Whitmore Named Champion Male Sprinter

For trainer and co-owner Ron Moquett, seeing Whitmore honored as champion male sprinter of 2020 feels like a family member receiving an Eclipse Award.

In completing his 7-year-old season with a dominating, come-from-behind win in the Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1) at Keeneland, the veteran Pleasantly Perfect gelding reached racing's heights. With 15 wins—including 11 stakes wins—over 38 starts in six seasons all for the same trainer, Whitmore has become close as kin.

"My sons actually say that Whitmore is their brother," Moquett said. "I didn't even realize they were doing that. They were talking about driving down for a race, and I said, 'You can't come down this weekend because there are no fans.' Then the one said, 'You think my brother's going to run and I'm not going to at least be at the fence?'"

Among Eclipse Award winners who raced primarily on dirt in their championship seasons, Whitmore is the oldest since 1993 when Cardmania earned champion sprinter honors, also at age 7.

Bred in Kentucky by John Liviakis, Whitmore has provided plenty of can't-miss thrills during his long career, including a victory in the 2018 Forego Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course. In early 2020, despite extra tough fields as horses were sent to Oaklawn Park when it was one of the few tracks able to continue racing during COVID-19 shutdowns, Whitmore won the Hot Springs Stakes for a fourth straight year and the Count Fleet Sprint Handicap (G3) a third time.

After those wins, Whitmore didn't fare as well away from Oaklawn, dropping three consecutive races. But his runner-up finish in the Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap (G1) certainly needed no apology, and Moquett saw some positives in his fourth-place finish in the Stoll Keenon Ogden Phoenix Stakes (G2) in October at Keeneland where he swung six wide entering the stretch.

Kept inside by jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. in the Sprint, Whitmore rallied from 10th to score a 3 1/4-length victory in the six-furlong test. Campaigned by Robert LaPenta, Moquett, and Sol Kumin's Head of Plains Partners, Whitmore officially earned an Eclipse for a horse already viewed by many as a champion.

"When people who I respect come up and tell me that they love Whitmore and root for him every time, that's as good for me as winning the (Kentucky) Derby," Moquett said. "People who I idolize love my horse and love the work that we've done—I mean, it's all Whitmore though. Our job is to keep the horse happy and ready to run whenever the race comes up. We've done that to the best of our ability, and it's worked out well for us."