Whitmore (Pleasantly Perfect), who ran the fastest six furlongs in the history of Oaklawn Park in his most recent appearance, will pass this weekend's King Cotton S. in favor of the $125,000 Hot Springs S. Mar. 11. Ron Moquett, who trains the 4-year-old gelding and owns him in partnership with Robert LaPenta, Harry Rosenblum and Southern Springs Stables, will use the Hot Springs as a steppingstone to his main objective, the $400,000 GIII Count Fleet Sprint H. during the Racing Festival of the South Apr. 15.
Runner-up in last year's GIII Southwest S. and GII Rebel S. and third in the GII Arkansas Derby, Whitmore was well beaten in the GI Kentucky Derby and was sidelined for seven months. He is perfect in two tries around one turn since, a 1 1/2-length allowance success at Aqueduct Dec. 3 prior to his latest, a 2 3/4-length tally in which he stopped the timer in 1:08.81. The prior record for the six-furlong distance was set by Ivan Fallunovalot (Valid Expectations) (1:09.21) in last year's King Cotton S. Whitmore will take a pass on a clash with the latter in his title defense and look towards the future.
“When you have a monster race like that, you owe it to the horse to give him a little bit of extra time,” Moquett said. “He obviously runs well fresh, so I'm going to let Ivan have the first one and I'm hooking it up with him in the next one.”
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