Race 9 at Oaklawn Park | Saturday March 16 | Post Time 5:23 PM Eastern

Whitmore Stakes – Grade 3 | Purse $250,000 | Six Furlongs | Four Year Olds and Upward

 

Analysis and top win contenders:

Ryvit (3) appears to have a slight edge as the only four year old in the race. Not being as fully mature as older horses, Ryvit still may run faster than he did just three weeks ago on February 23 when opening up by three lengths at the top of the stretch and coasting home to a two length win. Not only did Ryvit earn a 112 Equibase speed figure, the highest last race figure in the field, he was making his first start following two and one-half months off. Last May, Ryvit won the Chick Lang Stakes at the distance, with a very strong 106 figure, and he earned a 109 figure in the fall of his three year old year when winning the Steel Valley Sprint in November. Given he should run even better in his second start as a four year old and second off the layoff, Ryvit is the one to beat in this year’s Whitmore Stakes.

Tejano Twist (2) won last year’s Whitmore Stakes, earning a career-best 112 Equibase speed figure in the process. Prior to that he had finished second in the King Cotton Stakes over the track, where he earned a 107 figure. He didn’t win again until taking the Bet on Sunshine Stakes in November at Churchill Downs with a 110 figure, then won the Ring the Bell Stakes in December. His next start came in this year’s King Cotton, where Tejano Twist rallied from last of six but could not get close to Skelly, who had led from the start and would not be caught. Earning the same 107 figure in this year’s King Cotton as he did last year, Tejano Twist is on a pattern to run as well as he did last year when winning the Whitmore. It must be noted that when Tejano Twist won the 2023 Whitmore, he was a four year old, the same age Ryvit is this year, and that is the only reason Ryvit gets slightly more preference as a win contender than Tejano Twist in this year’s race.

Osbourne (1) may be the horse with the highest odds in this field of seven. His odds are high because he’s finished fourth in his last two starts and because he has only run in two stakes races in his career, including this past December in the Ring the Bell Stakes. However, right before that when adding blinkers for the very first time, Osbourne ran one of the best races of his career and earned a 105 figure. His best race ever came at Oaklawn last January (2023) when he earned a 106 figure at this distance, drawing off by seven lengths at the end. Most of his other efforts among his last eight races haven’t been much, but with Osbourne cutting back from a two-turn race to a one-turn race, where he has run his best, he might at least add to his competitive record of having finished first or second in nine of 17 races to date.

Bets:  

Win: Ryvit (3) to win at odds of 3 to 2 or higher.

Exactas:

Box Ryvit (3) and Tejano Twist (2)

Box Ryvit (3), Tejano Twist (2) and Osbourne (1)

Ryvit over Tejano Twist (2) and Osborne (1)