Remington Park article by Richard Linihan
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – August 18, 2026 — Kitty Code looked a lot like his maternal grandsire, Kitten’s Joy, on Friday night, winning the $99,600 OKC Turf Classic Handicap at 28-1 at Remington Park. Jockey Walter De La Cruz was up for the score.
Kitten’s Joy is generally recognized as the greatest North American turf sire of all-time, producing millionaire after millionaire runners on the grass. If that weren’t enough, he also was a graded stakes winner and the American Champion Turf Horse of 2004. All that seemed to kick in for Kitty Code on Friday night as he came from dead last in the seven-horse field to pass them all down the stretch for.
The win gave owner-breeder Bryan Hawk and trainer Joe Offolter a sweep of the late daily double, winning the Classics Cup and the OKC Turf. Mister Omaha won the Cup as was expected, but Kitty Code’s upset was not. De La Cruz got Kitty Code up by a neck as the two heavy favorites were licking at his heels. Country Caper (7-5 odds) ran second, just missing the win, and Eakly (even-money favorite) was third, another two lengths behind at the finish of the 1-1/16th mile race greensward for 3-year-olds-and-older Oklahoma-breds.
Kitty Code paid $58.60 to win, $23.80 to place and $5.80 to show. His victory keyed some gigantic payoffs in the final race of the night. It caused the largest payout of the season for the Pick 5 bettors, returning $25,223.20 to three tickets. It also produced a $1,105.90 return for the late Pick 4. In the Pick 5, those three lucky tickets had the following horses (race 6 – So Jacksann, 26-1; race 7 – Miss Code West, 1-9; race 8 – Connors Outlaw, 22-1; race 9 – Mister Omaha, 4-5; and race 10 – Kitty Code, 28-1).
“The last couple of times out, I really thought we had a chance to win those races,” said Offolter. “I just told Walter there were some speed horses in there to chase and give it one big run.”
Hawk thought the race set up well for his horse, too.
“I saw the speed (horses) going and our guy is a closer and there at the end, I said, ‘He’s going! He’s going! And he went!”
The fourth-place finisher, Stoney Brick Road (8-1) set the early pace in :24.31 for the first quarter-mile and :49.90 for the half-mile before Eakly passed him to take the lead, going 1:14.59 for three-quarters of a mile and 1:39.45 for a mile before the winner hit the wire in 1:45.45. That was the only time that Kitty Code had the lead, when he finished a neck in front.
Kitty Code is a 4-year-old gelded son of Code West, out of the Kitten’s Joy mare Blushing Kitten. He earned $59,760 to push his overall bankroll to $111.593. He has now started 12 times with three wins and two third-place efforts to his credit.
The rest of the order of finish past the top four was C W Prize (9-1) fifth, Good Swimmer (28-1) sixth and Excaping the Blues (10-1) seventh.
The win by Offolter propelled him into third all-time wins in the Classics for trainers with 12. He passed the late Roger Engel (11) and Steve Hobby (10) to move into that position. He now trails Donnie Von Hemel (32) and C.R. Trout (18). It had been 15 years since Offolter had won the OKC Turf Classic. He teamed up with jockey Luis Quinonez in 2011 to win this race with Capture the Flag. It was his only other win in this series. It was the first win in the OKC Turf for De La Cruz and Hawk.
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Remington Park has provided more than $426 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. The 2026 edition of the Oklahoma Classics, the top night of stakes racing for Oklahoma-breds, is set for Friday, Oct. 16 at Remington Park. Remington Park presents year-round simulcast racing and casino gaming. Guests must be 18 or older to wager on horse racing or to enter the casino gaming floor. Visit remingtonpark.com for more information.
