COURTLY ELEVATED TO SLIDE SHOW STAKES WIN AT REMINGTON PARK
The $75,000 Slide Show Stakes saw Twilight Curfew cross the finish line 1-1/2 lengths in front of Courtly. However, her victory would be short-lived due to an incident she caused at the start of the race.
A one-mile event for 2-year-old Oklahoma-bred fillies, the Slide Show had seven leave the starting gate with Twilight Curfew in post position one. As soon as the gates opened, she took an immediate right turn into all of her outside foes, stacking up the field before jockey David Cabrera even had a chance to completely control the reins. The interference caused many in the field to shuffle back and lose their strides, forcing some sideways in the early going. Twilight Curfew was disqualified from the win and placed last, raising the second-place finisher, Courtly to her first career score.
Owned by Poindexter Thoroughbreds of Springfield, Mo. and trained by Lynn Chleborad, Courtly was ridden by Ramon Vazquez. She found her first victory in her sixth career start, having previously registered only one in-the-money finish. Chleborad noted Courtly had some complications that have now been alleviated.
“She had been having trouble breathing and a procedure was done on her throat that seemed to fix the problem,” Chleborad said.
Concerning getting the win via another’s disqualification, Chleborad is sympathetic. “I’ve been there and wouldn’t wish that on anybody, but you saw what happened at the gate.”
Courtly set the pace early on in the Slide Show, hitting a quarter-mile in :24.60, a half-mile in :48.87 and three-quarters of a mile in 1:13.67 before giving up the lead to Twilight Curfew in deep stretch. After the disqualification, Ekati’s Hit moved up to second, 4-1/2 lengths behind Courtly. Long Gone Okie was put in the third position, another 1-3/4 lengths back.
Away at 29-1 odds, Courtly paid $60.20 to win, $16 to place and $7.60 to show. The first career triumph for Courtly was worth $45,000 and raised her lifetime money to $57,707. She now has one win and one second to her credit for six career attempts. A daughter of Pollard’s Vision from the Noble Causeway mare Lady Noble, Courtly was bred by H. Allen Poindexter.
The Slide Show Stakes win is the first in the race for all of the connections of Courtly.
The Slide Show Stakes is named in honor of the Oklahoma-bred filly who was near perfect in her career at Remington Park, winning 11 consecutive starts from 1993 to 1995, eight of them stakes events. Her only local defeat came in her final start, when she was third in an allowance event.
Tracked by more than 164,000 fans on Facebook and 10,500 Twitter followers, Remington Park has provided more than $252 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 is open daily for casino gaming and simulcast horse racing. The $200,000 Springboard Mile, the top stakes event for 2-year-olds at Remington Park, is featured on Friday, Dec. 18. The 2020 Thoroughbred Season continues through Sunday, Dec. 20. Visit remingtonpark.com for more information.
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