For Immediate Release – Oklahoma City, OK – August 21, 2024 – Trainer Ingrid Mason, making her Remington Park debut this meet, worked her way up the ranks in horse racing the hard way to become a multiple graded stakes-winner.
Mason, who was born and raised in California, was watching the Kentucky Derby with her stepfather on television and when it was over, she had a revelation. She wanted to be ajockey.
“I turned to him and said, ‘Someday, I’m going to do that,’” she said. Mason rode the California circuit, Turf Paradise and Delaware Park from the late 1990s into the very early2000s before hanging it up after winning nine races, according to Equibase statistics.
“My first career ride was actually on a Quarter Horse, going 870 yards,” she said. “It was the first time I’d ever been hit in the face with dirt and it hurt. I didn’t like that.”
As a female rider, she also dealt with a lot of chauvinism from some male riders at that time.
“This one guy tried to put me over the rail,” Mason said. “When we got back to the room, I beat the crap out of him with my helmet. He never disrespected me again.”
The riding career didn’t lead to the Run for the Roses, but it certainly gave her the experience of a lifetime. A trainer she knew, Richard Conway, was going to send horses toDubai in the United Arab Emirates and suggested she go over to gallop horses there.
Mason didn’t hesitate to make the trip because she would be working for Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the current ruler of the UAE. She said he trained his own horses at the time.
“He really protected us,” Mason said. “We lived in the Hilton. I drove a Range Rover and all our meals were paid for the first month. The sheikh invited us to his party at his beach house that had a pool with a waterfall that went into it. It was great.
Only one time was she a little worried during her experience in the Middle East. She got pulled over speeding on the highway between Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
“I had to go to the restroom and there is absolutely nowhere to stop on that highway; it’s nothing but desert over there,” she said. “(The officer) understood. He just told me,‘Whatever you do, don’t hit a camel.’”
Mason started training in 2004, according to Equibase, and reached the peak of her career in 2015 and 2016 when her horses earned north of $1.4 million each year. The top horseunder her tutelage in her career was Sarah Sis, who won the Grade 3 Honeybee Stakes at Oaklawn in Hot Springs, Ark.; the Grade 3 Iowa Oaks at Prairie Meadows in Altoona, Ia.; the Grade 2 Lexus Raven Stakes at Keeneland in Kentucky; the Grade 3 Chicago Handicap at the now-defunct Arlington Park, and the Grade 2 Presque Ilse Downs Masters Stakes in Pennsylvania. She was owned by Joe Ragsdale, who Mason had won a couple of races for as a trainer.
“I picked her out of a sale for Joe Rags even though he kept telling me how little she was,” said Mason. “But she had great conformation, was well balanced and put together well.”
Mason was right as Sarah Sis earned almost $1 million in her career – $912,667 – but it is a gelding named Crook’s Bodgit that is one of her favorite stories. She bought him herself out of a $5,000 claiming race and he went on to win the $100,000 Star of Texas Stakes at Sam Houston Race Park.
“At the time I owed the IRS about $12,000 and had no idea how I was going to pay it,” she said. “I was in the bar before the race and immediately ordered two tequila shots. I was so stressed out. When he won, I literally dropped to the floor. That horse saved my life. The owner, who I sold the horse to, told me that he was going to pay me 20 percent of the purse instead of 10 percent. That 20 percent came to exactly $12,000. Yes, it was a God thing; divine intervention.”
Mason’s horses went from winning $1.4 million in back-to-back years to just over $400,000 last year.
“I had hit a bit of a rough patch,” she said. “I had met Danny Caldwell (Remington Park’s all-time winningest owner) on Facebook and told him I had been down on my luck. He said he could help.”
Caldwell gave her 20 horses to train at Remington Park and that’s how she got to Oklahoma City. Now she is looking for her first win here. She said she likes her chances this week with My Maybelenne and Pleasingly, who are entered for Saturday, Aug. 24.
Through her first weekend at Remington Park, Mason had four starts with one second-place finish thanks to Absolute Chaos in a $10,000 claiming event on Saturday, Aug. 17.
According to Equibase, Mason has compiled 532 wins from 3,641 starts, with 552 seconds and another 490 in third for total earnings of $13,391,549.
Tuesday morning workouts
Sunny skies and temperatures from the mid-70s to the low-80s greeted those that went to the Remington Park track on Tuesday. A total of 58 Thoroughbreds received official worktimes with So Jacksann gaining a bullet at four furlongs.
Owned by Stacy Kent Lewis of Davis, Okla. and trained by Carlos Padilla, So Jacksann is a 4-year-old Oklahoma-bred filly by Wilburn from the Afleet Alex broodmare So What.
So Jacksann cruised through her four furlongs in :47.58 handily, the fastest of 45 who went that distance.
So Jacksann has now put together three consecutive half-mile works with times under :50 as she prepares for her initial Remington Park start. She has only one attempt so far, a maiden attempt at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, Texas on June 30 this summer, where she was off the board in sixth going five furlongs.
The second weekend of the Remington Park Thoroughbred Season is Thursday through Saturday this week, Aug. 22-24. The first race nightly is 6:30pm-Central.
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Remington Park has provided more than $357 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 presents simulcast racing daily and non-stop casino gaming. The 2024 Thoroughbred Season continues through Dec. 13. The Grade 3, $400,000 Oklahoma Derby takes place on Sunday, Sept. 29. Must be 18 or older to wager on horse racing or enter the casino gaming floor. Visit remingtonpark.com for more information.
