Oaklawn Newcomer Amescua Ended 2021 With Flourish

Trainer Rene Amescua ended 2021 with a bang.

He saddled three winners New Year's Eve, his first career strikes at Oaklawn Park since migrating from his native California to Hot Springs, Ark., for the 2021-22 meeting that began Dec. 3. Entering the Jan. 8 card, he is 3-for-7 at the meet, tied for eighth in the standings.

"Every now and then, it flops out right," Amescua said after training hours Jan. 5.

Amescua, 59, said the hook to Oaklawn came through another California trainer, the late Mel Stute, who brought a small string to Oaklawn in 1989 and recorded four career stakes victories in Hot Springs, notably the Oaklawn Handicap (G2) for older horses in 1987 with champion Snow Chief .

"He used to come here and a friend of mine used to come with the horses," Amescua said. "He always told me how much fun he had here, so I always wanted to come here."

Already armed with more than 900 career victories, the bulk coming in California, Amescua added to his total Dec. 31 when he won the third race with I'm the Boss of Me  ($8.60), seventh race with Apprehend  ($8), and the ninth race with Melting Snow  ($25.80).

All three winners were previously with Southern California-based Peter Miller, who announced in November that he was taking a sabbatical from training. In announcing that break, Miller said in a statement that he would continue to act as an adviser/racing manager to his owners, and own horses himself.

Amescua said he has 18 horses at Oaklawn, led by another former Miller trainee, millionaire and multiple graded stakes winner C Z Rocket . Owned by ltamira Racing Stable, Madaket Stables, Gary Barber, and Tom Kagele, he was Oaklawn's top male sprinter during the prior meeting when he took the Hot Springs Stakes and the Count Fleet Sprint Handicap (G3). 

The 8-year-old City Zip gelding, who finished seventh in his last start Nov. 6 in the Qatar Racing Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1) at Del Mar, is entered in a $101,000 allowance optional claiming race Jan. 14 at Oaklawn.

"The primary amount of horses here came from (Los Angeles)," Amescua said. "Pete Miller asked me if I was interested in coming here. He gave me these horses to give it a shot with, so that's kind of how that came to fruition, even though I was sort of looking for a way to get here anyway."

Amescua, who came up under the late Mike Mitchell and Ron Ellis, started his first horse in 1987, according to Equibase, racing's official data gathering organization. Through Friday, Amescua had recorded 935 victories and his horses had earned $11,191,096 in purses. He had been a fixture in California, particularly the Bay Area, before relocating to the Midwest for the first time.

Ten times his stable has earned more than $400,000 on a yearly basis, though not since 2008. His barn has been leaner in recent years before the influx of ex-Miller trainees.

"I've had a pretty good run on my own," Amescua said. "I haven't had, like, any big super horses, but we always manage to win some races."