HOT SPRINGS -- When Texarkana businessman Dwight Pruett decided to give thoroughbred ownership a go, among his early considerations was who to select as a trainer. To start, he said sought three assets.
"I was looking for honesty, integrity, and experience," Pruett said.
Pruett believes he found all three in longtime Oaklawn Park horseman Jinks Fires, 78, a native of Rivervale in northeast Arkansas and a trainer for more than 50 years.
"You know, I heard he wasn't going to try to run things past me," Pruett said. "He wasn't going to work both sides of the street, and that was enough. Honesty and integrity and that's enough. You don't need anything more than that. Unless I missed something, it don't get better than that"
The crowd at Oaklawn for its 10-race Presidents Day card can find Fires and Pruett together today as Fires saddles Gray Attempt for the Grade III $500,000 1 1/16th-mile Southwest Stakes for 3-year-olds.
Gray Attempt, winner of Oaklawn's $150,000 Smarty Jones Stakes on Jan. 25, will start from the first gate. Post time for the expected 11-horse Southwest field is 5:09 p.m.
Gray Attempt, by Graydar, and Sueno, shipped from California by trainer Keith Desormeaux, are 7-2 second choices on the morning line behind 3-1 favorite Cutting Humor, a son of First Samurai trained by Todd Pletcher.
The field will have to contend with five horses trained by Steve Asmussen, also a Hall of Fame member, including Long Range Toddy, by Take Charge Indy, second by a neck to Gray Attempt in the Smarty Jones.
This is the second time a Pruett-owned colt has progressed along the Road to the Kentucky Derby with success in the Smarty Jones. In 2016, Fires also trained Pruett's Discreetness to a win in the race, the first of four Oaklawn Kentucky Derby preps races that distribute qualifying points toward a spot in the expected 20-horse Derby field.
Discreetness finished seventh, seventh, and sixth in the Southwest, Rebel, and Arkansas Derby, respectively, and had to settle for a start in the Pat Day Mile at Churchill Downs on the day of the Kentucky Derby.
Pruett said he is more confident in Gray Attempt's chance to move forward and better prepared for the pressure, nerves, and hoopla associated with success on the Road to the Derby.
"It helps that I've gone through this before," Pruett said. "Three years ago, it was my first time, and I didn't have any idea what to expect. Now I kind of do. As for the horse, I just see a lot of desire. He likes to run."
Pruett said he knew of Fires long before they met. Anyone in racing has heard the Fires name, a family that includes Hall of Fame jockey Earlie Fires, Jinks Fires' brother.
"He's been at it for 50 years, and he's been pretty successful over all those years," Pruett said. "That says a lot about him right there."
As a student at Lepanto High, Fires competed in track and field as a miler and half-miler, but he also developed a love for horses from bronc riding in rodeos. A horseman took note of his small and athletic build and asked him to help with his racehorses.
Fires was quickly hooked and soon turned to training. Since 1968, Fires has trained horses to 1,469 wins and earnings of $26,553,098.
Fires has developed a keen eye for thoroughbred conformation, and his wife Penny Fires shares the trait. She once produced a videotape with DeWitt Owen, a conformation expert from Keeneland in Lexington, Ky., that became popular among horsemen.
"They sold them for years," Jinks Fires said. "Todd Pletcher was one of the first guys who bought one."
Fires and Pruett routinely attend yearling sales near Ocala, Fla., where Pruett bought Discreteness and Gray Attempt. Pruett said he heard Penny Fires might join them there in March.
"I hope she can go because she is good at looking at the conformation on them," Pruett said.
"She's really good at it," Fires said.
As for the Southwest, Fires shares Pruett's confidence.
"He's doing good," he said. "We really feel like he'll do well. [Jockey] Shaun Bridgmohan hasn't made any mistakes on him yet. You know, in a race, so many things can happen that you never know for sure."
Sports on 02/18/2019