Consistency has Ten Strike Racing on top Oaklawn Park Owners’ rankings come close to a one-third point of the 2022-2023 meeting that begins December 9.
Until January 29, Day 21 of the scheduled 68-day meeting, Ten Strike, considering Oaklawn as its home ground, had eight wins in just 13 starts. Ten Strike won four races in December, including the last of the month with its most notable athlete to date, undefeated. eye-catching clover and four races in January, again taking place the last race of the month.
Ten Strike edged out Oaklawn for a single season to victory after winning eight races at the 2021-2022 meeting to take sixth place on the leaderboard. Ten Strike made 50 appearances last season at Oaklawn.
Ten Strike co-founder Clay Sanders said: “Not what we expected, topping the owners charts, especially the way they count wins at Oaklawn. have to count that. Probably a good percentage of our horses that we own in partnership, so they won’t even count.”
Sanders and Marshall Gramm, another equestrian enthusiast and founding partner, launched Ten Strike in 2016. Ten Strike, based in Memphis, Tenn., offers proportional ownership of horses, from claimants to graded stake performers. Ten Strike employs four coaches at Oaklawn—two-time Eclipse Award winners Brad Cox, Lindsay Schultz, Bentley Combs and newcomer Matt Shirer. Ten Strike won races with all four at the 2022-2023 meeting.
Sanders said a number of factors contributed to Ten Strike’s strong start. He noted that Schultz and Combs are in their second season at Oaklawn and that Shirer has a successful track record. Half of Ten Strike’s eight wins come from horses claimed in 2022 Churchill Downs autumn encounter
Cox’s victory for Ten Strike comes to eye-catching clover, who won his December 31 career debut for 2-year-olds with a 1 1/2-time run in lead fashion under Joe Talamo. Sanders said the promising Eyeing Clover (2–2) was unearthed by famed blood supply agent Liz Crow, Ten Strike’s race manager. Champion’s Son Looking Lucky , eye-catching clover was purchased for a modest $55,000 at Keeneland’s September 2021 Annual Sale.
Sanders said “about 40” people have a financial stake in Eyeing Clover, with interest between 0.5-5%. Sanders said about half of Eyeing Clover’s owners are from Arkansas, many of whom crowded into the Larry Snyder Winner’s Circle after his famous win.
Eyeing Clover came back to win the 9 3/4 tier one subsidy sprint on January 28 at Fair Grounds Racecourse & Slots. Sanders says Eyeing Clover will be considered for two big prep races for the Kentucky Derby (G1)—$1 million Rebel (G2) stake at 1 1/16 miles on Feb. 25 in Oaklawn and $300,000 Gotham (G3) stake at a mile on March 4 at Aqueduct race track.
Ten Strike was on the Triple Crown trail in 2019 with late flowering warrior fee , who was added to the Preakness Stakes (G1), ranked fourth behind the strong maiden special weight and optional entry-level allowance to win at Oaklawn. Cox has coached millionaire Oaklawn bet winners for Ten Strike and Madaket Stables. warrior fee retired last year and Ten Strike is now the 7-year-old son of Munnings at Irish Hill & Dutchess Views Stallions in New York.
Sanders said Ten Strike has 17 horses at Oaklawn, nine privately owned and another eight owned by outside partners. Shirer trains seven horses, Sanders said, with the remaining 10 divided among Schultz (six), Combs (two) and Cox (two). Ten Strike also had another win at the partnership meeting with Jeremy Sussman.
Arkansans, at least at the top, dominate Oaklawn’s owner rankings. Hot Springs’ Jerry Carroom came in second with six wins. Little Rock’s John Holleman came in third with five. Ten Strike has many top owner titles at The Parx . Race but was looking for the first time in Oaklawn.
“I’d say we’re not going to go to gang attacks,” Sanders said. “If you just think about it, our win rate is really high and that can even happen just by luck, luck in the race and when your horses win we will have to pass. over a condition you win a condition you move up into a slightly more difficult position We are still a little skeptical that we will get there in the end but if we search from six come eight weeks and have a shot—that’s our way home and we’re not shy. We’ll definitely give it our best. But that said, we usually try to ask for a lot. with partners, so we’ll have to tell our requesting partners that we need to claim some ourselves.”
Sanders and Gramm both reside in Memphis, Tenn. Sanders is the risk manager for First Horizon Bank. Gramm is a professor of economics at Rhodes College.
Ten Strike has 42 career wins at Oaklawn, the first of which came on January 28, 2016, with divine thunder .
This press release has been edited by BloodHorse Staff for content and style.
