One Ten Stadium with Keith Asmussen aboard get the win. (Coady Media)
Robert Yates/Oaklawn Park
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Trainer Ron Moquett of Hot Springs put an exclamation point on his most successful Oaklawn meeting to date with an upset victory in Saturday’s $200,000 Arkansas Breeders’ Championship for state-breds, 3 and up, at 1 1/16 miles.
One of three Moquett entrants, One Ten Stadium used a ground-saving ride from Keith Asmussen to win the Arkansas Breeders’ Championship by three-quarters of a length over Cybertown, with defending champion Lochmoor another neck farther back in third.
Zippy Mark, Great Barrier, Strike Ridge, even-money favorite Man in the Can, Willow Creek Road, Ready Shoes, Burlsworth, Holding Pattern, Hoppin John and Chez Whiz completed the order of finish. Moquett also trains Man in the Can, the 2020 Arkansas Breeders’ Championship winner, and Burlsworth.
One Ten Stadium, a 37-1 shot, raced just behind dueling leaders Man in the Can and Great Barrier before finding a seam along the rail turning for home. One Ten Stadium ($76.80) struck the front just inside the sixteenth pole and held off Cybertown and Lochmoor, the latter closing strongly approaching the wire.
One Ten Stadium was the first of two victories on the card Saturday for Moquett. He had 37 victories overall to finish second in the Oaklawn standings.
One Ten Stadium’s winning time over a fast track was 1:44.67. The splits were modest – :24.15 for the opening quarter, :48.54 for a half-mile and 1:13.37 for six furlongs.
One Ten Stadium won for the fourth time in 23 starts to raise his lifetime earnings to $463,421. It was his first career stakes victory. One Ten Stadium finished second in last year’s Arkansas Breeders’ Championship.
Moquett trains One Ten Stadium, a 6-year-old gelded son of multiple Oaklawn stakes winner Race Day, for breeder/owner William S. Sparks, a Monroe, La., automobile dealer. Sparks is originally from Hazen, Ark.
Oaklawn is scheduled to race 64 days next season (Dec. 12-May 2).
Arkansas Breeders’ Championship Stakes Quotes
Winning Trainer Ron Moquett (One Ten Stadium): “We’d come out of those short races and kind of sharpened him up. I just told him (jockey Keith Asmussen) to save some ground and whenever the time comes, ask him the question.”
Winning Jockey Keith Asmussen (One Ten Stadium): “I mean, the horse broke on top. Man in the Can, obviously, the pace; took back. I didn’t want to butt heads with him, as he’s a stablemate, per instructions from Ron. But the horse broke super sharp and settled beautifully. And when it was time to go, he had more than enough.”
