HOT SPRINGS -- With the crowd cheering Saturday, Ricardo Santana Jr. let Skelly savor perhaps his finest performance at Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort.
The eight-time local riding champion patted the horse on its right flank after a jaw-dropping effort in the Count Fleet Sprint Handicap. The sun-splashed crowd watched the defending race champion toy with seven opponents in the Grade III $500,000 race for older sprinters and win by three lengths.
A second Count Fleet victory makes him the first repeater since Semaphore Man, trained by Kelly Von Hemel, in 2008-09. Skelly gave Hall of Fameer Steve Asmussen eight stakes victories at the meeting and a record-extending six in the Count Fleet. The trainer's 112th Oaklawn stakes victory, extending another personal record, gave him a Count Fleet hat trick, following Jackie's Warrior in 2022 and Skelly last year.
The six-furlong time of 1:08.82 did not break the 34-year-old track record (unofficially 1:07.80) of Karen's Tom, but speed was not required late, nor the whip at any time. Not when Skelly went the opening half-mile in 43.88 seconds, sucking the air out of the place if not his outmatched opponents.
"Skelly's too fast," second-place jockey Cristian Torres said. "Nobody can go with him"
The horse who went more than a year without losing after running second to Ron Moquett-trained Osborne at Oaklawn almost 15 months ago, wasn't about to drop two in a row. Second in Saudi Arabia on Feb. 24, Skelly carried high weight of 125 pounds from post four like it was a feather. When he opened daylight on the turn, the horse-wise local crowd sensed that something special was in store.
"I was really worried about [breaking slowly] because I'm a human," Santana said. "I took the plane over there [Saudi Arabia] and I came back and slept for a whole week. That's a long way to go for a horse.
"I saw the horse Thursday; he looked good. You can still see how good he is, coming from Saudi. He went :21, :43, :56, 1:08. Such a nice horse."
Asmussen said, "So happy to have him back here at Oaklawn. He loves it as much as we do -- in the winner's circle where he belongs."
Tejano Twist, a multiple stakes winner over the track and third to Skelly in last year's Count Fleet, got up late for second. Practical Joke sired the mirror opposites, one with abundant early speed and the other with only a late punch and vulnerable in a race with lone speed.
The 4-6 exacta combination, paid $4.10. The 4-6-8 trifecta, with Happy Is a Choice, paid better ($7.15) though Ryvit (No. 7) represented a superfecta worth less ($3.37).
The winner paid $3.40, $2.40, $2.10. Tejano Twist returned $2.60, $2.20, while Happy Is a Choice paid $3.80.
Skelly is 9 for 14 lifetime, 7 of 9 in Hot Springs, and a $1 million earner for Red Lane Thoroughbreds LLC.
Skelly won the Lake Hamilton on closing day at Oaklawn last year, then annexed a stakes victory at Lone Star Park in his final start at 4. Asmussen brought him back Dec. 30, shaking loose any cobwebs before winning the King Cotton Feb. 3.
Asmussen trained champion sprinter Mitole, another Count Fleet winner. Santana, with a record-extending sixth Count Fleet win Saturday, also won the race with Mitole and fellow champion Whitmore.