GREELEY AND BEN EXTENDS HIS WINNING STREAK TO NINE RACES IN ROW, ENDING WELDER’S PERSONAL STREAK IN $150,000 DAVID M. VANCE STAKES

Greeley and Ben extended his winning streak to nine in a row, taking the $150,000 David M. Vance Stakes at Remington Park, giving trainer Karl Broberg and owner End Zone Athletics of Mansfield, Texas, possibly the claim of the century.

Back on March 7 at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., Broberg claimed Greeley and Ben for $10,000. Since then, this 7-year-old gelded son of Greeley’s Conquest, out of the Langfuhr mare Traci’s Wild, has won 10-of-11 starts for Broberg and his last nine consecutive races. The David Vance Stakes was his first black type win, however.

“When did I know I had a stakes horse on my hands during the streak?” Broberg repeated the question. “Tonight when he hit the finish line. I have worked very hard to keep this horse out of spots like this.”

The public believed in Greeley and Ben long before Broberg evidently as they sent him off as the 3-2 wagering favorite. It’s understandable that it would be surprising to Broberg that his horse would be bet down as hard as he was.

This was the best bunch of sprinters ever assembled for the David Vance Stakes. Greeley and Ben would have to beat the all-time winningest horse in Remington Park history, Welder, with 16 wins over the surface; a horse, Long Range Toddy, who had won the $400,000 Springboard Mile here in 2018 and went on to compete in the Kentucky Derby the next year; Empire of Gold, who had run fourth in the 2020 Breeders’ Cup Sprint to Whitmore; Share the Upside, who beat Whitmore at Oaklawn two years ago, and Nitrous, winner of the $175,000 Thanksgiving Classic Stakes at Fair Grounds in Nov. 2020.

Jockey Joe Talamo was thrilled to get the call to ride Greeley and Ben for the first time in the horse’s 26 starts. Talamo was thoroughly impressed.

“I’ll give you $10,000 for him right now,” Talamo said to Broberg. “Maybe more!”

Greeley and Ben was fourth after a quarter of a mile, sitting behind It Makes Sense (69-1), Share the Upside (15-1) and Empire of Gold (7-2). Welder, at 8-1 odds, broke poorly and closed slightly to finish fifth. It was only the third time in Welder’s career he was sent off at 8-1 odds or higher. The other two times came in his first career start at Remington Park on Nov. 5, 2015 at 49-1 when he ran second, beaten only a head, and at 9-1 in the $150,000 Hot Springs Stakes at Oaklawn on March 9, 2019 in a third-place finish to Whitmore.

Talamo was gushing about Greeley and Ben’s win afterwards.

“What a trip it was,” he said. “Hats off to Karl. I can’t take any credit. With that many wins in a row, he is just a great horse to ride. I’d sure like to ride him again. I just tried to be a good passenger. When he switched leads in the stretch, he went past those horses so fast, he was actually waiting a little bit when he got in front.”

In the end, Greeley and Ben won by 2-1/2 lengths over runner-up Mr Money Bags (7-1), who was another 1-3/4 lengths ahead of Long Range Toddy (10-1), who entered the night with three wins in five trips over the Remington Park track.

Greeley and Ben earned nine times the price Broberg paid for him in the initial claim – $90,000 for the victory – and that doesn’t even count the money from the other nine wins since he moved to Broberg’s barn. The winner’s record is now 26 starts, 16 wins, four seconds and one third for $454,398 in earnings. The reason Broberg claimed the horse this past spring was nothing he boasts about.

“I just thought he was a horse that looked like he was worth $10,000,” Broberg said. “If I said there was anything genius to it, I’d be making up a story. I’ll still be looking for a $10,000 starter allowance for him next time out.”

The winner covered the 6 furlongs in 1:09.79 on the fast track, racing into interior fractions of :21.98 for the quarter-mile, :44.29 for the half-mile and :56.50 for five-eighths of a mile. Greeley and Ben lit the track on fire with his previous win here, going 1:08.88.

“I thought we were the horse to beat based on numbers alone,” said Broberg.

Greeley and Ben was bred in Kentucky by the Millard R. Seldin Revocable Trust.

The rest of the final order of finish for the David M. Vance Stakes was Empire of Gold fourth, Welder fifth, Bybee (65-1) sixth, Share the Upside seventh, Nitrous (7-2) eighth and It Makes Sense ninth.

This was the first victory in the Vance for all of the connections.

The race is named in honor of Remington Park’s founding president and general manager David Vance, a 2012 inductee into the Oklahoma Horse Racing Hall of Fame.
Racing continues next week with a Wednesday-Saturday, Sept. 29-Oct. 2 schedule. First post time is 7:07 p.m. nightly.

Tracked by more than 167,000 fans on Facebook and 10,400 Twitter followers, Remington Park has provided more than $272 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 home for the $1,000,000 Oklahoma Classics Night, an evening of stakes racing to celebrate Oklahoma-breds, on Friday, Oct. 15. Simulcast horse racing featured daily, the casino is always open! Visit remingtonpark.com for more information.

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