HOT SPRINGS - If Carve wasn’t the best claim of the 2013 Oaklawn Park meeting, then it was probably Flattermejim, a 7-year-old gelded son of Flatter.
“One of my better ones,” four-time Oaklawn training champion David Vance said. “He’s one of my favorites.”
On behalf of owner Frank Vozel of Little Rock, Vance claimed Flattermejim for $10,000, a small investment that has produced big results.
But unlike Carve, who became a graded-stakes runner after being claimed for $30,000 by Mike Langford of Jonesboro, Flattermejim has flourished in less-glamorous starter-allowance events, recording seven victories in that race classification the past two years.
Starter-allowance races protect horses from being claimed if they have started fora certain claiming price within a specified time period. In the case of Flattermejim, $7,500was the magic number.
Flattermejim beat $7,500 claimers in his 6-year-old debut last year at Oaklawn on Jan. 20 before Vance claimed the gelding out of a runner-up finish in his next start (Feb. 18).
Starting for a $7,500 claiming price made Flattermejim eligible for two starter-allowance races in March at Oaklawn - both blowout victories - and the 1 3/4-mile Trail’s End marathon, traditionally the final race of the meeting.
Flattermejim won the Trail’s End, also a starter-allowance race, by three-quarters of a length to become only the second four-time winner at the meeting.
Since being claimed by Vance, Flattermejim has won eight races and bankrolled more than $100,000. He captured 7 of 16 starts overall last year and has won 6 of 8 career races at Oaklawn, including two this year.
“He’s just cool little horse,” Vance said. “He likes to eat peppermints, and he wants me to come and talk to him. He can tell when you’re talking to him, I think. He pays attention.”
After last year’s Oaklawn meet, Flattermejim won starter-allowance races at Churchill Downs and Kentucky Downs in Kentucky.
Flattermejim became so accomplished in starter-allowance events that he ran in the Claiming Crown - the Breeders’ Cup for claiming horses - on Dec. 7 at Gulfstream Park near Miami.
“This is really getting to be fun for a small-time owner like me,” Vozel said before the race.
Flattermejim ran eighth in the $110,000 Iron Horse, which was for horses who had started for a claiming price of $7,500 or less since Jan. 1, 2012.
A new year has led to old results.
Flattermejim has already won two starter-allowance races at the Oaklawn meeting, including an easy March 1 score at 1 1/8 miles.
“I hope to run him two more times here,” said Vance, Oaklawn’s leading trainer in 1972-1974 and 1976.
Flattermejim has been based in the Midwest throughout his 38-race career.
Before being claimed by Vance, the gelding made two starts for trainer Bruce Riecken, who had taken him for $10,000 in late 2012 at Churchill Downs.
Vance said he became intrigued with Flattermejim when he and a confidant watched, and wagered, on the horse, then making his first start of the 2013 Oaklawn meeting in a race for $7,500 claimers.
When Flattermejim ran again approximately a month later, Vance claimed his starter-allowance star for $10,000.
Following the claim, Vance said he called on experience to boost the gelding’s form.
Vance said Flattermejim’s teeth were floated (sharp edges or points were filed down to ease any mouth discomfort), his feet were worked on and hair clipped.
The cost? About $200, the trainer said.
“That 200 bucks paid big dividends,” Vance said.
Slim ‘Jim’
A breakdown of races the past two years at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs of Flattermejim, owned by Frank Vozel of Little Rock: STARTS 1ST 2ND 3RD EARNINGS 8 6 1 0 $90,850
Sports, Pages 19 on 03/22/2014