CAT DADDYS LIL GIRL PROVES BEST AS HEAVY FAVORITE IN GRADE 1 JUNOS REQUEST STAKES

Cat Daddys Lil Girl has been virtually unbeatable going back to 2019 and Saturday night at Remington Park she was just that in winning the Grade 1, $128,241 Junos Request Stakes.

In the 5-year-old gray mare’s last 12 starts, she has won five of those; run second beaten by a half-length, a half-length, two necks and a nose; third by a neck, and fifth, beaten less than a length. That is a horse that likes to win. The victory by a neck in the Junos Request was her fourth stakes win since July 13, 2019. The mare was sired by Big Daddy Cartel, out of the Man On the Move mare Girlonthego, and bred in New Mexico by the owners, Jimmy Negrete and Jimmy Vasquez of Carlsbad, N.M.

Trainer Jason Giles put jockey Noe Garcia, Jr., in the irons for the race and Garcia said his mare had a message for the rest of the field.

“She found a second gear and said bye-bye,” Garcia said with a laugh. “We won easier today and I think she has way more in the tank. She’s going to have a good career.”

Garcia had won the $75,000 Easy Date Stakes in her only other start at Remington Park on April 17, beating Ratification by a head. Ratification was a scratch from the Junos Request on Saturday. Cat Daddys Lil Girl, at 4-5 odds, hit the wire in :19.695 on a fast track for the 400 yards, earning a speed index of 90. She was a neck ahead of Macs Lady M (7-1), who was another head in front of third-place finisher Paint Me Tres (10-1) in the blanket finish.

The remaining order of finish in the Junos Request Stakes: Kiss Thru Fire (4th), Ritas Back On Track (5th), Amandas Flashy (6th), BV Sheslikethewind (7th), Magnificat (8th), Kieva (9th), Relentless Jessie (10th) and Diamond And A Half (11th).

John Hammes handled the mare for Giles while she was at Remington Park this spring and represented him in the winner’s circle. Cat Daddys Lil Girl earned $76,476 for winning and updated her record to 19 starts, nine wins, five seconds and one third for $465,158 in earnings. Besides the two stakes wins at Remington Park she also had won two in New Mexico as 2019 turned into 2020 – the New Mexico Filly & Mare Championship at Zia Park on Dec. 1, 2019 and the Lou Wood Handicap at Sunland on Jan. 11, 2020.

The Junos Request Stakes is for fillies and mares, 3 and older. The race is named for multiple Remington Park seasonal champion Junos Request who won the 1992 Remington Park Championship in a year where she was eventually voted the American Quarter Horse Association’s Champion Aged Mare.

The final racing program of the 2021 American Quarter Horse, Paint and Appaloosa Season at Remington Park takes place on Sunday, May 30. The first race is at 1:30pm-Central.

Tracked by more than 167,000 fans on Facebook and 10,400 Twitter followers, Remington Park has provided more than $261 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 features live and simulcast horse racing, and the casino is always open! Visit remingtonpark.com for more information.

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