Tejano Twist Attempts Back-to-Back Whitmore Scores

JD Thoroughbreds and Joey Keith Davis' Tejano Twist  looks to live up to the race's namesake by earning a second-consecutive victory in the six-furlong $250,000 Whitmore Stakes (G3) at Oaklawn Park March 16.

Formerly named the Hot Springs Stakes, the race was renamed in 2022 to honor champion sprinter Whitmore, who won it four times from 2017-2020. With a second win, Tejano Twist could take a step toward getting his own race one day. After all, he does hold a 3-2-1 record from six starts at Oaklawn.

Video: Whitmore S. (G3)

Since his Whitmore victory a year ago, the 5-year-old Practical Joke   gelding has been worse than third just once in seven starts. Ironically, that finish was his smallest margin of defeat when beaten three-quarters of a length while fourth in the Kelly's Landing Stakes at Ellis Park July 1.

A four-month layoff followed and trainer Chris Hartman has had his millionaire in great form since, scoring stakes victories at Churchill Downs and Oaklawn. In his last start, the Feb. 3 King Cotton Stakes at Oaklawn, Tejano Twist showed his customary closing kick to prove best of the rest while finishing second to Skelly .

Attempting to clear the hurdle of Tejano Twist will be William and Corinne Heiligbrodt's Ryvit . The 4-year-old son of Competitive Edge   has his own Oaklawn reputation to uphold, having won four of six starts around the Hot Springs oval.

Last April, he won the Bachelor Stakes in gate-to-wire fashion before leaving Arkansas to nail down a graded victory in the Chick Lang Stakes (G3) at Pimlico Race Course and Maxfield Stakes at Ellis Park. He later added the Steel Valley Sprint Stakes at Mahoning Valley Race Course in November.

Fifth to Tejano Twist in the Ring the Bell, Ryvit took a two-and-a-half month freshening before taking a local Feb. 23 allowance by two lengths.

In addition to Ryvit, trainer Steve Asmussen also sends out Jaxon Traveler , who is owned by West Point Thoroughbreds. Winner of the 2022 Maryland Sprint Stakes (G3) at Pimlico, the 6-year-old son of Munnings   sandwiched a non-factoring fifth over a sloppy track in the King Cotton between stakes victories in New Mexico. Like his stablemate, Jaxon Traveler is a stakes winner at Oaklawn, winning the Bachelor Stakes in 2021.

The Whitmore is race 9 with post time at 4:23 p.m. CT.

Purple Martin Stakes

Two races prior, a field of six 3-year-old fillies will complete the same six-furlong distance in the $200,000 Purple Martin Stakes.

Xtreme Racing Stables' Minnesota-bred filly Xtreme Diva  battled hard to the wire in the Dixie Belle Stakes Feb. 17 to defeat Randy Patterson, Sam Vogel, and Joe Morgan's Blue Squall  by a nose.

The two are set for a rematch in race 7 at 3:10 p.m. CT.