Mister Omaha wins Oklahoma Classics Juvenile race

OKLAHOMA CITY — Veteran rider Luis Quinonez is not one to go against the grain and he was given specific orders when riding the $76,000 Oklahoma Classics Juvenile winner Mister Omaha on Friday night at Remington Park.

“They told me just win — to do that no matter what,” said Quinonez, who became Remington Park’s second alltime winningest jockey. “I have to follow instructions.”

Mister Omaha made sure Quinonez didn’t have to use the “no matter what” part as the 2-year-old Oklahoma-bred colt by Omaha Beach, out of the Into Mischief mare Cosmic Code, blew his competition away by 5.5 lengths at six furlongs on the main fast track. It was Quinonez 23rd all-time win in an Oklahoma Classics race, putting him only three behind the track’s all-time winningest rider Cliff Berry’s 26.

“He is pretty special,” said owner-breeder Bryan Hawk, who is stamping his name with force in the Remington Park owner standings with a nice lead. If the breeders’ stats were kept regularly, he would be the leading one of those as well. “I tried to sell him in Kentucky, but if my price wasn’t reached, I was going to bring him home. I did just that and raised him.”

Mister Omaha was in the 2023 Fasig-Tipton Fall Yearling sale and his reserve price of $120,000 was not met. Oklahoma Horse Racing Hall of Famer Joe Offolter has trained the colt since he was brought back to Oklahoma.

“He came back from his very first workout and it was a grinning moment,” Offolter said.

Mister Omaha’s only loss came in his career debut when he ran second to Big Kitty by a head on Aug. 16 here. He followed that with an impressive maiden win by 3.75 lengths on Sep. 27 at 5.5 furlongs before getting his first stakes win on Friday.

The career debut was a short five-furlong sprint and may not have been to the liking of Mister Omaha. Stretching out to six furlongs, he made it look like a walk in the park for Quinonez. He stopped the timer in 1:11.66 and set every early fraction but the first one. Tzedakah was the first quarter-mile pacesetter in 21.87 seconds, but Mister Omaha didn’t like having a horse in front of him after that. He closed the two lengths on that front runner and led at the half-mile in 45.57 seconds, followed by 58.48 seconds at five-eighths.

The winner was sent off as the 2-1 favorite and paid $6.20 to win, $4.40 to place and $2.60 to show.

Mister Omaha made $45,600 for his score in the Classics Juvenile, running his brief threerace total earnings to $72,409 It was Quinonez’s second win in this stakes series, also winning in 2014 with one of Oklahoma’s all-time greatest horses, Hall of Famer Shotgun Kowboy, for owner-trainerbreeder C.R. Trout.

This was the sixth all-time Oklahoma Classics win for Offolter, moving him past Steve Asmussen and Wilson Brown and into a tie with Joe Lucas, Joe Petalino and Wade White. Offolter would later break out of that tie with another win. It was Offolter’s and Hawk’s first win in this stakes series.

Cajun Stoops (11-1) checked in second, a half-length ahead of third-place Ship the Money (52). The rest of the order of finish was Cold Fact (2-1) in fourth, Big Kitty (10-1) in fifth, Slades Tank (45-1) in sixth, Gunny Highway (59-1) in seventh, Tzedakah (151) in eighth, Buck Lake (28-1) in ninth and Simmeron (37-1) in 10th.

Remington Park racing will continue through Saturday with the first race nightly at 6:30 p.m.