For Immediate Release – Oklahoma City, OK – September 11, 2024 – Jockey Floyd Wethey, Jr. had a huge night Friday at Remington Park, winning the final five races on the program.
The streak catapulted Wethey to second in the rider standings with 12 wins for the season. He trails leader Stewart Elliott who has 20 victories in the first 11 dates of the season.
The 5-race winning run by Wethey also made him the leading jockey in North America for wins on Friday, Sept. 6.
Overall, Wethey has 1,482 wins for a career that started in 2007, with his highest yearly win total happening last year with 134. His career mount earnings are $27,800,159. This year, Wethey has 88 wins.
Wethey also won both stakes races Friday night, scoring each division of the Oklahoma Stallion Handicap. He won the fillies race aboard Miss Code West, still undefeated at Remington Park and winner of Horse of the Meeting honors here last fall. Flat Hanby has Wethey up to win the colts/geldings division. The score was the fifth straight win this year for Flat Hanby.
Cabrera Moves to Remington Park All-Time Top 10
When four-time Pat Steinberg trophy winner David Cabrera won the first race of the night on Thursday this week with When Judy Calls, it was his 544th career victory at Remington Park, moving him into the Top 10, just ahead of Silver Goblin’s former jockey Dale Cordova. Cabrera won two on Thursday night and gave him 545 trips to the Remington Park winner’s circle to Cordova’s 543.
The new all-time top 10 at Remington Park:
- Cliff Berry – 2,125 wins
- Luis Quinonez – 1,482
- Don Pettinger – 1,419)
- Tim Doocy – 796
- Pat Steinberg – 727
- Benny Landeros – 701
- Ramon Vazquez – 661
- Glen Murphy – 650
- R.D. Williams – 591
- Cabrera – 545
Cordova was a multiple graded stakes-winning jockey with his big horse being millionaire Silver Goblin, who finished with $1,076,895 in earnings, after dominant efforts at Remington Park and beyond in the 1990s.
Cabrera has won the riding title at Remington Park four times from 2019-2022. The award is named after the late Pat Steinberg who owned the rider colony at Remington Park prior to his passing in 1993.
Cabrera’s top horse at Remington Park has been the track’s all-time winningest horse in history, Welder, for late owner Clayton Rash of Ra-Max Farms, trained by Teri Luneack. He earned $1,263,359 in his career and won 16 races at Remington Park, most of them with Cabrera up.
Early Oklahoma Derby Contenders
Remington Park Stakes Coordinator Don Thompson is thrilled with the possibilities for this year’s Grade 3, $400,000 Oklahoma Derby scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 29 in the only Sunday of live racing here this meet.
Thompson says he has received positive signs from the connections of three horses as possibles for the race, 3-year-olds that have won major stakes around the country – E J Won the Cup, Hades and Society Man.
E J Won the Cup races under the tutelage of trainer Doug O’Neill from the West Coast. The sophomore Kentucky-bred colt by Omaha Beach, out of the Blame mare Firsthand Report has won 4-of-12 starts and earned $540,580 in his career for owner Superfecta King Stable. He was purchased from the Keeneland Association Breeding Stock Sale in November 2021. O’Neill is a two-time Kentucky Derby-winning trainer, taking the Run for the Roses with I’ll Have Another in 2012 and Nyquist in 2016.
Among E J Won the Cup’s best races were a 9-1/4 length win in the $250,000 St. Louis Derby at FanDuel Sportsbook and Horse Racing (formerly Fairmount Park) on Aug. 24 and a one-lengthvictory in the $300,000 Texas Derby at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, Texas, on May 27. Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith traveled to St. Louis and to Texas for both wins. E J Won the Cup also finished third in the Grade 1, $751,500 Santa Anita Derby on April 6.
Hades, a Florida-bred gelded son of Awesome Slew, from the Quality Road mare The Shady Lady, has won three-of-eight lifetime, including a victory in the Grade 3, $260,000 Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream Park on Feb. 3 this year, leading to a try in the Grade 1 Florida Derby, in which he raced fifth to the current top 3-year-old in the country, Fierceness. His lifetime bankroll is $322,650 for owner D.J. Stable and Robert Cotran, who purchased him for $130,000 from the Ocala Breeders Sale in the April Spring Sale for 2-year-olds-in-training. Hades is conditioned by Joe Orseno, who won the 2000 Preakness Stakes at Pimlico in Maryland with Red Bullet. Paco Lopez has been the regular rider for Hades.
Society Man, winner of two-of-eight starts, has earned $487,230 in the process. The gelded Kentucky-bred son of Good Magic, out of the Colonel John mare You Cheated, was purchased for $85,000 for owners Reeves Thoroughbred Racing, West Paces Racing, GMP Stables and Carl and Yurie Pascarella at the 2022 Keeneland Association Yearling Sale. Jockey Corey Lanerie rode Society Man to victory in the Grade 3, $395,000 Matt Winn Stakes at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., on June 9, winning by 2-1/2 lengths. He also was impressive as the runner-up finisher in this year’s Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial Stakes at Aqueduct in New York, losing by 2-1/4 lengths, a major prep race for the Kentucky Derby. Society Man went off at 106-1 odds when he ran second in the Wood, paying $54 to place and $27.80 to show. The gelding did run in the Derby, but could do no better than 16th. He is trained by Danny Gargan, a multiple graded stakes winner with more than $24 million in earnings during his career. He currently trains Dornoch, winner of the Belmont Stakes and the Haskell, both Grade 1 events.
Night 12 of the Remington Park season begins at 6:30pm-Cetnral tonight. The eight-race program includes two events over the turf. The main track is fast, the turf is firm.
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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.
