General Oaklawn Report #14: The Recap April 15, 2013 General Oaklawn Report #14: The Recap April 15, 2013 By: Aaron Halterman twitterfacebooklinkedinemail Share: share on facebook share on twitter share on linkedin email this article Second Annual Racing Dudes Oaklawn Awards Cyber Secret Horse of the meet: Cyber Secret – There were several great performances this meet, but you can’t deny that Cyber Secret was the best. Coming from out of nowhere he won two allowance races, The Razorback, and Oaklawn Handicap all in stylish fashion. He finished ahead of such horses as Fort Larned, Alternation, Atigun, Win Willy, Golden Ron, San Pablo, and Donoharm. His final time in the Oaklawn Handicap was over two seconds faster than the Arkansas Derby. Now we’ll find out if he can take his show on the road, as the competition will only get tougher from here on out. Older Male of the Meet: Cyber Secret – Obviously if Cyber Secret is the horse of the meet, he’s also going to be the Older Male of the Meet. No explanation needed, Cyber Secret was brilliant in 2013. Older Female of the Meet: Tiz Miz Sue – This was such a hard award to pick, but Tiz Miz Sue is who we settled on. We picked her over Don‘t Tell Sophia because she finished ahead of her two of three times, and we picked her over On Fire Baby because she only ran one race at Oaklawn this year. Many will say On Fire Baby winning the Apple Blossom should land her in this spot, but we went with the three-time starter Tiz Miz Sue that hit the board in all three races she ran, while winning the Azeri Stakes. 3 Year Old Male of the Meet: Will Take Charge – In a year where there are more questions than answers about the three-year old group leading up to the Kentucky Derby, there is no question that Will Take Charge is the clear three-year old of the meet at Oaklawn. He was the winner of the Smarty Jones, and the Rebel Stakes. The only bad race he ran was over a sloppy track in the Southwest Stakes, and he exits Oaklawn as perhaps our best local hope in the Kentucky Derby 3 Year Old Female of the Meet: Rose to Gold – This one is easy. Rose to Gold dominated in the Honeybee and Fantasy stakes, winning both in wire to wire fashion. She’ll move on to the Kentucky Oaks from here where she is likely to have her hands full, but with Calvin Borel and tons of nature speed she could surprise. Sprinter of the Meet: Justin Phillip – There were several great sprinting performances this meet, but Justin Phillip’s two victories were above and beyond them all. He won the Count Fleet Saturday, and also was the easiest of winners in an allowance race as a prep. It was nice to see him back in the winners circle, as he had been knocking heads with the best sprinters in the country. Turf Horse of the Meet: Optimizer – Yes we know Oaklawn doesn’t have turf, but if it did Optimizer would have dominated! He went to the Fair Grounds and won twice on the turf, and then came to Oaklawn and finished a surprisingly decent fourth in the Oaklawn Handicap. Optimizer is the definition of a throw back horse. He runs every other week, and has made starts at ELEVEN different tracks! Lets see where he pops up next… Flop of the Meet: Alternation – It’s painful for us to write Alternation down in this category. He’s a personal favorite of ours, but it’s obvious he’s lost a little interest in running. After dominating the Older Male scene at Oaklawn last year, he never did much running in two local starts this year. Get Happy Mister Trainer of the Meet: Steve Asmussen – Hard to deny him the award this year. After starting the year off slow, by mid-season his horses were rounding into form. He trailed Mac Robertson by two coming into the final week, but blew past him with ease winning 37-28. That makes back to back trainers titles for Asmussen at Oaklawn. Jockey of the Meet: Ricardo Santana – 19 years old, and wins the Oaklawn riding title by 24 races! Ricardo Santana came out of nowhere this year, and dominated a strong local colony. Him and Robby Albarado were neck in neck early in the season, but Santana pulled away the last six weeks of the season. We’ll see if he can continue his hot riding the rest of the year. Favorite Moment of the Meet: Get Happy Mister wins the Northern Spur – Any horse that can get the Racing Dudes an invite to the winners circle automatically becomes our favorite! Get Happy Mister won the Northern Spur on Derby day in impressive wire to wire fashion, giving all of us a thrilling end to the meet. Trainer Kelly Von Hemel deserves much of the credit with this horse, as well as farrier Kelby Von Hemel for working his #Kelbow magic once again! It could be a fun summer with this one! Race of the Meet: The Rebel [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=0LTwutyXzZ0] Final Trainer Standings Rank Trainer Name Sts 1st 2nd 3rd Total $ Win% Top3 Top3% 1 Steven M. Asmussen 164 37 28 23 $1,567,271 23% 88 54% 2 McLean Robertson 122 28 15 28 $877,843 23% 71 58% 3 Chris Richard 84 22 12 7 $466,123 26% 41 49% 4 Kenny P. Smith 102 17 18 11 $498,970 17% 46 45% 4 Cody Autrey 81 17 10 10 $386,724 21% 37 46% 6 Donnie K. Von Hemel 109 16 16 15 $675,144 15% 47 43% 6 Chris A. Hartman 77 16 17 9 $438,475 21% 42 55% 8 Ron Moquett 135 15 14 19 $435,749 11% 48 36% 9 Steve Hobby 76 13 11 10 $604,537 17% 34 45% 9 Allen Milligan 185 13 14 13 $294,857 7% 40 22% 9 Jamie Ness 43 13 7 3 $213,206 30% 23 53% 12 Randy L. Morse 90 12 10 17 $359,134 13% 39 43% 12 Joseph R. Martin 119 12 17 12 $329,394 10% 41 34% 12 Brad H. Cox 42 12 2 10 $190,979 29% 24 57% 15 D. Wayne Lukas 77 10 10 10 $1,082,363 13% 30 39% Final Jockey Standings Rank Jockey Name Sts 1st 2nd 3rd Total $ Win% Top3 Top3% 1 Ricardo Santana, Jr. 286 70 37 49 $2,061,440 24% 156 55% 2 Robby Albarado 233 46 29 29 $1,785,684 20% 104 45% 3 Alex Birzer 271 40 29 30 $1,167,659 15% 99 37% 4 Luis S. Quinonez 232 33 26 29 $1,072,019 14% 88 38% 5 M. Clifton Berry 235 29 39 28 $984,749 12% 96 41% 6 Terry J. Thompson 231 27 25 27 $805,297 12% 79 34% 7 Victor Lebron 176 22 26 23 $1,056,531 13% 71 40% 8 Jon Kenton Court 176 19 19 27 $1,152,459 11% 65 37% 9 David Mello 186 17 31 10 $419,642 9% 58 31% 10 Israel Ocampo 163 16 11 21 $404,649 10% 48 29% 11 Eddie Martin, Jr. 162 15 22 30 $498,031 9% 67 41% 12 Rosemary B. Homeister, Jr. 119 14 14 11 $413,045 12% 39 33% 13 Calvin H. Borel 84 13 14 11 $789,296 15% 38 45% 13 Malcolm Franklin 146 13 15 9 $350,174 9% 37 25% 15 Joe M. Johnson 81 12 9 7 $550,694 15% 28 35% 15 Glenn W. Corbett 132 12 13 9 $367,536 9% 34 26% 15 Alex Canchari 181 12 21 21 $352,664 7% 54 30%
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