The Springboard Mile ... Results from Remington Park ... Saffie Joseph and Co. Win

With a pair of scratches in the $400k Springboard Mile, a 9-horse field went to a 7-horse one, but in the end all that mattered was that Saffie Joseph’s colt by Neolithic, out of Ruby On My Mind won the day in the feature at Remington Park. Running without Lasix, the Kentucky Derby Points (10 to be exact) now belong to Red Oak Stable. It was the hot-riding Jose Ortiz who swept in from Aqueduct and won 3 stakes races in-a-row.

The race shape … At the break, it was Todd Fincher’s Bye Bye Bobby #3 who wrestled to the lead. It looked as though Steve Asmussen’s Concept #1 or Ron Moquett’s Osbourne #9 (he is the only other runner to secure KYD Points, 4 for 2nd, in this case) would be able to seize the front. However, it Ortiz’s mount that was making steady progress by the top of the lane, and when the dirt settled, he prevailed in fine style by more than half a length. A Florida bred, Joseph can now boast that he has an undefeated soon-to-be 3-yr-old heading into 2022.

With a number of options, we could see this one down at the conditioner’s base at Gulfstream, battling for more points in the Holy Bull (G3) through the Florida Derby (G1). What we do know is that this colt is a budding talent, and on a wind drenched chilly night in Oklahoma City, Red Oak Stable’s own triumphed impressively. The Springboard was theirs …