Speedy Skelly Repeats In Count Fleet
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Photo: Coady Photo/Erin Johnson
Skelly wins the Count Fleet Sprint Handicap at Oaklawn Park
Red Lane Thoroughbreds' Skelly rushed up between horses early in the $500,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap (G3) at Oaklawn Park April 13. But neither today's trip nor his recent journey to Saudi Arabia were too much for the 5-year-old Practical Joke gelding to overcome, as he won the six-furlong sprint by open lengths for the second year in a row.
Carrying the high weight of 125 pounds, Skelly improved his record at Oaklawn to seven wins and one second from nine starts and became the first horse to win back-to-back runnings of the Count Fleet since 2020 champion sprinter Whitmore in 2017-18.
Skelly had a seven-race win streak snapped when he finished second to Japanese sprinter Remake in the Riyadh Dirt Sprint (G3) Feb. 24. A slow start, by Skelly's standards, in the Count Fleet could have spelled trouble, but rider Ricardo Santana Jr. found a path between horses to reach the front.
Skelly opened up through a first quarter in :21.52 and would never be headed after that. He hit the half-mile mark in :43.88, and Santana took a look back under his shoulder as Skelly glided into the lane with a 3 1/2-length lead.
The winning margin was three lengths as Skelly stopped the timer in 1:08.82. Trained by Steve Asmussen, Skelly paid $3.40 to win. Skelly has won nine of 14 career starts, with four seconds, and earnings of $1,460,163. Bred in Kentucky by H. Allen Poindexter, Skelly is out of Adande, by Bwana Charlie.
Tejano Twist rallied to finish second, 1 1/2 lengths ahead of third-place Happy Is a Choice .