Page 158 - October 2023

RACING NEWS
Whiskey Creek’s trainer Toby & Cindi Keeton, Kennedy & Jason Wootan, Karen & co-owner Terry Wootan and jockey Ramon Sanchez.
“We had high hopes,” Wootan said. “He had been training real good. When I saw him in the post parade, I said, ‘He means business today.’ ”
When the gate opened, Whiskey Creek broke a step slowly in seventh for jockey Ramon Sanchez and brushed with his outside rival. The gelding began to motor, however, surging to the front and edging Chasing AJ by a neck in :21.459 for 440 yards.
“He kind of got banged around at first, and I thought maybe we were in trouble,” Wootan said. “But when he kicked a gear in after about 150 yards, I got pretty excited.”
Whiskey Creek not only performed superbly, he bounced back so quickly that a day later when Ruidoso personnel scheduled the traditional photo shoot for the All American winners, he was almost too rambunctious.
“They had to saddle him up to take pictures right there by the racetrack, and you’d have thought he was ready to roll again,” Wootan said. “We had a hard time getting good pictures because he was ready to get on that track.”
A $300,000 yearling at the 2021 Ruidoso Select Yearling Sale, Whiskey Creek as a
2 year old ran for a partnership that
included Wootan. He won two of six races that season.
“He started kind of slow and ended up at Los Alamitos,” Wootan said. “He ran a couple of pretty good races there.”
That fall, Wootan bought out his partners, bringing in Beasley.
“I brought him to Texas and just let him be a horse for a while,” Wootan said. “Then I gave him to Toby Keeton.”
In three trials this season, Whiskey Creek had a second and a third before he won his All American Derby trial, qualifying the seventh-fastest.
156 SPEEDHORSE October 2023
Susan Bachelor, Speedhorse Linda Earley, Speedhorse