Remington Park Preview | Trapeze Stakes 2023: Miss Code West Puts Undefeated Record On The Line

A winner in all 3 starts to date, Miss Code West puts her undefeated record on the line in the $75,000 Trapeze Stakes at Remington Park on Friday, Dec. 15.

That race night features the $300,000 Springboard Mile Stakes (a prep race for the 2024 Kentucky Derby [G1]) and a total of six stakes.

Miss Code West is a 2-year-old daughter of Code West, from the Kipling mare Inca Miss. This Oklahoma-bred filly is trained by Kevin Scholl and is unbeaten after three starts for owners Jeffry and Julie Puryear of Denton, Texas. She has won $95,694 thus far.

Miss Code West broke her maiden at Remington Park on Oct. 5 by 1-1/4 lengths, going five furlongs. She stretched out to six furlongs to win by two lengths in the $76,000 Oklahoma Classics Lassie on Oct. 20 and then won the $50,000 Slide Show Stakes on Nov. 10 at one mile by 5-1/4 lengths, the best race of her career.

Local jockey Floyd Wethey, Jr., has been her regular rider from the beginning and retains the mount. She is the 6-1 fourth favorite in the morning line and leads all Trapeze entrants in victories with three.

She was bred in Oklahoma by Bryan Hawk and was purchased by the Puryears for a mere $12,000 at the Texas Association Thoroughbred Yearling Sale in 2022. Not bad for a filly that has already won $95,694 over her first three efforts.

The lightly raced West Omaha, a 2-year-old filly from the country’s leading trainer Brad Cox’s barn, has been made the 7-5 morning-line favorite

Cox leads all trainers nationwide in horses’ money earned in 2023 with $29,700,081, according to Equibase statistics, about $3 million ahead of second-place Todd Pletcher. Cox sends the lightly raced West Omaha into her first stakes race after only two career maiden races, the last one a win at Churchill Downs on Nov. 3. She was placed second through a disqualification in her career debut in Louisville after running a troubled third.

West Omaha may be lightly raced but she is filled to the brim with shooting stars on either side of her pedigree. She is sired by West Coast and her maternal grandsire is Medaglia d’Oro. Interestingly enough, her dam (mother) Birthday Bash, the daughter of Medaglia d’Oro, was unraced.

West Coast raced for trainer Bob Baffert, a conditioner of two Triple Crown winners – American Pharoah and Justify. West Coast won 6-of-13 starts for $5,803,800 in earnings and was a Grade 1 stakes winner. His most impressive races, however, were his runner-up finishes.

He ran second in the Grade 1 Dubai World Cup and also the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes at Gulfstream Park in Florida. West Coast also finished third to 2017 Horse of the Year Gun Runner in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic that year.

On the bottom side of West Omaha’s bloodlines is Medaglia d’Oro, who was a multiple Grade 1 stakes winner, who finished first 8-of-17 times for a bankroll of $5,754,720. He was trained by the legendary Bobby Frankel.

Medaglia d’Oro won the Grade 1 Travers Stakes as a 3-year-old, and ran second twice in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic – to Pleasantly Perfect in 2003 and to Volponi in 2002. He also was the runner-up in the 2002 Belmont Stakes to Sarava.

If West Omaha shows the tendencies of the male bloodlines in her pedigree, she could be something special. She won her last race against top maidens at Churchill by four lengths, covering seven furlongs in a swift 1:23.94, making every pole a winning one. She will have to stretch that effort another furlong in the Trapeze at one mile.

She worked Dec. 2 at Churchill Downs, breezing five furlongs in 1:00.20, the fourth-fastest of 13 that day. Jockey Flavien Prat, a winner of four Breeders’ Cup races, the 2019 Kentucky Derby and the 2021 Preakness, will ship in to ride the favorite.

West Omaha is owned and was bred by Gary and Mary West of Omaha, Neb.

The second-favorite in the morning line is Tx Women for Arts at 3-1 from the barn of North America’s all-time winningest trainer Steve Asmussen.

She is a stakes winner, having taken the $100,000 Prairie Gold Lassie Stakes at Prairie Meadows in Altoona, Iowa on July 7. Since then, the well-traveled 2-year-old daughter of Practical Joke, out of the Flatter mare Proximity Bias, has been stakes-placed in the $50,000 E.L. Gaylord Memorial at Remington Park, running third on Sept. 24 here, and second in the $100,000 Zia Princess Stakes, beaten only a neck at Zia Park in New Mexico. She also ran fourth in the $150,000 Debutante Stakes at Ellis Park in Kentucky.

Tx Women for Arts was purchased by owners J. Kirk and Judy Robison of El Paso, Texas, for $55,000 in the Keeneland Association September Yearling Sale in 2022. She has earned $139,427 in seven starts, winning twice with one second and two thirds and is the top earner in the Trapeze field.

Tyler Gaffalione ships in to ride. He won the Eclipse Award in 2015 in North America for Apprentice Jockeys and went on to win the Preakness Stakes in 2019. Tx Women for Arts was bred in Kentucky by Frank Garrison and NATO et al.

Third choice in the morning line at 5-1 is Singsational, also out of Asmussen’s barn.

This 2-year-old daughter of Audible, out of the Munnings mare Stifled Heiress, was an impressive maiden winner in her only try over the main racetrack at Remington Park last time out on Oct. 12. She drew off to win by 12-1/2 lengths that night at the one-mile distance with Remington Park’s leading rider Stewart Elliott in the saddle. The filly went gate-to-wire in that one for owner Winchell Thoroughbreds (Ron Winchell) of Las Vegas.

Singsational was bred in Florida by Jean White, Wavertee Farm and SGV Thoroughbreds. She was purchased for $70,000 as a yearling in 2022 by De Meric Sales and then was pinhooked in the Ocala Breeders Sale for 2-year-olds-in-training this year for $90,000, the price Winchell paid for her.

Singsational has earned $26,136 in her career with a record of four starts and one win. She has not raced in stakes company yet.

Here’s a look at the Trapeze field from the rail out with odds, trainer and jockey:

1. West Omaha, 7-5, Brad Cox, Flavien Prat
2. Tx Women for Arts, 3-1, Steve Asmussen, Tyler Gaffalione
3. Midnight Lady, 20-1, Sarah Davidson, Richard Bracho
4. Miss Code West, 6-1, Kevin Scholl, Floyd Wethey, Jr.
5. Laurie’s Secret, 10-1, Eddie Milligan, Jr., Richard Eramia
6. Singsational, 5-1, Steve Asmussen, Stewart Elliott
7. Gypsan, 20-1, Danny Pish, Jose Medina
8. Krik Tak, 20-1, Bret Calhoun, Jose Alvarez
9. Magnolia Avenue, 20-1, Jaylan Clary, Iram Diego

The Trapeze Stakes is the seventh of 10 races on Dec. 15 with the night beginning at 5pm and the Trapeze leaving the starting gate at 7:54pm. The other stakes races Dec. 15 are:

• Race 5 – $50,000 Useeit Stakes, 3-year-old fillies, 1 mile, OK-breds.
• Race 6 – $50,000 Jim Thorpe Stakes, 3-year-olds, 1 mile, OK-breds.
• Race 8 – $75,000 She’s All In Stakes, fillies and mare, 3 and older, 1 mile-70 yards.
• Race 9 – $75,000 Jeffrey Hawk Memorial, 3 and older, 1 mile-70 yards.
• Race 10 – $300,000 Springboard Mile, 2-year-olds, 1 mile.