HOT SPRINGS — 9th race marred by spills
Sunday afternoon’s final race at Oaklawn Park was marred by the death of one horse and an injury to jockey Ricardo Santana Jr. in an unrelated incident.
The Oaklawn media relations department said late Sunday afternoon that Santana had movement in all extremities, but complained of pain in his chest and head after being unseated near the top of the stretch in the 1 1-16-mile race for low-level Arkansas-bred maiden claimers.
Summer Medallist, the race’s early leader, died of an apparent heart attack before an attending veterinarian reached the scene, an Oaklawn media relations official said.
Summer Medallist, a 4-year-old gelding owned by K.K. and Devi Jayaraman and trained by Joe Martin, collapsed just past the half-pole after giving way suddenly under Ramon Vazquez.
Vazquez wasn’t injured.
Santana was thrown hard to the ground after his mount, Rediron Man, stumbled near the quarter pole
Santana was treated by medical personnel for about 12 minutes before being transported by ambulance to St. Joseph’s Mercy Health Center in Hot Springs.
Santana is scheduled to begin a three-day suspension Thursday for a riding infraction earlier this month.
Rediron Man was caught without incident by an outrider near the seven eighths pole and escaped serious injury.
Partnership ends
The lengthy, successful partnership between owners Patricia and Buddy Blass of Little Rock and trainer Jinks Fires of Hot Springs ended abruptly Sunday morning when they severed their business relationship of approximately 30 years.
Patricia Blass said Sunday afternoon the three horses she and her husband had with Fires at Oaklawn are being transferred to trainer Shannon Ritter, including Amazing Shoes, a 3-year old Empire Maker filly who broke her maiden in Friday’s first race.
Amazing Shoes represented the only winner in the Blasses/Fires collaboration at the last two Oaklawn meetings.
The filly was also their final starter together.
“It’s been going on for a couple of years,” Patricia Blass said. “We haven’t been really pleased. We’ve won one race here the last two years and that’s tough. It was just time for a change.”
Among the horses Fires trained for the Blasses included Oaklawn stakes winners Prom Shoes, Isabell’s Shoes, Pink Shoes, Fun Flight and Tricky Fun and a multiple stakes winner in Wildcat Shoes.
“There’s really no words to say,” Fires said. “They wanted to go another way.
There’s no hard feelings on this end.”
The split comes a little less than a year after Fires saddled Archarcharch, owned by Bob and Val Yagos of Jacksonville, to win the $1 million Grade I Arkansas Derby.
Ritter will receive all the Blasses’ horses, Patricia Blass said, adding the number will eventually grow to about eight this year.
Ritter’s clients include WinStar Farm, a prominent Kentucky facility the Blasses use when rehabbing some of their horses.
“We’ve heard really good things about her,” Patricia Blass said.
Blass said Ritter also races “where we like to” (Churchill Downs and Keeneland in Kentucky) and “hopes” she will return to Oaklawn in 2013 with their horses.
Ritter has saddled two winners from 10 starters at the 2012 Oaklawn meeting.
Fires has five winners from 40 starters.
DAY 45 GLANCE
ATTENDANCE 5,871 ON-TRACK HANDLE $386,147.90 OFF-TRACK HANDLE $1,225,581.05 TOTAL HANDLE $1,611,728.95 SATURDAY’S INSTANT RACING HANDLE ($419,639.90) CLASSIX CARRYOVER None.
SUNDAY’S STARS Razor-sharp Outta Tune won the $52,500 allowance/ optional claiming feature a meet-best 1:09.50 for 6 furlongs. It was the third consecutive victory at the meeting for Outta Tune, a candidate for the $250,000 Grade III Count Fleet Sprint Handicap on April 14. Outta Tune, who races for owner Maggi Moss and trainer Chris Richard, was scratched from Saturday’s $75,000 Hot Springs Stakes. Moss and Richard also teamed for another victory. Terry Thompson, who rode two winners, and Cliff Berry each surpassed $1 million in purse earnings at the meeting. Israel Ocampo (jockey) and Midwest Thoroughbreds (owner) had two victories.
ON THE TAB
Amie’s Dini, who is scheduled to make her next start in the $300,000 Grade II Fantasy Stakes on April 11, worked a half-mile in :49.60 on Sunday morning for trainer Ron Moquett of Hot Springs. In her last start, Amie’s Dini ran second to On Fire Baby in the $125,000 Grade III Honeybee Stakes on March 10. On Fire Baby, one of the country’s top 3-year-old fillies, is scheduled to have her first work since the Honeybee on Tuesday morning, trainer Gary “Red Dog” Hartlage said. Hartlage said On Fire Baby will make her next start in the Fantasy or the $1 million Grade I Arkansas Derby on April 14. Ornate, the dam of On Fire Baby, had a Lemon Drop Kid filly Sunday. Rocket Twentyone, who ran eighth in the Honeybee, recorded a 5-furlong bullet (1:00) on Sunday morning for owner Frank Fletcher of North Little Rock and trainer Tom Howard of Hot Springs. Rocket Twentyone, a Grade III winner at 2, is scheduled to return to a sprint in her next start.
Sports, Pages 15 on 03/26/2012