OWNER OF REMINGTON PARK OAKS WINNER, ALPINE PRINCESS, RIDING ROLLER COASTER OF EMOTIONS WITH THIS FILLY

Alpine Princess may be back on the express train to fame that her owners thought she might ride as a young filly after winning the $200,000 Remington Park Oaks with ease on Sunday.

Full of Run Racing and Madaket Stables were hoping the ceiling for her was as high as the sky when they bought her for $190,000 at the 2022 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. The 3-year-old daughter has seen more ups and downs in her career than an elevator operator thus far, however.

The Kentucky-bred daughter of Classic Empire, out of the Curlin mare Le Moine, created a sparkle in the eyes of her owners when they first saw her at the sale. One of those owners in that partnership, Dan Glick, explained.

“We had her pointed toward the (Kentucky) Oaks originally,” he said.

Alpine Princess broke her maiden status at one of the most prestigious tracks in the country at Saratoga in upstate New York in her second career race in 2023 as a 2-year-old. They entered her next in the Grade 1, $600,000 Alcibiades Stakes at Keeneland on Oct. 6 and she ran an extremely disappointing seventh, beaten 28-1/4 lengths.

The filly came back later in the fall last year and won two races in a row off that effort, against allowance non-winners-of-two at Churchill Downs in Louisville by two lengths and again in the $100,000 Untapable Stakes at Fair Grounds in New Orleans on Dec. 23, the last race of her 2-year-old career.

Coming off a layoff from that December race to Feb. 17, she again had trouble, running fourth over a sloppy track at Fair Grounds, finishing well back in the Grade 2, $300,000 Rachel Alexandra Stakes, beaten nine lengths.

“We were so disappointed in the Rachel and then we shipped her to Turfway Park and she got hurt up there,” Glick noted.

That was on March 23 in the $300,000 Bourbonette Oaks, forcing Alpine Princess to not run in six months before her win in the Remington Park Oaks.

“Now I think she may be ready for graded stakes again,” Glick said.

Geroux thought this Oaks victory was pretty uneventful and the trip his filly got was nothing worth remembering in particular.
“I can’t tell you much about the trip; only how it ended,” he said with a smile. “I had no doubt. I just had to get on her early to keep her mind on business about the eighth pole. At the quarter pole, I came up to (Miss Code West, last year’s Remington Park Horse of the Meet) pretty easy and when I went by her so fast, knowing she was the horse to beat in the race, I knew I was going to be very tough to beat from there.”

The winning margin for Alpine Princess was 9-3/4 lengths as the 8-5 betting favorite.
Alpine Princes paid $5.20 to win, $3.20 to place and $2.40 to show.

Miss Code West went off at 2-1 odds and held on for second, beating third-place finisher Just Be Quiet (18-1) by a nose. The rest of the order of finish for the Oaks was Lemonesse (5-1) fourth, Chi (11-1) fifth, Candy Gray (4-1) sixth, Change It Up (41-1) seventh and Teresa’s Nightmare (22-1) eighth.

The winning time for the 1-1/16th miles over a fast main track was 1:43.12. In the early going, Alpine Princess was pacing herself behind front-runner Change It Up, who went the first quarter-mile in :24.43 and the half-mile in :48.29 before fading to next-to-last. At the half-mile, Miss Code West began accelerating and took over the lead before Alpine Princess collared her in the turn for home. Alpine Princess had pulled away from everyone at the top of the stretch by three lengths.

Alpine Princess was bred in Kentucky by Betz/DJ Stables/ Peter Lamantia/Classic Empire Syndicate. She earned $120,000 for the win and improved her career to eight starts, four wins and two thirds for $371,810 in earnings, almost twice her purchase price.

Live racing continues Oct. 2-5, Wednesday through Saturday, with first post time of 6:30 p.m. CDT nightly.

Remington Park has provided more than $357 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 simulcast racing daily and non-stop casino gaming. The 2024 Thoroughbred Season continues through Dec. 13. The Oklahoma Classics Night of stakes racing for top Oklahoma-breds takes place on Friday, Oct. 18. 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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