Schultz Returns for Second Season at Oaklawn
A little over a year into her training career, Lindsay Schultz already has victories at five tracks and a stakes placing.
Schultz is now off and running at the 2022-2023 Oaklawn meeting that began Dec. 9, scoring in Friday’s seventh race with Tiger Moon ($41) for her major client, Ten Strike Racing (founding partners Marshall Gramm and Arkansan Clay Sanders). Tiger Moon represented the 14th career victory for Schultz, 34, who struck out on her own in the fall of 2021 after previously assisting Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey.
Schultz recorded her first career victory Jan. 8, 2022, at Oaklawn with Capture the Glory ($36.80) for Ten Strike. Schultz added three more victories at the 2021-2022 Oaklawn meeting before moving to Monmouth Park, where she won six races from just 27 starts.
Reflecting the growth of her stable, Schultz came to Oaklawn last season with seven horses, including six for Ten Strike, but has 17 stalls in 2022-2023.
“We obviously want to do better, but we’ve gotten more horses,” Schultz said. “I would like to get some more owners, but the ones that I have are really good.”
Schultz said her stable again features hard-knocking older horses like Alex Joon, who finished second, beaten a half-length, in the $125,000 Edward P. Evans Stakes last July at Colonial Downs. Schultz, on behalf of Ten Strike, claimed Alex Joon for $30,000 last December at Oaklawn. Schultz said she also has several 2-year-olds, including Cecile for a new client, Choctaw Racing Stable (Perry Sutherland).
Among the most successful owners in Oaklawn history, Choctaw has campaigned, among others, Oaklawn stakes winners Hot Jaws, Tyus, Sister Act and Officer Alex. Officer Alex (2013 Bachelor) was the penultimate Oaklawn stakes winner for the late Lynn Whiting, best known as the trainer of 1992 Kentucky Derby winner Lil E. Tee. Hot Jaws, Tyus and Sister Act – all active in the 1990s – were trained by the late Jeff Jacobs.
Schultz said Sutherland and one of her owners, Scott Galloway, are good friends. They’ve always partnered on horses in the past. From the first crop of Grade 1 winner Mendelssohn, Cecile was purchased for $150,000 last May at Fasig-Tipton’s Midlantic sale of 2-year-olds in training. She finished sixth in her Nov. 16 career debut at Churchill Downs.
“She ran good,” Schultz said. “Showed some speed, ranged up to some freak of Brad Cox (Dazzling Blue). I like her.”
Cecile worked a half-mile in :48 Monday morning in advance of a planned start Dec. 31, the first scheduled program in Oaklawn history exclusively for 2-year-olds.
In addition to Oaklawn and Monmouth, Schultz later won races at Colonial Downs, Delaware Park and Churchill Downs. She had a horse entered Thursday at Turfway Park. Through Wednesday, Schultz had started 85 horses this year, with her horses generating $594,963 in purse earnings.
“It was pretty good,” Schultz said of her post-2021-2022 Oaklawn showing. “Monmouth was a good place for us to go, just to get some wins and to get some more horses.”
All in the Family
Multiple Oaklawn stakes winner The Mary Rose is to be bred to millionaire Oaklawn stakes winner Plainsman next year, according to John Gasper, racing manager for John Ed Anthony’s Shortleaf Stable.
Both horses were campaigned by Anthony, the Arkansas lumberman who became Oaklawn’s all-time winningest owner during the 2021-2022 meeting that ended last May. The Mary Rose (six) and Plainsman (three) combined for nine of Anthony’s 279 career victories to date in Hot Springs before both were retired earlier this year.
The Mary Rose became the all-time leading Arkansas-bred female money winner with a runaway 9 ¾-length victory in the $150,000 Natural State Breeders’ Stakes for state-breds at 1 mile last May at Oaklawn for trainer John Ortiz. She also whipped open company in two allowance races last season at Oaklawn.
The Mary Rose, a Shortleaf homebred, broke her maiden sprinting against state-breds at the 2020 Oaklawn meeting for now-retired trainer Will VanMeter. The Mary Rose won the $150,000 Downthedustyroad Breeders’ Stakes for state-bred female sprinters in 2021 at Oaklawn for trainer Brad Cox.
A 5-year-old daughter of Macho Uno, The Mary Rose retired with a 6-4-3 mark from 21 lifetime starts and earnings of $539,894.
Plainsman earned $1,408,412 after posting a 9-7-6 record in 32 career starts. Cox saddled Plainsman for his final career victory in the $600,000 Razorback Handicap (G3) for older horses at 1 1/16 miles last February at Oaklawn. Plainsman, then with VanMeter, broke his maiden sprinting in 2018 at Oaklawn and was an allowance winner at 1 1/16 miles in 2021 at Oaklawn for Cox.
Plainsman won four other stakes races, including the $200,000 Discovery (G3) at 1 1/8 miles in 2018 at Aqueduct and the $300,000 Ack Ack (G3) at 1 mile in 2021 at Churchill Downs. Both races were for Cox.
Plainsman, a 7-year-old son of Flatter, was purchased for $350,000 at the 2016 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. Plainsman was retired to Buck Pond Farm in Kentucky, where he will stand the 2023 breeding season for a $5,000 stud fee.
Finish Lines
Following a Christmas break this week, Oaklawn’s 2022-2023 live season resumes Dec. 30. … Trainer Bentley Combs moved to 3 for 4 at the meeting after Get Through ($41.20) won Sunday’s fourth race under Martin Garcia. … Through the first six days of the meeting, 39 claims totaled $872,500. Trainer Brad Cox, on behalf of owner Staton Flurry of Hot Springs, won a meet-high 13-way shake, or blind draw, to claim Dawnland out of Sunday’s sixth race for $20,000. … Bal Harbour received a preliminary 98 Beyer Speed Figure for his neck victory over Grade 2 winner Last Samurai in Saturday’s $200,000 Tinsel Stakes at 1 1/8 miles. The gelding will be pointed to the $600,000 Razorback Handicap (G3) for older horses at 1 1/16 miles Feb. 18 at Oaklawn, trainer Robertino Diodoro said. The Razorback is a major local prep for the $1 million Oaklawn Handicap (G2) at 1 1/8 miles April 22. Last Samurai won the 2022 Oaklawn Handicap.
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