2024.12.27 Oaklawn Racing Update; Stakes Preview – Tinsel

Compiled by Robert Yates

Among Oaklawn’s biggest perks is money. Among the biggest beneficiaries of that money so far this season is apprentice jockey Tyler Bacon, 17, who is riding at Oaklawn for the first time at the 2024-2025 meeting.

Bacon began the meeting with 51 career victories, securing his largest purse ($46,947) in an allowance sprint for Iowa-bred females Aug. 23 at Prairie Meadows.

Bacon has already collected three victories through the first eight days of racing at Oaklawn, highlighted by his first career six-figure score aboard Wendelssohn in Saturday’s seventh race, a $130,000 entry-level allowance sprint for 3-year-olds.

“That’s a lot of money,” Bacon said.

Bacon rode Wendelssohn ($11.80) for 2015 Oaklawn training champion Chris Hartman.

The jockey’s first Oaklawn victory was Dec. 7 aboard Chiquita Reina ($14.60) for trainer John Haran. Bacon struck again Dec. 20 aboard Go West Go ($19.60) for trainer Boyd Caster. Purses for those two races were $34,000 and $60,000, respectively.

Oaklawn annually offers the country’s highest purses during the winter. Its minimum purse to open 2024-2025 was $32,000.

“I feel comfortable here, for sure,” Bacon said. “All the riders now, they’ve helped me out a bit and tell me things that I could do better. I’ve been listening a lot. I really like it here.”

Bacon launched his riding career in late 2023 and recorded his first victory March 1 at Fonner Park in Nebraska. The purse was $5,600. Bacon was the leading apprentice rider this year at Fonner Park (15 victories) and at Prairie Meadows in Iowa, where he rode 36 winners to tie for eighth in the standings.

Bacon is one of three apprentice jockeys with victories at the 2024-2025 Oaklawn meeting that began Dec. 6.

Erik Asmussen, a candidate for an Eclipse Award as the country’s champion apprentice jockey of 2024, has two victories.

Asmussen, through Wednesday, led all North American apprentice riders in victories (127) and purse earnings ($5,004,687) in 2024. His uncle, Cash Asmussen, was an Eclipse Award winner in 1979 as the country’s champion apprentice jockey.

Erik Asmussen is the son of Steve Asmussen, a two-time Eclipse Award winner (2008 and 2009) as the country’s outstanding trainer. Asmussen is Oaklawn’s all-time leading trainer.

Jose Ramos Gutierrez recorded his first career victory Dec. 15.

Bacon and Asmussen both ride with a 5-pound apprentice weight allowance. Gutierrez has a 10-pound allowance.

Bacon is represented by agent Brian Assmann.

Finish Lines

Entries will be accepted and post positions drawn Sunday for two stakes races Jan. 4 at Oaklawn – $250,000 Smarty Jones for 3-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles and the $150,000 Mockingbird for 3-year-old fillies at six furlongs. The Smarty Jones closed Dec. 19 with 81 nominations. It is Oaklawn’s first of four Kentucky Derby qualifying races, with 21 points awarded to the top five finishers (10-5-3-2-1, respectively) toward starting eligibility.

TINSEL PREVIEW

HOT SPRINGS, AR – Trainer Jason Cook had a choice to spend the weekend in New York or Arkansas. The Kentucky-based Cook opted to roll the dice and head south with Quality Chic, one of nine horses entered in the $175,000 Tinsel Stakes Saturday at Oaklawn.

Probable post time for the Tinsel, the ninth of 10 races, is 4:14 p.m. (Central). First post is 12:30 p.m.

Quality Chic is cross-entered in the $150,000 Queens County Stakes Sunday at Aqueduct. Both the Tinsel and Queens County have the same conditions – 3-year-olds and up at 1 1/8 miles. Quality Chic, then with trainer David Jacobson, won two allowance races last year at Aqueduct, including one at 1 1/8 miles, before finishing second, beaten a neck, in the Queens County.

“That horse, he absolutely loves Aqueduct, so it is a little bit of a gamble,” Cook said of running in the Tinsel. “And that Law Professor in New York, if he’s on his game, he’s tough to beat. He’d be the favorite in both races, probably. I never duck to duck one. If I did, I never would have run against Cody’s Wish four times with my other horse (Three Technique).”

Law Professor, a millionaire Grade 2 winner, already owns a Queens County victory and is the 5-2 program favorite for Sunday’s edition.

Quality Chic will be making his second start for Cook after he won a two-way shake to claim the 4-year-old Quality Road gelding for $50,000 out of a 1 1/16-mile victory Nov. 7 at Churchill Downs.

In his first start for Cook and owner David Miller, a former University of Louisville quarterback, Quality Chic finished third in the $250,000 Cherokee Mile Stakes Dec. 1 at Churchill Downs. Quality Chic, seeking his first career stakes victory, moves back to two turns Saturday.

“This horse here wants to run around two turns,” Cook said. “Probably wants to lay closer than he was the other night, but I think they went the (half-mile) split in :45 and change. Another thing I always noticed in all of his replays is they’re sending, chasing. He seems to flatten out at the quarter pole. If they kind of let him go at his own pace, take a hold of him, kind of chill, he’ll finish his run. The other night, he finished running at Churchill.”

Cook and Miller already struck claiming gold with Three Technique, who represents the most successful runner of the trainer’s 34-year-old career. Cook won a 27-way shake, or blind draw, to take Three Technique for $40,000 in November 2021 at Churchill Downs. The $160,000 Knicks Go Overnight on the 2022 Kentucky Derby undercard marked Cook’s first stakes victory since 1997. Three Technique also gave Cook his first career graded stakes victory in the $250,000 John A. Nerud (G2) in July 2023 at Belmont Park.

Three Technique surpassed $1 million in career earnings with a victory in the $400,000 Ack Ack Stakes (G3) Sept. 28 at Churchill Downs.

Three Technique has made three Breeders’ Cup starts for Cook, including a sixth behind Cody’s Wish in the 2022 Dirt Mile (G1). Cody’s Wish was the 2023 Horse of the Year.

Now comes Quality Chic, who, like Three Technique, raced at Oaklawn at 3 and was claimed by Cook at 4.

“There’s a lot of similarities, right down to where he ran the same Beyer number (87) the day I claimed him,” Cook said. “Back class; maybe not as much as Three Technique. He’s a little more versatile, though. He wants to run on a little farther. He can lay up close or come from behind, depending on the pace.”

Quality Chic (12-1 on the morning line) is scheduled to break from post 8 under Rafael Bejarano and carry 118 pounds. Bejarano rode Three Technique to his Ack Ack victory.

Other Tinsel entrants include 2-1 program favorite Horace Mann, who will be making his stakes debut; millionaire multiple graded stakes winner Red Route One for all-time Oaklawn leading trainer Steve Asmussen; multiple Oaklawn stakes winner Frosted Departure, who is now trained by Chris Hartman; and Hurry Hurry for trainer Matt Sims, whose father, trainer Phil Sims, won the 2023 Tinsel with War Campaign. Grade 3 winner Liberal Arts opted for an allowance race Thursday at Fair Grounds over the Tinsel.

Win or lose, Cook said Quality Chic, a four-time winner of $414,260, will receive a break following the Tinsel. The gelding already has 26 lifetime starts – 15 as a 3-year-old and 11 this year. Quality Chic finished fourth, fifth and second in three maiden special weight starts in 2023 at Oaklawn when with trainer Kenny McPeek. The second-place finish came at 1 1/8 miles.

“I feel a little greedy because I’m trying to pay for him before I turn him out,” said Cook, who only trains five horses. “I get those horses with back class, a little older, and I got him to gain a little weight, be a little happier. I just try to make them happy and find a race to do what they want to do.”

Cook has started only one horse at Oaklawn, that coming in 2010. A Kentucky native, Cook is the son of the late jockey, Lois C. Cook, who won the 1957 Kentucky Oaks aboard Oaklawn stakes winner Lori-El. Lois C. Cook was Oaklawn’s leading rider in 1949 and 1951.

CHRIS HO