Ten-year-old Racehorse captures Claiming Honors

Fifth Date, a 10 year old gelding, courageously won the fifth race at Oaklawn on Saturday afternoon and has been named the agameofskill.com Claimer of the Week. The old legs of the Federico Villafranco trainee are still good enough to pop the gate, get the lead and battle to the very end, and that is what the son of Cherokee Five did to win the six furlong race for $12,500 claimers. Jockey Dave Mello hustled the gelding past every pole ahead of all rivals, fought the entire length of the stretch to keep a narrow lead, and then stopped the clock in 1:14.76 over the slow strip in Hot Springs. Fifth Date returned $13.60 to his faithful supporters. The grandson of Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Black Tie Affair, owned by Danny Caldwell, recorded his 20th career victory in the process and elevated his lifetime earnings to nearly $530,000. The Oklahoma bred has now finished in the money 41 times from 75 career starts.
-Art Parker