GREELEY AND BEN WINS FOR EIGHTH TIME IN ROW, TAKING ALLOWANCE EARMARKED AS PREP RACE FOR $150,000 DAVID VANCE STAKES
Greeley and Ben cruised to his eighth win in a row in the featured allowance race at Remington Park on Saturday night, a race that is a stepping stone to the $150,000 David M. Vance Stakes scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 26.
That could be a re-match of the hottest horse on the planet, Greeley and Ben, and the all-time winningest horse at Remington Park, Welder, who won his 16th race here in an allowance event last week. The two horses met at Prairie Meadows in Iowa on June 5 and it culminated in Greeley and Ben’s fourth win in this current streak. Welder ran third in that race, losing by two lengths, after losing a shoe at the gate at the start of the race.
“We are heading that way (to the Vance) unless a $10,000 starter allowance race fills that week,” Greeley and Ben’s trainer Karl Broberg said.
That may be the most unbelievable part of this story. Greeley and Ben was claimed by Broberg for End Zone Athletics of Mansfield, Texas, for $10,000 at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., on March 7 this past spring. Since the claim, Greeley and Ben has won 9-of-10 starts for Broberg’s outfit and still would be eligible for a starter allowance race of that level.
Having said he’d enter him in a starter allowance if available, don’t believe it. After Greeley and Ben’s win in this $40,000 open allowance sprint, Broberg took to Twitter as he is wont to do.
“Hell yes!!!” Broberg tweeted. “Hottest trainer in the country for the last hour. Greeley and Ben extends his win streak to eight in his Remington Park debut against a compact solid field! All of a sudden that losing streak is a distant memory. What a cool horse. Stakes debut next start at Remington Park.”
Broberg was referencing a personal, recent, losing training streak in his tweet. He currently sits second in the nation in overall wins this year with 285 wins, only trailing the all-time winningest trainer in racing history, Steve Asmussen, with 346. Broberg puts his horses in spots where they can win. There’s a reason he led the nation in wins by a trainer from 2014-2019.
Saturday night’s victory came against a stakes-level field of four other competitors. Greeley and Ben, a 7-year-old gelded son of Greeley’s Conquest, out of the Langfuhr mare Traci’s Wild, was sent off as the even-money favorite and finished one length ahead of Empire of Gold (5-2) in second. All Empire of Gold has done in the past two years is run fourth in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Sprint behind Whitmore and then facing Whitmore the next spring in the Grade 3 Count Fleet Sprint at Oaklawn. Empire of Gold ran third in that spot when C Z Rocket beat Whitmore by two lengths.
Running third in Saturday night’s feature, a nose behind Empire of Gold, was Direct Dial (6-1).
Greeley and Ben was bred in Kentucky by Millard R. Seldin Rev. Trust and now has won 10-of-14 races at six furlongs, the distance of the David Vance Stakes. He pocketed $24,000 with the win, about 2-1/2 times what he was claimed for if you don’t even count the other eight wins. If there were an Eclipse Award for best claim of the year, this could possibly be the winner.
Greeley and Ben paid $4 to win, $2.80 to place and $2.40 to show to his backers at the betting windows. His overall record lifetime is now 25 starts, 15 wins, four seconds and one third for a career bankroll of $364,398.
Greeley and Ben, with leading Remington Park jockey David Cabrera in the saddle, sat fourth in the field of five and moved up to second after a half-mile. He had taken the lead turning for home, moving through an opening at the rail coming off the turn, and had a winning head of steam to victory.
Empire of Gold and Favorable Outcome (8-1 in fourth) set the early fractions on the lead. Empire of Gold hit the poles in :22.48 seconds for the first quarter-mile and :45.12 seconds for the half-mile. By the time Greeley and Ben passed those two, the five-eighths time was :56.70 seconds. The winning time was 1:08.88 seconds over a fast
track. A rainstorm hit Remington Park as the race was run.
One other aspect to this story, Cabrera rode Greeley and Ben for the first time Saturday night and he is the regular rider for Welder. Oddly enough he rode neither horse when they met in Iowa. Mark your calendars for Sept. 26. This could get interesting.
Cabrera Triples
When the Saturday program started at Remington Park, jockeys David Cabrera and Leandro Goncalves shared the lead in the rider standings with eight wins each. A riding triple throughout the night, launched Cabrera in front by three wins, 11 to eight, as Goncalves was winless on the card.
Cabrera won race three aboard Light Shift ($9.80 to win) to start his hat trick. He was on Remember Me Tony ($3.60) in the fifth race, and then Greeley and Ben in race eight. The resident of Jones, Okla. is attempting to win his fourth consecutive title at Remington Park.
Racing continues next week with a Wednesday-Saturday schedule, Sept. 8-11, with the first race nightly at 7:07pm-Central.
Tracked by more than 167,000 fans on Facebook and 10,400 Twitter followers, Remington Park has provided more than $269 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! The Grade 3 Oklahoma Derby and Grade 3 Remington Park Oaks will take place on Sunday, Sept. 26. Visit remingtonpark.com for more information.
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