For Immediate Release – Oklahoma City, Ok – October 28, 2022 — This year’s winner of the David M. Vance Stakes at Remington Park, the top sprint race of the year at this meet, Flash of Mischief has been pre-entered in the Grade 1, $2 million Qatar Racing Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Keeneland on Nov. 5.
The race, which will be run on Saturday, the second day of Breeders’ Cup World Championship races, is loaded for bear with this year’s top sprinter in the country, Jackie’s Warrior, and last year’s Sprint winner Aloha West ready to knock heads again.
“I just felt like he (Flash of Mischief) ran so big in the Vance that he deserved a chance (to go in the Sprint),” said trainer Karl Broberg, who is currently the second-leading trainer in the country in wins with 307, behind only Steve Asmussen’s 344, according to Equibase statistics.
The Sprint will have a maximum 14 horses in the six-furlong race on the dirt for the top sprinters in the world. There were 18 horses pre-entered in the Sprint, and Flash of Mischief was listed at No. 18, but some of the horses were pre-entered with first preference to other Breeders’ Cup races.
Flash of Mischief is a 4-year-old colt by prolific top sire Into Mischief, out of the Political Force mare Flashy Campaign. He is owned and was bred in Kentucky by Jerry Namy of Ft. Worth, Texas. He has raced 21 times with eight wins, five seconds and two thirds for $661,788 in earnings. That compares to Jackie’s Warriors bankroll of $2,779,164 and Aloha West’s $1,507,290.
“We will draw in,” Broberg said with confidence. “He (the horse) is leaving Remington Park in the morning (Thursday). I will have his stall bedded (in Lexington, Ky.) before he arrives at Keeneland. “I really thought this race would come up softer than it did, but now I see Jack Christopher is going in the Sprint and then there’s Jackie’s Warrior and Aloha West. Jackie’s Warrior (Asmussen trainee) looks like the prevailing speed and I loved Aloha West last year when he won this race.”
He still gives his horse a chance as a huge longshot.
“I’m really excited about this, my first Breeders’ Cup race,” said Broberg, who makes his home in Mansfield, Texas and owns End Zone Athletics racing from that town. “There’s really not much pressure on me. When you’re going to be 20-1 at least, you don’t worry about much.”
That doesn’t mean he is ready to throw in the towel. Aloha West came from well off the pace last year at 11-1 odds and was able to win. Jackie’s Warrior went off at 1-2 odds in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Sprint, but showed speed and faded to sixth.
In 2020, another longshot, Whitmore was the winner of the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at 18-1 odds for trainer Ron Moquett, upsetting the apple cart with the same running style, making a big move late. Mitole in 2019 was the last favorite to win the Sprint.
With Flash of Mischief’s running style being a mirror image of the past two winners and admittedly a longshot, history says he has a chance.
“It does give me hope to see Aloha West win last year at big odds and Whitmore the year before,” said Broberg.
It will be only Broberg’s second time to attend the Breeders’ Cup in person. He was a spectator in 2004 at Grand Prairie, Texas, at Lone Star Park when that racetrack hosted the World Championships, boasting such winners as Horse of the Year Ghostzapper in the Classic and Ouija Board in the Filly & Mare Turf.
In the $150,000 David M. Vance Stakes on Sept. 25 at Remington Park, Flash of Mischief turned back from 1-1/16th miles to six furlongs and loved every step of it. Broberg won two of eight stakes races carded on Oklahoma Derby Day. It was the second year in a row Broberg took down the Vance. He did it in 2021 with Greeley and Ben, the claim of his career. Broberg got him for $10,000 at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs the spring of 2020 and won 15 races with him after that. He did not take that one to the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, however.
“There’s no comparison with Flash of Mischief and Greeley and Ben,” Broberg said. “I really admired Greeley and Ben and have a soft spot in my heart for him, but he was in no way the same class level as Flash of Mischief.”
The only question left is whether Broberg would call a Joe Namath audible and predict this huge upset in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.
“We’ll see,” Broberg said.
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Tracked by more than 171,000 fans on Facebook and 10,600 Twitter followers, Remington Park has provided more than $301 Million to the State of Oklahoma general education fund since the opening of the casino in 2005. Located at the junction of Interstates 35 & 44, in the heart of the Oklahoma City Adventure District, Remington Park features the Grade 3 Oklahoma Derby and Grade 3 Remington Park Oaks on Sunday, September 25. Thoroughbred racing continues through December 17 with simulcast racing daily, and a casino that is always open! Visit remingtonpark.com for more information.
