Stakes Advance - Year's End 2024
HOT SPRINGS, AR - Trainer Tom Amoss has had the Midas touch with 2-year-olds this season at Oaklawn. Another six-figure opportunity awaits Sunday when he starts You’ll Be Back in the $175,000 Year’s End Stakes at 1 mile.
The Year’s End anchors a 10-race card exclusively for 2-year-olds, the third in Oaklawn history. Probable post time for the Year’s End, the ninth race, is 4:14 p.m. CST. Racing begins at 12:30 p.m.
Amoss, who is based at Fair Grounds, has a 20-horse division this season at Oaklawn under the care of assistant trainer Chris Richard. Amoss has already struck with three winners of $110,000 maiden special weight races for 2-year-olds – Authentic Gallop, Modo and I Got Game – through the first nine days of racing.
You’ll Be Back, a supplemental nominee, will be making her stakes and two-turn debut in the Year’s End, which drew a field of eight. She began her career with a fourth-place finish behind Eclatant June 21 at Churchill Downs and exits a six-furlong maiden victory Nov. 30 at Fair Grounds. You’ll Be Back has been favored in both career starts.
Eclatant returned to finish third behind Good Cheer and Quietside, two Kentucky Oaks prospects, in the $400,000 Golden Rod Stakes (G2) at 1 1/16 miles Nov. 30 at Churchill Downs.
“I think it’s a really good transitional-type race,” Amoss said. “It’s a mile, so we use the short stretch and you’re going to go from one to two turns at the same time. So, when you finally make the transition from sprint to route, this is a great way to do it.”
One mile races at Oaklawn begin and end at the sixteenth pole in the stretch.
You’ll Be Back is scheduled to break from post 2 under two-time reigning Oaklawn riding champion Cristian Torres and carry 115 pounds.
Amoss trains You’ll Be Back (3-1 on the morning line) for Greg Tramontin, who purchased the daughter of Practical Joke for $575,000 at the 2023 Keeneland September Yearling Sale.
Amoss said Tramontin, who founded GoAuto, a Louisiana-based auto insurance company, has been a client for 25 years and was a “one or two-stable guy” before a philosophical 180 and deciding to sink big money into roster expansion (racing and broodmare prospects).
Tramontin recently purchased Siena Farm, an A-list breeding venue in Kentucky, and spent $5.7 million on 16 yearlings, including You’ll Be Back, at the 2023 Keeneland sale.
“He has made a major investment in the business,” said Amoss, who is one of the winningest trainers in North American history with more than 4,100 in his career. “It’s his passion. It’s allowed me to really kind of get into the top level of buying some of these yearlings. Those numbers, and what we spent, are not typical Tom Amoss Racing Stable. Some of the really good horses we’ve had, whether it be Serengeti Empress that cost $70,000, or any of the others for that matter, we’ve always been $200,000 or under in our yearling purchases. Playing in a different league now, which is fun, but there comes a lot of responsibility with that.”
Trainer Kenny McPeek won the first two runnings of the Year’s End with Defining Purpose in 2022 and Ice Cold in 2023. McPeek bids for a third with Itwillbefun, who will be making her two-turn debut after breaking her maiden Nov. 28 at Churchill Downs.
Glee, the 5-2 program favorite, exits a 10 ¾-length victory in the $75,000 Toby Keith Stakes at one mile Dec. 13 at Remington Park for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen. Adeera, also trained by Asmussen, exits a fourth behind Good Cheer in the $200,000 Rags to Riches Stakes at 1 1/16 miles Oct. 27 at Churchill Downs.
Jenkin, Kinzie Queen, Mischievous Bria and Piggy Tales Up are also entered.
Jenkin gave breeder/owner John Ed Anthony (Shortleaf Stable) his record-extending 295th career Oaklawn victory with a Dec. 6 maiden score at one mile for trainer Lindsay Schultz.
Jenkin is a stablemate of Quietside, who is scheduled to make her 3-year-old debut in the $300,000 Martha Washington Stakes at 1 1/16 miles Jan. 25. The Martha Washington is Oaklawn’s first of three Kentucky Oaks qualifying races.
