Possible rematch for multiple stakes winners
In Saturday’s Grade 2 Eastex Stakes
OKLAHOMA CITY – The Grade 2, $50,000 Eastex Stakes on Saturday, March 25, could be a rematch of multiple stakes winners Charlies Fury and JK Wildcat Red.
If Apollitical Payoff is entered in the Eastex Stakes, it would mean the top three finishers from the $68,000 Mighty Deck Three Stakes on March 10 would be reunited at a different distance. Apollitical Payoff won the Mighty Deck Three by a head over JK Wildcat Red, and Charlies Fury was another neck back in third at 250 yards. The Eastex will be run at 350 yards.
A total of 21 horses were nominated for the Eastex. The 350 yards distance would be more suitable to Charlies Fury as he has won three-of-five at the measure and has two seconds. The 7-year-old gelded son of Furyofthewind, out of the Take Off Jess mare Jess Charlena, is a seventimes stakes winner and one of those was at 350 yards. He won the $68,000 Mr Jet Moore Stakes last year at Remington Park by a neck in :17.478, an extremely strong effort. He has also won the $50,000 Bob Moore Stakes at Remington Park on April 17, 2021 by a head, going 300 yards.
This classy gelding is owned by Tom and Kathy McNally of Guthrie, Okla., trained by Michelle Hurdle and is regularly ridden by jockey Agustin Silva. His lifetime record is 33 starts, 13 wins, eight seconds and six thirds for earnings of $460,244. Charlie was bred in Oklahoma by his owners.
JK Wildcat Red, an 8-year-old gelding by One Dashing Eagle, out of the Embrujo FG mare Shaky Girl, has won three stakes in his career at three different tracks. He won the $68,000 Boyd Morris Memorial Stakes at Remington Park on May 21 last year at 400 yards by a head over Charlies Fury, who dead-heated for second with Juice is Loose. He also won stakes events at Prairie Meadows in Iowa and Fair Meadows in Tulsa, Okla. He is owned by Regina Laymon, trained by Victor Ibarra and had regular rider Cristian Esqueda in the saddle when he just missed to Apollitical Payoff in the Mighty Deck Three.
This gelding was bred in Oklahoma by JK Running Horses. His lifetime record is 44 starts, 10 wins, nine seconds and five thirds for $238,456 earned.
When Apollitical Payoff won the Mighty Deck Three Stakes on March 10, it was the second stakes win of his career. This 4-year-old gelding by Apollitical Jess, out of the Tres Seis mare Seis the Royal Cash, also won the $221,000 Black Gold 400 Laddie as a 2-year-old on Nov. 13, 2021.
He is owned by Brenda Reiswig, trained by Jason Olmstead and they use Edwin Escobedo as his regular rider. He was bred in Oklahoma by the owner. His lifetime record is 19 starts, five wins, five seconds and two thirds for a bankroll of $189,827.
Others that are considered possibilities for the Eastex, according to Remington Park stakes coordinator Don Thompson, are Deutsch, a Prairie Meadows stakes winner, who ran fourth in last year’s Remington Park Derby to Dreamsville. He is a 4-year-old gelded son of One Fabulous Eagle, out of the Fredricksburg mare Hollie Jollie. He won the first three races of his career before breaking through into black type with the stakes win in Iowa in the Valley Junction Juvenile on Sept. 24, 2021.
If owner-trainer Patrick Swan doesn’t enter Deutsch, he could come back with stakes winner Wieburg for the Eastex. This 5-year-old gelding by Ivory James, out of the Fredricksburg mare Hollie Jollie, won the $40,000 Lobo Derby in Albuquerque on Oct. 23, 2021. In his last race last fall at Will Rogers Downs in Claremore, Okla., Wieburg ran second to Juice is Loose, beaten only three-quarters of a length, a horse that has run nose-tonose with Charlies Fury. He was ridden by Daniel Torres.
