The thoroughbreds at Red Lane’ Skelly rush among the horses early in the $500,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap (G3) at Oaklawn Park April 13. But neither today’s trip nor a recent trip to Saudi Arabia was too much for the 5-year-old boy. Practical joke gelding to pull clear, as he won the six-furlong sprint for the second consecutive year.
Carrying a high weight of 125 pounds, Skelly improved his record at Oaklawn to seven wins and one second in nine starts and became the first horse to win back-to-back runs of Count Fleet since the 2020 sprint champion Whitmore in 2017-18.
Skelly had a streak of 7 consecutive wins by finishing second behind the Japanese sprinter Redo in the Riyadh Dirt Sprint (G3) February 24. By Skelly’s standards, a slow start in the Count Fleet could spell trouble, but jockey Ricardo Santana Jr. found a way among the horses to move forward.
Skelly opened the first quarter in :21.52 and would never top it after that. He hit the half-mile mark in :43.88, and Santana looked back under his shoulder as Skelly slid into the lane with a 3 1/2 lead.
The margin of victory was three lengths when Skelly stopped the clock at 1:08.82. Trained by Steve Asmussen, Skelly paid $3.40 to win. Skelly has won nine of 14 career starts, by four seconds, and earned $1,460,163. Bred in Kentucky by H. Allen Poindexter, Skelly comes from Adande, by Bwana Charlie.
Tejano twist rallied to finish second, 1/2 length ahead of third place Happiness Is A Choice .
Videotapes: Sprint Fleet Count H. (G3)
