Longest-priced winner ever as favored Golden Missile misfires on Fair Grounds track

The winner's name was conceived in humor. But giggles of appreciation were no doubt hard to find on-site at Fair Grounds and among nationwide simulcast bettors as they watched 4-to-5 favorite Golden Missile struggling to a fifth-place finish behind the longest shot ever to win a New Orleans Handicap (G3).

New Orleans H. (G3)
Fair Grounds, March 5, $500,000, 11/8 miles, fast, 1:48.80
1-ALLEN'S OOP, g. 5, Nines Wild-Silhouette, by Star Choice.
2-Take Note of Me, g. 6, Notebook-Von Der Sonne, by Dust Commander.
3-Ecton Park, c. 4, Forty Niner-Daring Danzig, by Danzig.

And for bombshell winner Allen's Oop and jockey Willie Martinez, the 1 1/8-mile loop was about as simple as a $500,000 horse race can get. The 45.80-to-1 winner rated just off pacesetting Wild Imagination through fractions of 23.49, 47.46 and 1:11.48 for six furlongs before taking over the lead in the stretch and holding off a late challenge from fellow longshot (30.60-to-1) and local hero Take Note of Me.

Allen's Oop won by a length and did so with style. The mile went in 1:36.33, and Allen's Oop ran the last eighth in :12.47 to complete the New Orleans Handicap's nine furlongs in 1:48.80, just four-fifths of a second slower than the track and stakes record set in 1998 by Phantom On Tour.

Another length back in third was last year's Super Derby (G1) winner, Ecton Park.

Talent behind them

Finishing behind Ecton Park were Elaborate, winner of the restricted Ack Ack Stakes at Santa Anita Park and third to Budroyale and Cat Thief in his most recent start in the San Antonio Handicap (G2); Golden Missile, a millionaire who in his prior start finished second to Stephen Got Even in the Donn Handicap (G1); Nite Dreamer, winner of more than $800,000 and last year's Prairie Meadows Cornhusker Breeders' Cup Handicap (G3)victor; pacesetter Wild Imagination; and Pleasant Breeze, winner of last year's Meadowlands Cup (G2).

"I was pleased with the eight hole," said Dallas Keen, trainer of the winner. "We can just lay off, see what the speed's going to do. Willie knows him, and he couldn't have ridden a better race.

"I was really confident going into the race," Martinez said. "I didn't look at his odds. This horse has been training super and Dallas did a great job giving him (Allen's Oop) self-confidence in the last few races (consecutive stakes wins in January at Sam Houston Race Park in the Sam Houston Sprint Handicap and the Maxxam Gold Cup Handicap). He was pretty much the pilot and I was the passenger. Once I put him in stalking position and pulled the trigger, it was pretty much all over.

"They (handicappers) overlooked my horse. It didn't break my heart at all. We rode with no pressure and with a lot of confidence, and that's good. I love this game."

Trainer Joe Orseno said that Stronach Stable's Golden Missile never found his footing on the Fair Grounds racing surface. Jockey Edgar Prado told Orseno he was "slipping and sliding and wasn't grabbing it, and he never could get him into the race," Stronach's New York-based trainer said.

Third last year

Before his big score, Allen's Oop was remembered, at least among New Orleans racing fans, as the longshot who almost got there in last year's New Orleans Handicap. As a horse with only his maiden victory and an allowance win to his credit, he ran third to Precocity and Real Quiet, missing the big prize by only three-quarters of a length and losing the place spot to the 1998 Kentucky Derby (G1) winner by only a neck. And that was achieved at 38.90-to-1.

Later that spring he was third in the Texas Mile Stakes (G3), second in the William Donald Schaefer Handicap at Pimlico Race Course, and sixth in the Lone Star Park Handicap in late May. It was after the last performance that Keen thought Allen's Oop may have had a problem.

"Last year when he ran in the Lone Star HandicapÉand after the trip up to Pimlico, I noticed his blood count kept dropping," Keen said. "So we 'scoped his stomach and they said he had some of the worst ulcers they had ever seen in a horse, I mean bleeding ulcers. The horse was still eating and carrying good weight, but I could tell he just wasn't himself. From that point on we've always treated him as a horse who has ulcers, and it's paid off."

Now, the name. Keen said that an attempt at humor could have led to professional problems between him and one of his owners, Bill Allen.

"Bill Allen had bought him for $10,000 (at the 1996 Keeneland September yearling sale)," Keen recalled. "I had the horse in training for Bill, and he was wanting to sell him. He was sore in his shins and just needed some time off. One guy who was looking at him backed out because the horse had sore shins. He (Allen) said he'd take $25,000 for him, and I had him in training and I loved the colt. So I called Jim (current owner, James D. Jackson) and I said, 'Listen, Bill Allen's wanting to sell him; we need to move quick.' I didn't want him to change his mind. When I met (Jackson), he had $25,000 cash to give to Bill.

"Then I told him, 'By the way, we need to pin-fire the colt; let's go ahead and cut him, and he's unnamed.'

"Jim said he would think of a name, and I told him he should name him Allen's Oop, just joking, because I think Allen ooped when he sold this one. So, I'm training for Bill Allen at Del Mar and I get a call from Jim and he tells me, 'I got the name on that Nines Wild colt-Allen's Oop.' I liked to fell over. But Allen still owns the sire, so he's tickled every time the horse runs big."

Jackson and Keen are finally having some fun after last year's turmoil over Valhol, the upset Arkansas Derby (G2) winner who was disqualified because his rider, Billy Patin, allegedly carried an illegal electric shocking device during the Oaklawn Park race.

Allen's Oop, a five-year-old bay gelding out of the Star Choice mare Silhouette, was bred in Kentucky by Robert Fox and Thomas Hudgins II. He is 5-5-5 in 19 starts for earnings of $599,278.