2023 CLASS FOR OKLAHOMA HORSE RACING HALL OF FAME SET AT REMINGTON PARK
The evening before the Grade 3 Oklahoma Derby at Remington Park this fall will not lack for star power. The newest class for the Oklahoma Horse Racing Hall of Fame will be inducted during the races on Saturday night, Sept. 23.
A group of four horses and one horsemen will be honored in between races on Sept. 23. Following are the first to be added to the Hall of Fame for Thoroughbred achievements since 2017.
Danny Caldwell – Owner
A resident of Poteau, Okla. and former high school educator and coach, Caldwell is the all-time leading owner by wins at Remington Park with 421 entering the 2023 season. He went all-in for horse racing as the millennium started, using a business model of claiming horses, finding winning spots to race and elevating them if possible. Many of his claims went on to become stakes winners at Remington Park including Fifth Date and Dont Tell Noobody (Oklahoma Classics Cup winners), Rated R Superstar (two-time Governor’s Cup winner) and Eurobond (Oklahoma Classics Sprint), among others.
“In 2001, I was coaching Panama High School in the state softball championships at the USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium, a couple of furlongs from Remington Park,” Caldwell said upon learning of his Hall of Fame inclusion. “I really got going with horse racing right after that. I would have never thought, that just over 20 years later, I would be going into the Hall of Fame at Remington. I am truly honored.”
Welder – All-time Wins Leader at Remington Park
The gray sprinter that found his winning form as he grew older under the training of Teri Luneack, became a three-time Remington Park Horse of the Meeting (2018-2020). Welder racked up 16 career wins in Oklahoma City, to set the new standard for local scores. Owned by Clayton Rash’s Ra-Max Farms of Claremore, Okla., the gelded Oklahoma-bred son of The Visualiser from the Tiznow mare Dance Softly, amassed more than $1.2 million in earnings with $889,340 of it gained at Remington Park. Welder won 12 of 13 races during his Horse of the Meeting seasons and won at distances from five furlongs to 6-1/5 furlongs in his career here. He set the new Remington Park win mark, in what turned out to be his final victory before retirement, on Aug. 27, 2021. Welder also owns the Remington Park record for most stakes wins with 11.
Shotgun Kowboy – 2015 Oklahoma Derby Winner
Owned, trained and bred in Oklahoma by Hall of Famer C.R. Trout, Shotgun Kowboy became just the second state-bred horse to win the Oklahoma Derby. Prior to 2015, the only other to win the richest race at Remington Park was the legendary Clever Trevor in 1989. A multiple stakes winner at Remington Park, the gelded son of Kodiak Kowboy from the Siphon (Brz) mare Shotgun Jane, left the sprint ranks to win his derby and won 11 of his 15 triumphs between distances of 1 mile-70 yards and 1-1/8 miles. Shotgun Kowboy won the Oklahoma Classics Cup a record four times (2015, 2017-2019). He won 10 times at Remington Park with two seconds and four thirds, finishing off the board only once in 17 Oklahoma City starts. A career earner of more than $1.5 million, Shotgun Kowboy almost reached a million at Remington Park, piling up $982,020. He was retired by Trout at the end of the 2019 campaign.
Slide Show – Nearly Perfect Stakes-winning Filly
A superstar filly in the early years of Remington Park, Slide Show almost completed an undefeated career in Oklahoma City. Owned by Joe Colley and Deanne White, Slide Show burst onto the scene a winning 2-year-old in 1993. Trained by Wade White, the Oklahoma-bred daughter of Slewacide from the Silent Screen broodmare Screen Landing, won 11 consecutive races at Remington Park from 1993 to 1995, including seven stakes races. Among the big-money scores were three Oklahoma Classics events, the Lassie (1993), the Distaff (1994) and a victory over males in the Classics Cup (1995). Slide Show only tasted defeat once at Remington Park, in her 12th and final start here, when she was third in allowance company. The lone defeat took place just three weeks after winning the Classics Cup. Slide Show earned $215,306 in her 12 Remington Park attempts. Overall, she won 12 of 25 career starts with five seconds and two thirds for total earnings of $347,917, competing from 1993-1996.
Darrell Darrell – Versatile Stakes-winning Sprinter from early 1990s
A fan favorite from 1991 to 1996, Darrell Darrell racked up sprint victories against fellow Oklahoma-breds, and in open company. Triumphant at sprint measures from 5-1/2 to 7 furlongs, Darrell Darrell even won a 1,000-yard match race in the “Rumble at Remington” in June 1993 when he defeated EJ Cash Bo, an American Quarter Horse, by one length. Owned by Jean Dillard of Ringling, Okla. and trained during his finest years by Normie Thomas, Jr., Darrell Darrell was by Boca Rio from the King’s Bishop mare Harrys Queen. He finished in the money in 25 of 28 Remington Park starts with 12 local victories and local earnings of $328,155, an astronomical amount for the early 1990s. Overall, Darrell Darrell won 19 career races from 47 starts, making more than $540,000.
The 2023 Thoroughbred Season at Remington Park begins Friday, Aug. 18 and continues through Friday, Dec. 15.
Tracked by more than 176,000 fans on Facebook and 10,600 Twitter followers, Remington Park has provided more than $325 Million to the State of Oklahoma general education fund since the opening of the casino in 2005. Located at the junction of Interstates 35 & 44, in the heart of the Oklahoma City Adventure District. Remington Park presents simulcast racing daily and non-stop casino gaming. Visit remingtonpark.com for more information.
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