OKLAHOMA DERBY FIELD CAPSULES

Grade 3, $400,000 Oklahoma Derby, 1-1/8 miles
Sunday, September 30, 2018
Race 11 – 7:52pm

1 – Lionite, 10-1
Owner: Winchell Thoroughbreds LLC and Willis Horton Racing LLC, Las Vegas
Trainer: Steve Asmussen
Jockey: David Cabrera

The first of four runners entered into the Oklahoma Derby by trainer Steve Asmussen. If they all start, it will bring Asmussen’s career starters in the race to 26 and it will set a new record for most starters in the race from one trainer. Many trainers have started three horses in one Oklahoma Derby, including Asmussen in 2008… A winner of two career races, Lionite has finished fourth in consecutive Grade 3 events, the $500,000 West Virginia Derby at Mountaineer in August, and the Super Derby at Louisiana Downs in September… Jockey David Cabrera currently leads the Remington Park rider standings with 29 wins thru Sept. 27. This will be his first start in the Oklahoma Derby.

2 – Wooderson, 4-1
Owner: Let’s Go Stable, Rumson, New Jersey
Trainer: Todd Pletcher
Jockey: Jose Ortiz

Lightly raced, Wooderson has only had four career starts, all this year. He graduated from the maiden ranks with his first win coming in July at Saratoga. A half-brother to 2009 Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra, Wooderson earned his way into the Oklahoma Derby off his two races at Saratoga where he proved he could handle not only two-turns, but the 1-1/8 miles distance of this race. He broke his maiden at the distance and finished a solid second in his follow-up race… Trainer Todd Pletcher, Wooderson will be his fourth starter in the Oklahoma Derby. His best finisher was Monsignor who was fifth in 2010… Jockey Jose Ortiz, the top rider in the country the past two years by money earned, has accumulated 220 wins (thru Sept. 27) in 2018. That is the third highest total in North America. He is No. 1 with earnings of more than $21.7 million to date. Last year he was the country’s leading rider with more than $27 million earned.

3 – Believe In Royalty, 20-1
Owner: Robert Baker, William Mack, Brereton C. Jones, Purchase, New York
Trainer: Larry Jones
Jockey: Gabriel Saez

The winner of the $75,000 Ellis Park Derby in his last race on August 12 (finishing 5-3/4 lengths ahead of Limation) the gray colt worked five furlongs Tuesday morning at Churchill Downs for trainer Larry Jones. The Tapit colt breezed 1:02.2 over a sloppy track. Believe In Royalty was sixth in the $400,000 Springboard Mile at Remington Park in 2017… Jones has had success in winning the Remington Park Oaks in the past but surprisingly this will be his first starter in the Oklahoma Derby… Kentucky-based jockey Gabriel Saez will ride in his first Oklahoma Derby.

4 – Limation, 3-1 (morning-line favorite)
Owner: Michael Langford, Jonesboro, Okla.
Trainer: Steve Asmussen
Jockey: Diego Saenz

The same owner and trainer who won their first Oklahoma Derby in 2017 with Untrapped, are back to attempt their second consecutive triumph in the race. Limation’s best races have tended to be when he is forwardly placed, either setting the pace or running just off the early lead. He had the lead at the top of the stretch in the Grade 3 Super Derby at Louisiana Downs, pulling away to win his most recent race by 5-3/4 lengths for his first stakes triumph… Unstarted as a 2-year-old, Limation is making his ninth attempt this year… Limation’s sire, Alternation, nearly won the Oklahoma Derby in 2011, finishing a close second while beaten just a head by Redeemed… Jockey Diego Saenz makes his first start in the Oklahoma Derby, he has 181 wins in 2018 with $3.6 million in earnings and is nearing 2,000 career victories.

5 – Lone Sailor, 7-2
Owner: G M B Racing, Metarie, Louisiana
Trainer: Tom Amoss
Jockey: James Graham

Lone Sailor is this year’s Oklahoma Derby horse that has not missed many of the big races in the 3-year-old division in 2018. A prolonged rally to gain the lead in the Grade 2, $1,000,000 Louisiana Derby at Fair Grounds in March, only to lose the race by a neck, propelled Lone Sailor to the Kentucky Derby where he managed to move through the slop to gain eighth. On to the second jewel of the Triple Crown, the Preakness Stakes, Lone Sailor finished fifth, just two lengths behind eventual Triple Crown winner Justify. After another close second in the Grade 3, $400,000 Ohio Derby in June (beaten a neck), Lone Sailor was off to the Grade 1, $1,000,000 Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park in New Jersey, for a third-place run. He was then a well-beaten second to Limation in the Grade 3, Super Derby earlier this month at Louisiana Downs… GMB Racing, an ownership that has been headed up by the family of former New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson who passed away at age 90 this March, owns this horse. The racing enterprise is named for the late Saints owner’s wife Gayle Marie Benson… Trainer Tom Amoss is making his third attempt in the Oklahoma Derby. His best finish was with Real Appeal (4th) in 2008… James Graham, a journeyman jockey with more than 2,300 career wins will make his first start in the Oklahoma Derby.

6 – Eisenstaedt, 20-1
Owner: Southern Springs Stables, Fort Smith, Arkansas
Trainer: Ron Moquett
Jockey: Jack Gilligan

Eisenstaedt comes into the Oklahoma Derby on a two-race winning streak, breaking his maiden in July and then posting an allowance win in August, both at Ellis Park in western Kentucky… Trainer Ron Moquett makes his third start in the Oklahoma Derby, Rare Money provided his best finish in 1998 with an eighth-place effort. A big-race conditioner at Oaklawn Park in Arkansas, Churchill Downs in Kentucky and Saratoga in New York, Moquett started his career at Blue Ribbon Downs in Sallisaw, Okla. and was stabled for a time in the late 1990s at Remington Park before moving elsewhere. He has a small contingent in Oklahoma City now and currently has four wins (thru Sept. 27) this season at Remington Park… Jockey Jack Gilligan is an up and coming rider in Kentucky who started his career in 2014. He has placed in graded stakes competition but a win in either the Remington Park Oaks or the Oklahoma Derby would be his first career graded stakes victory.

7 – Diamond King, 6-1
Owner: Cash Is King, LLC and LC Racing LLC, Phoenixville, Pennsylvania
Trainer: John Servis
Jockey: Frankie Pennington

Trainer John Servis will start his first runners in the Oklahoma Derby. Long-based on the East Coast, Servis became well-known as the trainer for Smarty Jones and his near Triple Crown campaign of 2004… Diamond King most recently finished second in the Grade 3, $300,000 Smarty Jones Stakes at Parx in Philadelphia in August. He won the Federico Tesio, the main Maryland prep race for the Preakness Stakes, in April at Laurel Park before testing the Grade 1, Preakness, running seventh. He was then fifth in the Grade 3, Ohio Derby in June. The Oklahoma Derby is just his second race since the Ohio Derby… Jockey Frankie Pennington has ridden Diamond King in all but one of his races (the Preakness). Pennington currently rides in the Mid-Atlantic region (Parx, Delaware) and has 110 wins (thru Sept. 27) in 2018, with total earnings more than $4.3 million. He is nearing 2,300 career victories.

8 – Combatant, 12-1
Owner: Winchell Thoroughbreds LLC and Willis Horton Racing LLC, Las Vegas
Trainer: Steve Asmussen
Jockey: Ricardo Santana, Jr.

Combatant, a 3-year-old son of Scat Daddy, out of the Boundary mare Border Dispute, ran into a bear at Oaklawn this spring in Magnum Moon, who won the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby, the Grade 2, $900,000 Rebel Stakes and was one of the favorites in the Kentucky Derby. After running second in the $400,000 Springboard Mile as a juvenile at Remington Park in 2017, Combatant ran second in the $150,000 Smarty Jones Stakes and Grade 3, $500,000 Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn before showing a lot of heart, finishing third and fourth to Magnum Moon in the Rebel and Arkansas Derby, respectively…Regular rider Ricardo Santana gets the call. Santana is seeking to win the Oklahoma Derby in back-to-back years, having won on Untrapped in 2017…Since running in the Kentucky Derby, Combatant most recently was a fast closing fourth at Saratoga in upstate New York in his last race, beaten a little more than a length in the $100,000 Better Talk Now Stakes. Combatant has earned $405,520 in 11 lifetime starts.

9 – Sea Foam, 12-1
Owner: Waterville, Lake Stable, New Salem, NY
Trainer: Christophe Clement
Jockey: Florent Geroux

Consecutive victories in New York-bred stakes competition has earned Sea Foam an attempt in the Oklahoma Derby. He won the $150,000 New York Derby at Finger Lakes in July, then the $250,000 Albany Stakes at Saratoga in August… Sea Foam, the only New York-bred in this year’s race, is the first starter in the Oklahoma Derby for Christophe Clement, a New York-based conditioner who is nearing 1,900 career wins, with stable earnings of more than $125 million overall… Florent Geroux makes just his second start in the Oklahoma Derby; he was fifth aboard Secret Passage in 2016. Based in Kentucky, Geroux has accumulated more than $17 million in earnings this year.

10- Retirement Fund, 30-1
Owner: L and N Racing, Tulsa, Oklahoma
Trainer: Steve Asmussen
Jockey: Ramon Vazquez

Owned by L and N (Levinson and Nelson) Racing, the same team that campaigned Lookin At Lee to a second-place effort in the 2017 Kentucky Derby, also trained by Steve Asmussen… Retirement Fund broke his maiden in his career debut as a 2-year-old at Fair Grounds in New Orleans in December last year, then won his first 3-year-old attempt there in January this year. Retirement Fund has only had three starts since his allowance score to begin this year, finishing seventh in both the Grade 3, Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn and then the Grade 2, Louisiana Derby at Fair Grounds. He returned to action in an allowance race at Remington Park earlier this month, finishing fifth. Retirement Fund is the only entrant for the Oklahoma Derby to have made his last start at Remington Park… Vazquez has won or shared the Pat Steinberg Award as the leading Remington Park jockey for the last five seasons (2013-2017). Vazquez makes his third Oklahoma Derby start with his best finish coming in 2017 on Altito (6th).

11 – First Mondays, 8-1
Owner: Glenangus Farm LLC, Baltimore, Maryland
Trainer: John Servis
Jockey: Paco Lopez

The second starter from the barn of John Servis, First Mondays was third, just behind Diamond King, in the Grade 3, $300,000 Smarty Jones at Parx in Philadelphia in late August. First Mondays is the most-lightly raced entrant in the Oklahoma Derby, with only three career starts on his resume, with two wins and one third-place run. He is the only Maryland-bred in the Oklahoma Derby… Jockey Paco Lopez will make his second start in the Oklahoma Derby; he was fourth in the 2015 edition aboard Souper Colossal. Lopez, based in Florida, is nearing 2,400 career victories. He has $6.1 million in earnings in 2018 with 155 wins (thru Sept. 27).