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RACING NEWS
Oklahoma Futurity-G2
AINT SHE TEMPTING
by John Moorehouse
Those who were tempted to bet on Aint She Tempting in the Oklahoma Futurity-G2 were rewarded handsomely for their support. The two-year-old filly beat eight horses and 18-1 odds to score a surprising victory in
the $383,725 stakes, on a rainy March 21 at Remington Park.
Levings Racing LLC owns Aint She Tempting, who was making just the second out of her career and brought home a $153,490 payday for this performance. She finished second in her March 7 trial, but still logged the third-fastest qualifying time.
Monty Arrossa, who is training at Remington Park for the first time, prepped Aint She Tempting for her stakes-winning run. Arrossa, who is 47 years old, is based in Jerome, Idaho, but has been on the rise as one of the top trainers nationwide in recent years. He ranked third in the U.S. in wins in 2018 and was ninth in 2019.
Arrossa praised his promising filly in an interview with stallionesearch.com after the race: “We noticed right off the bat how smart she was. She just took to everything. She’s got a great mind and she likes to train.”
Arrossa noted that Aint She Tempting “ran a nice trial race” but was “kind of looking for some company” during that out.
“After the trial race, she bounced right back,” he added. “She’s a professional. She’s a very smart filly.”
Despite her long odds at the betting window, Aint
She Tempting looked like the class of the field. She broke on top from the 4-gate, led by a 1/2-length going into the stretch, and sped off from the competition, widening the gap to a full length by the time she reached the wire.
The 300-yard trip took :15.191, producing a 97 speed index. The filly posted a :15.827 in her futurity trial.
James Flores, the 2019 AQHA Champion jockey and last year’s leading rider at Remington Park, rode Aint She Tempting to this wire-to-wire victory.
Flores told stallionesearch that the stakes- winning run had two key ingredients: leaving the gates clean and breaking on top. “Those
are some of the key things you need to win that type of race. You’ve got to get the break and the horse just broke perfectly.
“We had bad weather over here today and the horse was getting a little antsy,” Flores
added, describing the filly’s performance as “just an hon- est run. Real happy for the horse. She deserved it; she’s been training hard.”
In a press release issued
by Remington Park, Arrossa noted that he had two starters in the field—Aint She Tempting and Cartels Dynasty—and that Flores had to decide which he’d ride. “He said he thought this
filly was the best,” Arrossa said. “I had a couple of my friends from California call me before the race and ask which one to bet. I’m not a gambler, so I said, ‘I don’t know.’ I think they ended up picking the right one because they were happy. It was amazing.”
Levings Racing purchased Aint She Tempting for $21,500 at the 2019 Heritage Place Yearling Sale. The filly has earned back that sum, and then some; her lifetime bankroll now stands at $155,436 after just a pair of outs.
“She just does everything right,” Arrossa said. “She beat the gate open tonight; shot out of there like a rocket. James gets a lot of credit for that. He did a great job. She is paid up to
Remington Park $383,725 • 300 yards :15.191 • si 97
First Down Dash
Tempting Dash
A Tempting Chick
AINT SHE TEMPTING, ‘18-f.
Corona Cartel
Preslee The First
First Carolina
158 SPEEDHORSE April 2020
Aint She Tempting and James Flores win the $383,725 Oklahoma Futurity-G2 by 1-length.
Dustin Orona Photography