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Pick Pony | Sept. 30, 2024, 1:50 p.m.
When Glee won the $50,000 E.L. Gaylord Memorial Stakes on Sunday, it marked the fourth time that Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen had claimed victory in the race. It was also the second time for leading rider Stewart Elliott at Remington Park. Glee, a 2-year-old Texas-bred filly by Honor A.P. out of the Bluegrass Cat mare Red Tabby, delivered an impressive performance, winning by a margin of 15-1/2 lengths as the 6-5 wagering favorite. She paid $4.60 to win, $2.40 to place, and $2.10 to show.
Glee led the 6-1/2 furlongs race from start to finish, setting fractions of :22.36 for the first quarter-mile, :45.73 for the half-mile, and 1:10.54 for three-quarters of a mile, before crossing the finish line in 1:16.90 on the fast track.
The amazingly easy win earned Glee $30,000 from the purse and improved her lifetime marks to four starts, two wins and one second for $79,440. She was purchased for $60,000 in the Fasig-Tipton Fall Yearling Sale of 2023. She was bred by No Escape Ranch in Texas.
The rest of the order of finish behind Glee was Tapitures Actor (8-5) in second, Arsonist (18-1) third, Café Au Lait (14-1) fourth and Sophistry (2-1) fifth.
Glee did everything in her power to boast what coming from the barn of 18-time training title holder at Remington Park can mean to a horse, especially with Elliott aboard, a Kentucky Derby-winning jockey who ran away from everyone in Remington Park standings last year to win his first Pat Steinberg Award. Elliott is already well ahead in this year’s standings for top rider with 44 wins through 24 race dates, 20 ahead of his nearest rival.
Asmussen also won this race three other times, his first coming in 2017 with Laudation, followed by Adventurous Lady in 2018 and then with Kandy Ginger in 2020, rode by Elliott.
Glee started her career with another impressive victory when she broke her maiden at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, Texas, on May 12 this year in her career debut by 5-1/2 lengths. Things changed for her after she left Texas. Her next stop was the $225,000 Debutante Stakes at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., a race in which she finished fourth, beaten 10 lengths. She may have had an excuse in that race as she ran over a muddy track for the first time. Having been defeated by classier juvenile fillies, Asmussen sent her to Prairie Meadows in Altoona, Ia., for the $100,000 Prairie Meadows Debutante where she ran second, but was beaten solidly by 7-1/2 lengths.
The E.L. Gaylord Memorial is named in honor of the late chairman and publisher of The Oklahoman, the state’s largest newspaper. E.L. Gaylord was a staunch supporter of Oklahoma horse racing and Remington Park in the track’s early history.