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DASHIN FOR A PRIZE USES CLEAN START
IN WINNING SLM BIG DADDY STAKES
Dashin For A Prize, under jockey Ricky Ramirez, easily wins the SLM Big Daddy Stakes at Remington Park Saturday night.
© Dustin Orona PhotographyOKLAHOMA CITY, OK—MARCH 19, 2016—The main event Saturday night at Remington Park was the $52,035 SLM Big Daddy Stakes at 550 yards. Dashin For A Prize tested the distance for the first time and handled it well in scoring by a half-length.
Dashin For A Prize is owned by Oscar Moreno of Laredo, Texas and trained by Javier Contreras, AQHA Racing Champion Jockey Ricky Ramirez had the riding call. The 5-year-old gelding had struggled with good, clean starts at times in his career but maturity and a change in equipment has produced positive results.
“I rode him before about a year ago at Hialeah and he didn’t get away too sharp for me,” Ramirez recalled. “He’s been known for not breaking out of the gate very good. The owner and trainer pulled the blinkers off of him and it seemed to help. He was doing what I wanted and he just stayed in front. I was riding him pretty hard to keep him busy but he led the whole way from the word go.”
Dashin For A Prize left the gate well, found the lead quickly and held off rallies by Specials Jess and Admiral Zoomwalt to hit the finish in :26.573 seconds a 110 speed index over the fast track. Specials Jess was a half-length better than Admiral Zoomwalt for the minor awards.
Dashin For A Prize was the betting favorite at 6-5 odds and paid $4.60 to win, $3.60 to place and $2.40 to show. Specials Jess paid $5.80 to place and $3.80 to show. Admiral Zoomwalt returned $4 to show.
The SLM Big Daddy Stakes win was the sixth from 23 career starts for Dashin For A Prize and it was his second overall win at Remington Park. A Louisiana-bred son of Heza Fast Dash from the Oak Tree Special mare Fast Prize Angie, Dashin For A Prize made $29,730 for the stakes win to run his lifetime total to $274,180. Phillip Deville is the breeder.
Dashin For A Prize is a product of line-breeding on the Stanley foundation mare First Prize Dash. Dashin For A Prize's dam, Fast Prize Angie is out of Heritage Place Futurity(G1) winner Fast First Prize, a full sister to his sire Heza Fast Dash.
Making his first start of the season, Special Jess picked up $11,010 for effort. Owned by Alexia Mehrle and trained by Kasey Willis, the Spit Curl Jess gelding broke out at the start and bumped before jockey Cesar Gomez got him straightened out to finish second. A.C. Taylor bred the multiple stakes-placed earner of $72,485 in Oklahoma from the Make It Anywhere mare Special Anywhere.
Rocketair, Mixed Fantasy, Painted Josy, First Prize Dive, Im The Key, Also A Feature and Cjs Rocksolid completed the field.
The SLM Big Daddy Stakes is named in honor of one of the most popular horses in Remington Park history. SLM Big Daddy was a multiple stakes winner over three years in the late 1990s here as well as a back-to-back American Quarter Horse Association World Champion in 1997 and 1998.