FABULOUS RACHEL PUTS HER CONNECTIONS IN THE PINK WITH VICTORY IN GRADE 1 JUNOS REQUEST STAKES

The Champions’ Night crowd on Saturday at Remington Park saw nothing but pink flying down the track in the Grade 1, $119,120 Junos Request Stakes but when all was said and done, it was Fabulous Rachel who had her connections in the pink as the winner.

She outlasted the other fillies and mares for 400 yards by a neck in the race dedicated to cancer survivors with all the competitors dressed to the nines in pink saddle cloths and the jockeys in pink silks.

It Fabulous Rachel and jockey Juan Pulido that hit the finish line first as the 9-2 fourth-favorite in the field, defeating runner-up A Dream to Fill, trained by the top conditioner of the meet Dee Keener. This time it was the top win-percentage trainer, Waylan Melton who finished on top. Coming into Saturday’s races, Melton’s horses had won at a 33 percent clip, 20 winners from 61 starts.

“No, I wasn’t worried,” said Pulido despite winning by less than a length. “She was pretty sure she knew what she was doing. I just let her run.”

Melton had a different outlook on the situation.

“Unlike Juan, I was really nervous right there at the wire,” Melton said with a laugh.

Fabulous Rachel, a 4-year-old mare by One Fabulous Eagle, out of the Teller Cartel mare Teller Baja, caught front-running A Dream to Fill (25-1) in the last 100 yards and held on for the win. A Dream to Fill was a half-length ahead of third-place finisher Pops First Lady, the 2-1 betting favorite.

Fabulous Rachel paid $11.40 to win, $6 to place and $4 to show. She earned $71,730 for owner Darling Farms of Lamont, Okla., and padded her record to eight starts, four wins, and two seconds, more than doubling her lifetime earnings to $139,564. She was bred in Oklahoma by Juan Medina.

Earlier in the meet Fabulous Rachel had shown some promise getting beaten only a neck in the $50,000 Decketta Stakes, won by Sassalitical on March 25. Sassalitical, a multiple stakes winner this meet, could only beat two horses in this field of 10 as the 3-1 second favorite.

Running time for Fabulous Rachel at 400 yards on a fast track was :19.350 for a speed index of 103. A Dream To Fill also scored a three-figure speed number at 102.

The remaining order of finish in the Junos Request was: Jess Give Mea Reason (4th), Jess Special Folly V (5th), Sweet Dasha Fire (6th), Jessapolliticalgirl (7th), Sassalitical (8th), Sweet Brown Sugar (9th) and Glamazon (10th).

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.

Tracked by more than 175,000 fans on Facebook and 10,700 Twitter followers, Remington Park has provided more than $320 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 will begin the 2023 Thoroughbred Season on Aug. 18. Remington Park presents simulcast racing daily and non-stop casino gaming. Visit remingtonpark.com for more information.

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