Walkathon and Hernandez go gate-to-wire. (Coady Media)
By Jennie Rees
FRANKLIN, Ky. — The 5-year-old mare Walkathon and her family have been very good to owner-breeder Whitham Thoroughbreds and trainer Ian Wilkes. At Kentucky Downs, Walkathon kept on giving.
The bay mare led all the way to win her third straight stakes with jockey Brian Hernandez, cruising to a three-length victory over Sacred Wish in the capacity field of 12 fillies and mares for the $1.5 million Kentucky Downs Ladies Turf.
“She ran super,” Wilkes said. “This was the race we were aiming for. We ran her at Churchill (in the $175,000 Anchorage) and then at Ellis ($250,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Ladies Turf) with this in mind. She put her best step forward today, which was super.”
Walkathon led through fractions of 23.62 seconds for the opening quarter-mile, the half-mile in 46.40 and six furlongs in 1:09.96. The final time was a brisk 1:33.76. Second- and third-place finishers Sacred Wish and Evvie Jets, separated by three-quarters of a length at the finish, were closest to Walkathon throughout the race, while fourth-place finisher Sparkle Blue came from well off the pace to complete the race another 2 1/4 lengths back.
“The good thing is the track firmed up,” Wilkes said. “She loves to be on top of the ground. The firmer, the better. She got into a good rhythm with Brian. He didn’t ask her until into the straight. I felt good because he hadn’t asked her, and she was in a nice rhythm.”
Walkabout now is 7-3-1 in 18 starts, picking up $878,940 to more than double her earnings to $1,609,150. She paid $19.90 to win.
“Ian had this race mapped out for a while now,” Hernandez said. “When she broke so sharp and got to the turn, she skipped over a couple of the tougher spots around and she didn’t bobble at all. I said, ‘oh, man, this is great.’ She was so comfortable, and I was so close to the rail that nobody else had made it over to that path today. She just zipped around there the whole way.
“I rode her the first time Derby Week (G2 Churchill Distaff Turf Mile Stakes, finished fifth) and after watching her replays, I thought if I got the jump on the deep closers that day, I could beat them and that is what I did. When I came back Ian said he forgot to tell me, she only has a really, really short run. We worked on a few things, and I figured her out. She does whatever she wants to do. She is tactically quick to where she puts herself where she needs to be. It was easy. For a million and a half, you get to the eighth pole, and you say it’s going to take a real, real good one to run her down.”
Walkathon’s mom, Walkabout, was a Grade 3 winner who was a very nice racehorse around the Midwest, knocking out almost $250,000. She traces to the Whithams’ great champion Bayakoa and multiple G1 winner Affluent (both trained by Hall of Famer Ron McAnally), along with Fort Larned, the Breeders’ Cup Classic winner trained by Wilkes.
“If I’ve got it right, she’s out of Walkabout, who’s out of Arlucea, which makes her (Walkabout) a half-sister to Fort Larned,” Wilkes said. “So, she goes back to a really good family.”
As an aside, Fort Larned, the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Classic hero, won a Kentucky Downs allowance race in 2011 before Wilkes put him on dirt). “I don’t like to blow my own tune, but that was the year I was leading trainer here,” he said, adding, “I had two wins.”
