Greta Kuntzweiler, tried again in 2019 and Whitmore finished third behind champion Mitole and Shancelot at Santa Anita.

Whitmore went to the post against 13 others Saturday at 18/1 – his longest odds since being 20/1 in his first Sprint attempt. Keeneland’s main track played extremely fast – and kind to front-runners in the opinion of those who obsess over such things – in the races leading up to the Sprint. Track records fell for six, six and a half, seven, and eight furlongs, with each set by a winner on or just off the lead.

The deck seemed stacked against Whitmore, who does his best running from the middle or sometimes even toward the back in a larger field. Irad Ortiz Jr., in the hunt for another Eclipse Award himself and riding Whitmore for the first time, helped flip the script a bit by keeping his mount on the inside before giving him a cue toward the end of the far turn. Ortiz tipped Whitmore out a bit into the lane, passed the leader Empire Of Gold, opened up and held C Z Rocket and the late-running Firenze Fire at bay for what looked like the easiest win on the card.

“I said in the prerace interview that whenever there are this many track records, it’s almost impossible to think a closer is going to do well,” said Moquett. “For him to run against the bias the way he did and the patience of the rider, the willingness to listen, it all worked out.

“I’m so proud of the horse, proud for the connections. I’m just grateful. Grateful for the horse. Grateful to everyone that sends me well wishes and congratulations after the race. Just grateful.”