SPRINGBOARD MILE WINNER WILDATLANTICSTORM POSTS HIS FIRST OFFICIAL WORKOUT FOR REMINGTON PARK MEET

OKLAHOMA CITY – Last year’s surprise winner of the Springboard Mile, Wildatlanticstorm, at 15-1 odds, got in his first official workout over the Remington Park racing surface Tuesday morning, breezing three furlongs in :40 flat.

The 2022 seasonal Horse of the Meeting jogged over the track a week ago before official workouts were being recorded. Going to the track at 6:10am while temperatures were still in the low 70s, Wildatlanticstorm was 19th fastest of 21 that went three-eighths of a mile. The time was slow, just as it was (:40) at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, Texas, on July 15 when he was ninth fastest of 10 there, but the slow works were by design.

“I told my exercise rider, ‘easy, easy,’ and I was looking for about a :38, so :40 was good,” said trainer Ray Ashford of Moore, Okla. “He went over the track good.”

Ashford is bringing the big chestnut colt back slowly from a bone bruise injury in the right front leg. In fact, Wildatlanticstorm has not raced since winning the Springboard Mile on Dec. 17, 2022 at Remington Park.

“He came out of that race fine and we took him to Sam Houston Race Park,” said Ashford, who trains the earner of $366,568 for owner Jim Jorgensen of Thornton, Iowa. Wildatlanticstorm crossed the scales on the night of his Springboard win at 1,238 pounds. “I’ll bet you he weighs in at 1,300-plus his first race this year,” Ashford predicted. “About four weeks after the Springboard, he was a little off after a workout at Sam Houston and that’s when we found the bone bruise.”

Ashford said Wildatlanticstorm has taken advantage of the eight months off and has grown exponentially as a 3-year-old, and is all muscle. He was pleased with the move this morning and wants to send him out again for his next work on Thursday or Friday, Aug. 10 or 11.

“The easy work today was good, but we may send him out in company next week,” Ashford noted. “He tends to go slower when he’s alone, but he speeds up with the competition. As hot as it’s been, the track was deeper today than it was yesterday. We really need Mother Nature to step in to solidify the track.”

Ashford is optimistically hoping for a chance to run Wildatlanticstorm in Remington Park’s Grade 3, $400,000 Oklahoma Derby on Sept. 24, but if he isn’t ready, “being an Iowa-bred, we could run him the next week at Prairie Meadows’ $100,000 Iowa Breeders’ Derby on Sept. 30.”

As for looking ahead to this year’s $300,000 Springboard Mile on Friday, Dec. 15, and the 2-year-old crop in Ashford’s barn, he loved what one of his owners did in the downtime.

Ron Stolich, a multiple stakes winning owner for Ashford, told him he had bought 15 juveniles from this year’s Ocala Breeders Sales for 2-year-olds-in training in Florida. Stolich and wife Fran owned California’s Blooming Hills Farm for breeding from 1979-2005. They sold the farm when Ron was in his 60s because “I just think it’s time to do some things I want to do, like travel,” he told BloodHorse magazine.

Ashford revealed last week that his son Tristan (21) has retained a license to train and he is already feeling pressure from his boy.

“He’s making me look bad; he has won something like 12-of-28 at Prairie Meadows,” said Ashford, or maybe he could tell people he taught Tristan everything he knows. “I joke with him that I feel like he actually was paying attention (to me). We actually could be racing against each other in the Iowa Breeders’ Derby as he has a 3-year-old of Jorgensen’s named Cinco de Mo who could be in it against Wildatlanticstorm.”

Wildatlanticstorm is a son of Stormy Atlantic, out of the Big Brown mare Imsortaspecial, has started six times, won four and run second twice.

MULTIPLE STAKES WINNER ALTERNATIVE SLEW GETS IN SHORT WORKOUT
Alternative Slew, a three-time stakes winner at Remington Park, got in a short workout Tuesday, covering three furlongs in :37.63 handily. The 7-year-old mare by Alternation, out of the Evansville Slew mare Imadancingslew, won three stakes in Oklahoma City for now-retired trainer Randy Oberlander. She was victorious in the Bob Barry Memorial Stakes on Sept. 27, 2019 and the Oklahoma Classics Distaff Turf Stakes two years in a row 2019-20. The mare did run second to her stablemate Run Slewpy Run in the 2021 Oklahoma Classics Distaff from the barn of Randy’s son, Jesse.

Alternative Slew had a barn mishap, jabbing one eye with a wire and had to be given some time off. She has not run since she finished fifth in an allowance race at Remington Park on Nov. 27, 2021.

The 67-date Remington Park Thoroughbred Season begins Friday, Aug. 18 and continues through Springboard Mile Night on Friday, Dec. 15.

Tracked by more than 176,000 fans on Facebook and 10,600 Twitter followers, Remington Park has provided more than $325 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. Visit remingtonpark.com for more information.

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