Oaklawn Barn Notes: Local Owners Off to a Strong Star

By Jennifer Hoyt —-

Local Owners Off to a Strong Start

Six owners have had multiple victories this year at Oaklawn through Friday, including two who reside in Hot Springs.

One is John Ed Anthony, among the most successful owners in Oaklawn history. Anthony, 80, has campaigned three Eclipse Award winners and won virtually every major two-turn stakes race at Oaklawn at least once. The second is Carson McCord, whose racing resume isn’t nearly as glamorous. Then again, McCord is only 20.

McCord scored her second victory of the meeting in Friday’s third race with favored Futile ($6.20), a Cecil Borel-trainee ridden by his younger brother, Hall of Famer Calvin Borel.

According to statistics compiled by Equibase, racing’s official data organization, Futile represented McCord’s eighth victory from 48 starts overall. Her first career starter, K J’s Nobility, finished fourth in an Aug. 17, 2018, allowance race at Indiana Grand. She had claimed the Arkansas-bred gelding about a month earlier for $25,000.

“Long term, it’s not like this is what I want to do for my career,” McCord said. “I think I want to be a hedge fund manager, but we’ll see. Owning horses is like a hedge fund, in a way. You’re taking a gamble.”

So far, it’s paying off for McCord, who graduated from nearby Lake Hamilton High School in 2018 and is a sophomore at Chapman University in suburban Los Angeles.

McCord said her hook to Thoroughbred racing was through her father, Bill McCord, who bred and owned horses before going into the stock business in the 1990s. Carson McCord has approximately five horses at Oaklawn with Cecil Borel, adding the trainer also had a business relationship with her father in the 1980s.

“I think I owned my first horse a month after I turned 18,” McCord said. “I think we bought a yearling then, and then I claimed KJ.”

Borel came out of a lengthy retirement at the 2019 Oaklawn meeting and recorded his first victory in more than 4 ½ years with K J’s Nobility in an Arkansas-bred starter-allowance sprint last April. K J’s Nobility nearly gave McCord her first career stakes victory less than a month later, finishing second, beaten a half-length by state-bred sensation Hoonani Road, in Oaklawn’s inaugural $200,000 Arkansas Breeders’ Championship at 1 1/16 miles.

“It was close, but I think if Cecil would have had him longer, we would have won,” McCord said.

Futile also represented McCord’s first victory of the meeting in a Jan. 25 sprint for older $20,000 claimers. Calvin Borel was named to ride Futile but took off the gelding and was replaced by Fair Grounds-based Miguel Mena, who had ridden Lynn’s Map the previous day in the $150,000 Smarty Jones Stakes, Oaklawn’s first of four Kentucky Derby points races. Because of flight arrangements, Mena was still in Hot Springs Jan. 25 after a scheduled mount in the $100,000 Fifth Season Stakes fell through and entries had already been taken that day at Fair Grounds.

It was really a win-win for McCord since her boyfriend, Joe Santos, is Mena’s agent.

“That was our first win,” Santos said. “It was a lot of fun.”

Futile, the meet’s first two-time winner, was claimed out of Friday’s sprint victory for $16,000. McCord also ran third in a Jan. 26 open allowance sprint with K J’s Nobility and has Flatoutandfoxy entered in a state-bred allowance sprint Thursday. Flatoutandfoxy represented the first career training victory for Calvin Borel’s wife, Renay Borel, Nov. 6 at Churchill Downs. Renay Borel had taken over Cecil Borel’s small stable last fall after he briefly stepped away from the game. She is his assistant at Oaklawn.

Anthony also had two victories at the meet through Friday.

Finish Lines

Current leading trainer Robertino Diodoro had a triple for the second consecutive day to extend his lead in the standings over perennial champion Steve Asmussen through Friday, the eighth day of the scheduled 57-day meeting. Diodoro won Friday’s first race with favored As Fast as You Can ($6.40) and swept the late daily double with favored What a Fox ($5) in the eighth race and favored Executive Branch ($4.20) in the ninth race. Diodoro entered Saturday with a 13-7 lead over Asmussen, a 10-time Oaklawn champion, in the race for leading trainer. Diodoro has been Oaklawn’s second-leading trainer the last three years. Defending champion David Cohen rode two of Diodoro’s winners – As Fast as You Can and Executive Branch – to take a 10-8 lead over Ricardo Santana Jr. and Orlando Mojica in the jockey standings through Friday. As Fast as You Can represented the meet-high sixth victory for two-time defending leading owner M and M Racing (Mike and Mickala Sisk). The late daily double pushed New York owner Lawrence P. Roman, a new Diodoro client, to 3-1-1 in five starts at the meeting. Roman also co-owns Pioneer Spirit, second-division winner of the $100,000 Fifth Season Stakes for older horses Jan. 25 and a candidate for the $500,000 Razorback Handicap (G3) Feb. 17. What a Fox, who was ridden by Mojica, became the second two-time winner at the meet. Asmussen claimed As Fast as You can out of his victory for $8,000. Trainer Ingrid Mason took Executive Branch for $50,000. … Through the first eight days of racing, 65 claims have totaled $1,265,000. … Sara Sea ($42) became the second starter from the $100,000 Pippin Stakes for older fillies and mares Jan. 25 to return and win, taking Friday’s seventh race, a first-level allowance sprint, for Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas and breeder/owner Briland Farm (Robert and Stacy Mitchell). Pippin runner-up Special Relativity was retired after winning the $125,000 American Beauty Stakes for older female sprinters Feb. 1 to be bred to Into Mischief, North America’s leading sire in 2019. Lukas and Briland Farm teamed to win the 2012 Pippin with homebred Absinthe Minded, the dam of Sara Sea. Sara Sea gave jockey Declan Cannon his second consecutive victory on the card. Cannon won the sixth race aboard Special Reserve ($22.40), who represented the 1,003rd career North American victory for trainer Randy Morse, according to Equibase, racing’s official data gathering organization. … Southern California-based trainers Doug O’Neill and John Sadler and Fair Grounds-based trainer Dallas Stewart were at Oaklawn Friday. All three have divisions this year in Hot Springs. … The $125,000 Dixie Belle Stakes for 3-year-old filly sprinters Feb. 15 closed Thursday with 22 nominations. Post positions will be drawn Wednesday.