GLEE WINS INITIAL TOBY KEITH STAKES BY 10-3/4 LENGTHS AT REMINGTON PARK

Glee ran in two stakes races at Remington Park this meet and she won both by a combined 25-3/4 lengths. On Friday night it was a 10-3/4 length victory in the $75,000 initial Toby Keith Stakes 2-year-old fillies.

The top connections of this meet were victorious once again as leading trainer and jockey, Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen and Kentucky-Derby winning rider Stewart Elliott (Smarty Jones), showed how to get it done. Glee set down in third on the backstretch of this one-mile race over a fast main track, by the time she hit the top of the stretch, she had passed the two front-runners and was practically in another county. In mid-stretch Glee was up by seven-lengths and kept pulling away. Elliott didn’t even have to ask her to run at any point in the stretch.

“I figured she’d be fine,” Elliott said of Glee’s first try around two turns. “It was as easy as when I rode her before here (winning the E.L. Gaylord by 15 lengths on Sept. 29 at 6-1/2 furlongs).”

Glee, as the heavy betting favorite at 1-5 odds, paid $2.40 to win, and $2.10 to place and show. She earned $45,000 from the purse and improved to six starts, three wins and one second for owner Mike Rutherford of Houston, Texas. She has now earned $128,659 in her six starts.

A Texas-bred filly by Honor A.P., out of the Bluegrass Cat mare Red Tabby, Glee was bred by No Escape Ranch. Rutherford bought her from the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall Yearling Sale in 2023 for $60,000.

Tapitures Actor (4-1) checked in second and she was 3-1/2 lengths ahead of third-place finisher La Camelia (39-1). The rest of the order of finish was Runnin On Promises (39-1) fourth, Elegant Echo (8-1) fifth and Café Au Lait (21-1) last.

Glee covered the mile in 1:40.26 after pacesetter Runnin On Promises led early in :24.07 for the first quarter-mile, :47.77 for the half-mile, and 1:12.77 for three-quarters of a mile. Glee was in the process of passing Runnin On Promises at that point and almost blew her doors off when she went by her.

The Toby Keith Stakes was the third of four wins for the top combo of the meet, Asmussen and Elliott, on the final night of the season. Two of those trips to the winner’s circle were in stakes events.

Glee provided the first win in this stakes series for Elliott and the third for Asmussen who also won this race when it was the Trapeze Stakes in 2021 with Optionality and in 2019 with Princesinha Julia. It was also the first win in this race for Rutherford.

Earlier in the evening in race five, Asmussen trainee Trust Daddy won an allowance race and that gave Asmussen, his unprecedented 1,300th win at Remington Park. He collected his 19th Remington Park training title this season.

The Toby Keith Stakes was formally called the Trapeze Stakes. It is Remington Park’s top open-company stakes event for 2-year-old fillies. The race was renamed to honor Keith, a long-time Oklahoma owner/breeder and supporter of Remington Park, after his passing earlier this year.

Remington Park has provided more than $370 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 year-round simulcast racing and casino gaming. The 2025 American Quarter Horse Season will begin on March 6. Must be 18 or older to wager on horse racing or enter the casino gaming floor. Visit remingtonpark.com for more information.

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