Remington Park Picks | Oklahoma Derby 2024

Aaron previews the 2024 Oklahoma Derby (G3) at Remington Park & gives his win pick from the headlining horse race.

Multiple stakes champion E J Won the Cup takes on the undefeated Brad Cox trainee Most Wanted & 6 other entries in the headlining event.

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The press release:

The Grade 3, $400,000 Oklahoma Derby drew a field of eight this morning at Remington Park. Among the group, E J Won the Cup, with Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith named to ride. Smith will make a return to Remington Park, where he rode during the inaugural season in 1988.

The Oklahoma Derby headlines a 10-race program on Sept. 29, the lone Sunday of the Remington Park season.

Inducted into the National Racing Hall of Fame in 2003, Smith’s tremendous career was still just getting started when he finished second in the jockey standings in Remington Park’s first season with 68 wins. Among his local winners then was Overage who captured two local stakes events.

After the inaugural season in Oklahoma City, Smith went on to a national riding career that took him to both coasts, multiple Grade 1 victories and mounts on legends such as these Horse of the Year greats: Zenyatta, Justify, Holy Bull, Skip Away and Azeri, to name a few. Smith also earned the Eclipse Award for Champion Jockey in 1993 and 1994.

Smith will ride E J Won the Cup in the Oklahoma Derby. He has had the mount on the colt trained by doug O’Neill in six of his last seven attempts, including wins in the $300,000 Texas Derby at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, Texas on May 27 and the $250,000 St. Louis Derby at FanDuel in Illinois on August 24. E J Won the Cup is the top earner in the Oklahoma Derby field with $540,580 and is 4-1 in the morning-line odds.

The morning-line favorite for the Oklahoma Derby is Most Wanted at 5-2. Trained by Brad Cox, a three-time winner of Remington Park’s richest race (2019-2021), Most Wanted won the $275,000 Ellis Park Derby in Henderson, Ky. on Aug. 11. Jockey Florent Geroux, winner of the 2019 Oklahoma Derby with Owendale, is on Most Wanted as the only rider to handle him in his undefeated career of three races.

The lone graded winner in the Oklahoma Derby is Society Man, who scored the Grade 3, $400,000 Matt Winn Stakes at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. on June 9. Third most recently in the Grade 3, $500,000 West Virginia Derby at Mountaineer Park, Society Man is trained by Danny Gargan and will be Ridden by Corey Lanerie. Society Man was second in the Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct on April 6, earning a spot in the Kentucky Derby where he finished 16th in the field of 20.

Society Man is 6-1 on the morning line odds.

Gargan saddled Dornoch to victory in the Grade 1, $2,000,000 Belmont Stakes on June 8 at Saratoga in upstate New York.

Flat Hanby leads the derby field in career wins with five, all consecutively from April 23 to Sept. 6 here when he won the colts/geldings division of the Oklahoma Stallion Handicap. Trained by Boyd Caster, Flat Hanby will attempt to become the third Oklahoma-bred in history to win the Oklahoma Derby, joining Clever Trevor (1989) and Shotgun Kowboy (2015). Jockey Floyd Wethey, Jr. has been named on Flat Hanby who is 15-1 in the morning-line odds.

The field by post-position order for the Oklahoma Derby at Remington Park, with jockey, trainer and morning-line odds:

1. Indispensable: Reylu Gutierrez, John Sadler, 3-1
2. E J Won the Cup: Mike Smith, Doug O’Neill, 4-1
3. Canada Gate: Armando Ayuso, John Sadler, 8-1
4. Flat Hanby: Floyd Wethey, Jr., Boyd Caster, 15-1
5. Dimatic: Stewart Elliott, Steve Asmussen, 9-2
6. Most Wanted: Florent Geroux, Brad Cox, 5-2
7. Mena: David Cabrera, Shawn Davis, 20-1
8. Society Man: Corey Lanerie, Danny Gargan, 6-1