Tejano Twist Aims for a Second Whitmore Stakes Win

Just less than three years ago, Tejano Twist  captured the Whitmore Stakes (G3) at Oaklawn Park.

While that clear victory has remained his lone graded stakes score to date, the 7-year-old Practical Joke   gelding has not galloped off into history. In fact, on March 14 at Oaklawn he'll go for a repeat in the $250,000 Whitmore three years after that initial graded stakes win.

Not that Tejano Twist hasn't continued to run well in the months and years since that victory. A stakes winner at 2, 3, 4, and 6, he finished second in the 2024 edition of the Whitmore and third in last year's renewal. In a career that the connections of the race's namesake could appreciate, Tejano Twist has an opportunity to take another step toward the $2 million mark in career earnings when he faces an expected six other older runners in what will be the 47th start of his career.

"He's a cool horse," said trainer Chris Hartman. "There's no doubt about it."

Hartman conditions late-running Tejano Twist for owners JD Thoroughbreds and Joey Keith Davis, partners who in June 2022 claimed Tejano Twist for $80,000 at Churchill Downs. 

He enters Saturday's 6-furlong tilt with six previous stakes wins—three at Oaklawn—and 14 other stakes placings as well as $1,757,632 in career earnings. While graded stakes wins might not be as important for a gelding, a victory in the lucrative Whitmore likely would lift him past $1.9 million in career earnings.

Tejano Twist exits an impressive 3 1/2-length victory over last year's Whitmore winner, Booth , in a 6-furlong allowance level race March 1 at Oaklawn.

"Running him back very quick, you know?" Hartman said. "Fourteen days back, but he's doing good. His last two races have probably been some of his better races."

Hartman will enter a formidable pair of runners Saturday as he's also expected to send out Wendelssohn , the 3-1 second-choice off a third-place finish in the Feb. 8 King Cotton Stakes at Oaklawn (where Tejano Twist finished second). A 5-year-old son of Mendelssohn , Wendelssohn will try to secure the first graded stakes win of his career after capturing a pair of stakes in 2025: the Thanksgiving Classic Stakes at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots and the restricted Eclipse Overnight Stakes at Oaklawn. Like Saturday's test, both of those races were contested at 6 furlongs on the dirt.

"We've got two of them in there," Hartman said. "One's going to be forward and one's going to be coming from the back."

Trainer Steve Asmussen, who won the 2024 edition of the Whitmore with Jaxon Traveler  and last year's race with Booth, this year has entered multiple stakes winner Ryvit  and stakes winner Bourbon Bash .

River Wind Takes Stakes Aim in Purple Martin

While older sprinters will contest the Whitmore, Saturday's Oaklawn card will also feature 3-year-old fillies going 6 furlongs in the $150,000 Purple Martin Stakes.

Trainer Norm Casse will send out 2-1 morning-line favorite River Wind , who last month impressively won her career debut at Oaklawn at 6 furlongs in a maiden special weight race. The daughter of Lexitonian   opened a clear advantage through a quarter-mile and then added to that margin at each call that followed to win by 8 1/4 lengths.

River Wind races for Turman Racing Stable, Resilient Six Stables, and TJR Thoroughbreds.

The expected field of seven also includes Goodall , a recent maiden winner at Fair Grounds for Spendthrift Farm and Asmussen, as well as You're in Heaven , a daughter of Global Campaign  owned by WinStar Farm and trainer Dallas Stewart. 

"She broke her maiden at Oaklawn, showed good speed," Stewart said. "Came back and we tried to stretch her out. She ran pretty good. But she had a blistering workout for this. I think she's a quality filly."