Pippin Loaded With Talent
The $50,000 Pippin begins an Oaklawn campaign for older fillies and mares Saturday. A field of nine makes up the mile and one-sixteenth event. The race shapes up with a veteran trainers delight. Trainers Bob Holthus, Don Von Hemel, Gary ‘Red Dog’ Hartlage, and Larry Jones,send out talented older fillies and mares.
Trainer Don Von Hemel (pictured) has been in the game of horse racing for what seems like an eternity, but has only been training for the past 60 years. He has graced the winners circle at Oaklawn Park with numerous horses, and looks to do so again with the mare Clever Strike in the Saturday feature.
“We started her off short in the American Beauty and wanted to use that as a prep race,” Von Hemel mentioned. “We were looking for something long somewhere down the road, and the Pippin seemed a good fit.”
“After her last race at Arlington Park, we wanted to give her a break and she had a chip removed in one knee,” commented Von Hemel. “She has done well here at Oaklawn, and we hope she does well Saturday.”
Von Hemel has been no stranger to training great fillies. The movie “Dreamer” was loosely based on one of Von Hemel’s better ones in Mariah’s Storm. “Mariah’s Storm was one of my favorites. She got better as she aged, and she is probably one of the best horses I have ever trained,” the veteran trainer reminisced. “I’m always looking for the next big horse, but there will never again be a horse like Mariah’s Storm.” Mariah’s Storm notably produced Giant’s Causeway, who ranked second in 2008 amongst leading sires in North America.
Von Hemel’s Clever Strike lines up with eight other fillies and mares in the Saturday feature. Post time is scheduled for 5:02 p.m.
Larry Jones Has Buddy in Old Fashioned
There are certain things in life that go together: peanut butter and jelly, pepper and salt, and Old Fashioned and Larry Jones (pictured). If one isn’t sure about the last one, then talk to Jones, he’ll fill you in on everything Old Fashioned and then some.
Yesterday during the early training hours Old Fashioned took his final spin around the Oaklawn oval in preparation for the $250,000 Southwest. Working five panels in 1:00.40 under jockey Terry Thompson, the son of Unbridled’s Song wasn’t far from trainer Jones’ watchful eye.
“He’s ready to go, he acted like there was nothing to it. He came back to the barn and barely was blowing and didn’t drink but a gallon of water,” smiled Jones. “When it is work time, he’s ready, but after that it’s naptime. Naptime is leave me alone time for Old Fashioned.”
“Old Fashioned is a neat horse. It’s hard not to love him, bringing him up here from Fair Grounds it was just me and him, it was bonding time,” the conditioner reflected. “It was like I will focus on you, and you will focus on me.”
Plans are for the grey colt to take it easy in preparation for the big race on Monday. “We will gallop a mile or mile and a half on Friday, and then Saturday and Sunday give him an easy five-eighths gallop,” Jones commented. “We are excited and ready.”
Old Fashioned, who comes into the Southwest undefeated, opened up at 10-1 in the first leg of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager Pool.
A Little Bit More
Trainer Rick Jackson’s (pictured) top filly Superior Storm could surface at Oaklawn in the Grade III Azeri “depending on the weights,” Jackson said. The trainer said the 4-year-old filly came out of her latest triumph on Saturday at Delta Downs in the Louisiana Premier Night Distaff in “good condition and we will have to see what happens here at Oaklawn.”
Fans can wish newcomer jockey Dave Mello well as Saturday will be his last day of riding at the Spa. The young jockey will trek back to Philadelphia Park and pick up work where he left off. “I enjoyed coming to Oaklawn and had a really good time. I look forward to coming back next year, and wish everyone well here,” smiled the young jockey.
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