The Pippin Stakes - 42nd Running
Compiled by Robert Yates
Contact: Chris Ho, Vice President of Marketing, cho@oaklawn.com, 501-623-4411 ext. 4201
Saturday, Dec. 31, 2023
MISTY VEIL - Photo Credit: Coady Media
HOT SPRINGS, AR (Saturday, Jan. 6, 2024) – Misty Veil, perhaps, made her final career start a winning one.
Stalking a soft pace, Misty Veil cut the corner turning for home, then repelled a midstretch challenge on the outside by favored Ice Orchid to record a one-length victory in the $150,000 Pippin Stakes for older fillies and mares Saturday afternoon at Oaklawn.
The 8 ½-furlong Pippin marked the first career stakes victory for Misty Veil, a 6-year-old daughter of Tonalist who is entered in next week’s Keeneland January of Horses of All Ages Sale, and the 400th at Oaklawn for jockey Ramon Vazquez. Only 12 other riders in Oaklawn history have reached that total. Vazquez rode Misty Veil ($8.20) for trainer Mike Maker and co-owners Michael Hui and John H. Yocum of Little Rock, Ark.
Ice Orchid, the 9-5 favorite, held second, a neck in front of late-running Butterbean. Lovely Ride, who led through a :49.09 half-mile, and Tiz a Macho Girl completed the order of finish.
Misty Veil’s winning time over a muddy, sealed surface was 1:45.27. She was exiting a runner-up finish behind Butterbean in Oaklawn’s one-mile $150,000 Mistletoe Stakes Dec. 9.
Misty Veil won for the seventh time in 34 career starts to increase her earnings to $617,093. Maker, on behalf of Hui, claimed Misty Veil for $80,000 out of a fourth-place finish in a Nov. 24, 2022, allowance/optional claimer at Churchill Downs. In 12 starts for her new connections, Misty Veil has bankrolled roughly $275,000. She also won a starter allowance route last March at Oaklawn.
Hui said Misty Veil is scheduled to ship Sunday to Kentucky for the Keenland sale, where she is entered as a racing or broodmare prospect.
Live racing resumes Sunday at 12:30 p.m. (Central).
Pippin Quotes
Winning jockey Ramon Vazquez: “I got a good position from the beginning. I just got her out a little bit at the three-eighths (pole), but then I got in a little traffic. Then, the hole opened on the rail and she came home really well.”
Winning co-owner Michael Hui: “I had a good feeling, just as long as the 1 (Lovely Ride) didn’t get away. The pace was slow, but we were close. That’s good for Ramon (Vazquez) to get 400. It was even better to see Ramon come up the rail. She leaves tomorrow for Kentucky.”
