Fred Hooper

Longtime Florida horseman Milton S. Hendry passed away in Crystal River, Florida June 27. He was 82. The native of Bay Springs, Mississippi first became professionally involved with show horses, reining horses and barrel racing. He later started race riding at unsanctioned meets in the south and midwest before receiving his jockey license to ride Quarter Horses in Louisiana in 1972. Before retiring from riding in 1986, he was a leading Quarter Horse jockey at Commonwealth Race Course in Louisville and Pompano Park Race Course. Hendry, who trained for Alec...

Speaker's Corner (Street Sense) and Fearless (Ghostzapper), one-two across the line in the GIII Fred W. Hooper S. Jan. 29, face off again in Saturday's GII WinStar Gulfstream Park Mile S. The highly regarded Godolphin homebred Speaker's Corner, second after setting the pace in the 1 1/8-mile Discovery S. at Aqueduct Nov. 27, turned back to a mile with a sharp, wire-to-wire tally under an aggressive ride from Junior Alvarado in the Hooper. Fearless, four of six with two seconds in Hallandale, rallied from last of eight to finish a...

Lightly raced Speaker's Corner had earned some strong speed figures up to this point for a horse without a stakes win, and he kicked off his 4-year-old campaign auspiciously with a breakthrough tally in Florida. A second-out graduate in New York as a fall juvenile over a very salty bunch of future stakes runners (Caddo River, Greatest Honour, Miles D, Bourbonic and Original), Speaker's Corner resurfaced off the long lay-off to crush Saratoga allowance foes by open lengths. The GI Pennsylvania Derby next out perhaps proved too much too soon,...

Phipps Stable and Claiborne Farm's Performer (Speightstown) looks to find his way back to the winner's circle Saturday in Gulfstream's GIII Fred W. Hooper S. Opening his 2019 account with a trio of victories in New York, he capped that perfect season with a win in Aqueduct's GIII Discovery S. Nov. 30. Winning a muddy optional claimer at Belmont Oct. 17, the chestnut checked in third as the favorite in a sloppy renewal of Aqueduct's GI Cigar Mile Dec. 5. The second and third-place finishers from this venue's GIII Harlan's...