2025.03.14 OP Stakes Advance – Whitmore

Stakes Advance – Whitmore
Compiled by Robert Yates

TEJANO TWIST – The King Cotton Stakes – 75th Running – 01-25-25 – R05 – Oaklawn Park Photo Credit: Kurtis Coady

Friday, March 14, 2025

After snapping a lengthy losing streak in his last start, millionaire Tejano Twist bids for his second consecutive stakes victory in the six-furlong $250,000 Whitmore (G3) for older horses Saturday at Oaklawn.

The Whitmore – named for the seven-time Oaklawn stakes winner and 2020 champion male sprinter – headlines an 11-race card that begins at 12:30 p.m. (Central). Probable post time for the Whitmore, the 10th race, is 5:17 p.m. Weather permitting, the infield will be open. The Whitmore is Oaklawn’s final major prep for the six-furlong $500,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap (G3) at 6 furlongs April 12.

The nine-horse Whitmore lineup (all stakes winners) from the rail out:

Tejano Twist won the 2023 Whitmore for trainer Chris Hartman before finishing second, beaten a nose by Jaxon Traveler, in last year’s edition. The 2024 Whitmore was among five runner-up finishes last year for Tejano Twist, who was winless in nine starts overall. A late-running son of Practical Joke, Tejano Twist snapped a nine-race losing streak in his last start, coming from far back early to edge Happy Is a Choice by a half-length in Oaklawn’s $150,000 King Cotton Stakes for older horses Jan. 25 at Oaklawn.

Hartman, Oaklawn’s leading trainer in 2015, conditions Tejano Twist for his stepdaughter, Jackie Slawson (JD Thoroughbreds), and Joe Davis.

“Tejano has been doing great,” Slawson said. “He’s had an eventful past year but coming off of the King Cotton win was quite emotional. It was such a deserving moment for him. He’s such a fighter. He’s one of those horses when he gets the right ride – when a jockey really understands him and lets him settle into his rhythm – you see what’s he’s capable of. He’s smart, he knows where the wire is and if you give him his moment, he’ll take it. He’s been training well and we know he’ll give us everything he has.”

Tejano Twist has won five stakes races and earned $1,187,497 since being claimed for $80,000 by Hartman June 19, 2022, at Churchill Downs. Three of those stakes victories have come at Oaklawn. In addition to the 2023 Whitmore (G3) and King Cotton, Tejano Twist won the $150,000 Ring the Bell in December 2023. A winless 2024 began with a runner-up finish behind Skelly in the King Cotton.

Happy Is a Choice is seeking his third career stakes victory after winning the six-furlong $300,000 Louisville Thoroughbred Society September 14 at Churchill Downs and the Ring the Bell Dec. 7. After stalking dueling front-runners, Happy Is a Choice took a short lead in the upper stretch of the King Cotton, but he was unable to hold off Tejano Twist’s late surge on the outside.

“That was horse racing at its best,” trainer John Ortiz said. “You’ve got a front-running sprinter and a closing sprinter. The race was won at the quarter pole.”

Program favorite Booth exits a powerful victory in Oaklawn’s inaugural $145,000 Commodore Overnight Stakes February 24.

Booth blasted out of the starting gate under Erik Asmussen and rolled to a front-running 4 ¾-length victory, the colt’s first in stakes company. Booth ran the opening half-mile in :44.98 and finished in a meet-best 1:08.64 over a fast track. Booth earned a career-high 105 Beyer Speed Figure.

“He flew,” Asmussen said. “He won it at the break. I mean, every single step he took, from the first to the last, he was fine.”

The Commodore was the first career Oaklawn stakes victory for Asmussen and the record-extending 117th in Hot Springs for his father, Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen. Asmussen also trains millionaire Jaxon Traveler, who seeks his fourth consecutive stakes victory and fifth consecutive victory overall.

A deep Whitmore cast also features millionaire multiple stakes winner Miles Ahead, multiple stakes winners Closethegame Sugar and Glengarry, Grade 3 winners Durante and Giant Mischief, who exits a victory in the $150,000 Fall Highweight Stakes November 29 at Aqueduct for trainer Brad Cox.

Miles Ahead ran second behind Tejano Twist in the 2023 Whitmore.