MFS CHEERIO BLOWS AWAY HIS COMPETITION TO QUALIFY AS FASTEST HERITAGE PLACE FUTURITY FINALIST ON DAY ONE OF TRIALS
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – May 12, 2023 – MFS Cheerio smoked his competition like they were standing still on Friday night to qualify as the fastest on Day One of the trials for the Grade 1 $1,207,640 Heritage Place Futurity. The main event final is scheduled for the closing day of the Remington Park season, June 3.
The 2-year-old Quarter Horse gelding by KVN Corona, out of the Apollitical Jess mare DF Apollitical Sign, stopped the timer in the 11th race at 350 yards in :17.604 seconds, earning a speed index of 91 on the fast track.
The breeding on this gelding is eye-popping. MFS Cheerio’s sire won the first nine races of his career, including a Grade 2 futurity and a Grade 3 derby, both at Los Alamitos in California. KVN Corona ended his career with 10 wins from 13 starts and $868,077 earned. On the bottom side of the pedigree, his maternal grandsire, Apollitical Jess, ran out $1,399,831 in earnings, winning 8-of-14 starts, including the Grade 1 Champion of Champions at Los Al. As a sire, Apollitical Jess has sired 10 Champions, 55 graded stakes winners and 62 stakes winners. Among his winners were three All American Futurity champions – KJ Desperado, Apocalyptical Jess and Mr Jess Jenkins. Most recently, one of his progeny, Empressum, was named World Champion of 2022.
MFS Cheerio’s connections – owners R&H Bros and Anastacio Cavazos, Jr. of Mission, Texas, trainer Eddie Willis and jockey Justine Klaiber – can only hope his ability comes close to his bloodlines. He sure looked the part on Friday, breaking from the gate like an onrushing bullet train and widening his margin to the wire. It was a far cry from his first start when MFS Cheerio never found his stride in running sixth, beaten three lengths in the 330-yard Remington Park Futurity trials. At that point, the connections were just hoping he wasn’t going to turn out on the average side of the racing spectrum like her dam (mother) did. DF Apollitical Sign could only manage earnings of $70,551 in her career, winning 3-of-25 starts. She won for the first time at Remington Park among maiden claimers.
MFS Cheerio looked like a new horse from first race to second for 12-time Remington Park training title holder, Willis. He drew off to win his trial by 2-3/4 lengths over his competition. The winner was bred in Oklahoma by Jovetta Meredith.
This gelding had the red-hot combo of trainer Jason Olmstead and jockey Edwin Escobedo breathing down his necks after the trials, however. That combo won two races on the night and qualified the second- and third-fastest horses for the finals. Escobedo’s two wins put him into a tie atop the jockey standings with Roman Cruz (also two wins Friday), as each has 28 victories on the season. James Flores is one win behind the top duo with 27 wins.
The second round of Heritage Place Futurity trials have been reset for Monday afternoon here with a first post time of 12:30 p.m. They were postponed from Thursday night to avoid possible severe weather disrupting the trials.,
Here are the five fastest horses (with their times, speed index, jockey, trainer, trial number) from Friday night that qualified for the finals of the Grade 1, $1,207,640 Heritage Place Futurity scheduled for Saturday, June 3; another five from Monday’s rescheduled trials will join them:
MFS Cheerio, :17.604, 91, Justine Klaiber, Eddie Willis, trial 11
Cardiac Cowboy, :17.628, 90, Edwin Escobedo, Jason Olmstead, trial four
Sheza Famous Candy, :17.722, 88, Edwin Escobedo, Jason Olmstead, trial 12
AB Seis Corazones, :17.734, 87, Bryan Candanosa, Monty Arrossa, trial six
Deep Blue, :17.748, 87, Francisco Calderon, John Stinebaugh, trial three
••••••
Tracked by more than 175,000 fans on Facebook and 10,700 Twitter followers, Remington Park has provided more than $320 Million to the State of Oklahoma general education fund since the opening of the casino in 2005. Located at the junction of Interstates 35 & 44, in the heart of the Oklahoma City Adventure District, Remington Park features the 2023 American Quarter Horse, Paint and Appaloosa season through June 3. Remington Park presents simulcast racing daily and non-stop casino gaming. Visit remingtonpark.com for more information.
𝘖𝘒𝘓𝘈𝘏𝘖𝘔𝘈 𝘊𝘐𝘛𝘠, 𝘖𝘒 – 𝘍𝘦𝘣𝘳𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘺 9, 2026 – The first training races of the upcoming Remington Park American Quarter Horse, Patin and Appaloosa Season will take place this week. There are 63 horses scheduled to run on Wednesday at 11 a.m. and 65 horses entered Thursday with the same starting time.
Nine races were drawn for each day and three-time defending champion trainer Dee Keener didn’t let the stall doors on his stable stay shut long, emptying the barn for these two days. Keener has entered 14 horses each day for a total of 28, prepping for the first starts of their careers. The next most of any trainer is Clint Crawford with 13 entered for the two days. The only other conditioners who will send out double-figures in horse totals for Wednesday and Thursday are Leo Alcala (12), Matt Whitekiller (10) and Jed Vane (10). Sixteen other trainers have entered for the schooling races with less than 10 running from each of those barns.
Keener’s barn is jumping and ready to go, searching for that fourth training title in a row at Remington Park for the Inola, Okla., native.
“I have some really good 2-year-olds that have been working well on the farm,” Keener, 59, said.
His three titles in a row is well short of the record set by Rodney Reed when the late top trainer here won the trophy for nine consecutive years from 1995-2003.
Keener set a meet record when he won his third training title in a row last year with 54 winners. He needed two victories on Champions Night, Saturday, May 31, 2025, to pass Eddie Willis, who had the record at 53. Keener solved the problem in a hurry on that night, winning the first race of the evening with Vesper Martini in the Grade 1, $20,000 Speedhorse Graham Paint and Appaloosa Stakes and then established a new record by winning the second race with JC Speeding, a double-registered Quarter Horse/Paint. Keener finished 26 wins ahead of runner-up Matt Whitekiller in the trainers’ race.
Many of Remington Park’s top jockeys are named to ride in the training races this week, including Juan Pulido, Francisco Calderon, James Flores, Roman Cruz, Mario Delgado and Cody Smith. Pulido won last year’s jockeys’ race for the riding title with 67 wins, well ahead of runner-up Calderon at 43 victories. In comparison to Pulido’s first riding title here in 2021, he had only 46 trips to the winner’s circle that year. Pulido’s 67 wins last year were the most since G.R. Carter’s 68 in 2014.
Training, or schooling, races are used by many trainers to gain approval by Oklahoma Horse Racing Commission stewards for 2-year-olds to make their first pari-mutuel attempt. All training races at Remington Park are contested at 250 yards.
The Remington Park stable are continues to grow in equine population with 601 horses on the grounds as of Monday morning.
The 2026 Spring Season begins March 5 and continues through May 30.
•••••
Remington Park has provided more than $407 Million to the State of Oklahoma general education fund since the opening of the casino in 2005. Located at the junction of Interstates 35 & 44, in the heart of the Oklahoma City Adventure District. The 2026 Remington Park American Quarter Horse, Paint and Appaloosa Season begins March 5. Remington Park presents year-round simulcast racing and casino gaming. Guests must be 18 or older to wager on horse racing or to enter the casino gaming floor. Visit remingtonpark.com for more information. ... ’Expand’See Less
𝗦𝗖𝗛𝗢𝗢𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗥𝗔𝗖𝗘 𝗥𝗘𝗠𝗜𝗡𝗗𝗘𝗥 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗢𝗪𝗡𝗘𝗥𝗦 & 𝗧𝗥𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐑𝐒 ✔️ Funds must be in the owner’s account at the time of entry for schooling races ✔️ Horse registration papers must be on file in the office at the time of entry ✔️ Schooling race fee: $125.00 per horse
💰 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗽𝗮𝘆𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗱𝘀: • Personal check • Cashier’s check • Cash • Bank wire transfer 🚫 Credit cards are NOT accepted
📬 If you are mailing funds, please allow adequate time for postal delivery. Funds must be posted to the specific owner account that owns the schooling horse at the time of entry.
🤝 Partnerships: If the horse is owned by a partnership, please be sure the bookkeeper knows which partnership account the funds should be deposited into.
For questions or to coordinate deposits, please contact: Gedda Quinonez, Horsemen’s Bookkeeper One Remington Place, Oklahoma City, OK 73111 📞 405-419-4424 (Direct) 📧horsemensbookkeeper@remingtonpark.com ... ’Expand’See Less
✔️ Funds must be in the owner’s account at the time of entry for schooling races ✔️ Horse registration papers must be on file in the office at the time of entry ✔️ Schooling race fee: $125.00 per horse
💰 Accepted payment methods: • Personal check • Cashier’s check • Cash • Bank wire transfer 🚫 Credit cards are NOT accepted
📬 If you are mailing funds, please allow adequate time for postal delivery. Funds must be posted to the specific owner account that owns the schooling horse at the time of entry.
🤝 Partnerships: If the horse is owned by a partnership, please be sure the bookkeeper knows which partnership account the funds should be deposited into.
For questions or to coordinate deposits, please contact: Gedda Quinonez Horsemen’s Bookkeeper One Remington Place Oklahoma City, OK 73111 📞 405-419-4424 (Direct) Horsemensbookkeeper@remingtonpark.com ... ’Expand’See Less
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MFS CHEERIO BLOWS AWAY HIS COMPETITION TO QUALIFY AS FASTEST HERITAGE PLACE FUTURITY FINALIST ON DAY ONE OF TRIALS
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – May 12, 2023 – MFS Cheerio smoked his competition like they were standing still on Friday night to qualify as the fastest on Day One of the trials for the Grade 1 $1,207,640 Heritage Place Futurity. The main event final is scheduled for the closing day of the Remington Park season, June 3.
The 2-year-old Quarter Horse gelding by KVN Corona, out of the Apollitical Jess mare DF Apollitical Sign, stopped the timer in the 11th race at 350 yards in :17.604 seconds, earning a speed index of 91 on the fast track.
The breeding on this gelding is eye-popping. MFS Cheerio’s sire won the first nine races of his career, including a Grade 2 futurity and a Grade 3 derby, both at Los Alamitos in California. KVN Corona ended his career with 10 wins from 13 starts and $868,077 earned. On the bottom side of the pedigree, his maternal grandsire, Apollitical Jess, ran out $1,399,831 in earnings, winning 8-of-14 starts, including the Grade 1 Champion of Champions at Los Al. As a sire, Apollitical Jess has sired 10 Champions, 55 graded stakes winners and 62 stakes winners. Among his winners were three All American Futurity champions – KJ Desperado, Apocalyptical Jess and Mr Jess Jenkins. Most recently, one of his progeny, Empressum, was named World Champion of 2022.
MFS Cheerio’s connections – owners R&H Bros and Anastacio Cavazos, Jr. of Mission, Texas, trainer Eddie Willis and jockey Justine Klaiber – can only hope his ability comes close to his bloodlines. He sure looked the part on Friday, breaking from the gate like an onrushing bullet train and widening his margin to the wire. It was a far cry from his first start when MFS Cheerio never found his stride in running sixth, beaten three lengths in the 330-yard Remington Park Futurity trials. At that point, the connections were just hoping he wasn’t going to turn out on the average side of the racing spectrum like her dam (mother) did. DF Apollitical Sign could only manage earnings of $70,551 in her career, winning 3-of-25 starts. She won for the first time at Remington Park among maiden claimers.
MFS Cheerio looked like a new horse from first race to second for 12-time Remington Park training title holder, Willis. He drew off to win his trial by 2-3/4 lengths over his competition. The winner was bred in Oklahoma by Jovetta Meredith.
This gelding had the red-hot combo of trainer Jason Olmstead and jockey Edwin Escobedo breathing down his necks after the trials, however. That combo won two races on the night and qualified the second- and third-fastest horses for the finals. Escobedo’s two wins put him into a tie atop the jockey standings with Roman Cruz (also two wins Friday), as each has 28 victories on the season. James Flores is one win behind the top duo with 27 wins.
The second round of Heritage Place Futurity trials have been reset for Monday afternoon here with a first post time of 12:30 p.m. They were postponed from Thursday night to avoid possible severe weather disrupting the trials.,
Here are the five fastest horses (with their times, speed index, jockey, trainer, trial number) from Friday night that qualified for the finals of the Grade 1, $1,207,640 Heritage Place Futurity scheduled for Saturday, June 3; another five from Monday’s rescheduled trials will join them:
••••••
Tracked by more than 175,000 fans on Facebook and 10,700 Twitter followers, Remington Park has provided more than $320 Million to the State of Oklahoma general education fund since the opening of the casino in 2005. Located at the junction of Interstates 35 & 44, in the heart of the Oklahoma City Adventure District, Remington Park features the 2023 American Quarter Horse, Paint and Appaloosa season through June 3. Remington Park presents simulcast racing daily and non-stop casino gaming. Visit remingtonpark.com for more information.
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𝐓𝐎𝐓𝐀𝐋 𝐎𝐅 𝟏𝟐𝟖 𝐇𝐎𝐑𝐒𝐄𝐒 𝐃𝐑𝐀𝐖𝐍 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐓𝐖𝐎 𝐃𝐀𝐘𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐑𝐄𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐓𝐎𝐍 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐊 𝐒𝐂𝐇𝐎𝐎𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐄𝐒 𝐎𝐍 𝐖𝐄𝐃𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐃𝐀𝐘 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐔𝐑𝐒𝐃𝐀𝐘
𝘖𝘒𝘓𝘈𝘏𝘖𝘔𝘈 𝘊𝘐𝘛𝘠, 𝘖𝘒 – 𝘍𝘦𝘣𝘳𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘺 9, 2026 – The first training races of the upcoming Remington Park American Quarter Horse, Patin and Appaloosa Season will take place this week. There are 63 horses scheduled to run on Wednesday at 11 a.m. and 65 horses entered Thursday with the same starting time.
Nine races were drawn for each day and three-time defending champion trainer Dee Keener didn’t let the stall doors on his stable stay shut long, emptying the barn for these two days. Keener has entered 14 horses each day for a total of 28, prepping for the first starts of their careers. The next most of any trainer is Clint Crawford with 13 entered for the two days. The only other conditioners who will send out double-figures in horse totals for Wednesday and Thursday are Leo Alcala (12), Matt Whitekiller (10) and Jed Vane (10). Sixteen other trainers have entered for the schooling races with less than 10 running from each of those barns.
Keener’s barn is jumping and ready to go, searching for that fourth training title in a row at Remington Park for the Inola, Okla., native.
“I have some really good 2-year-olds that have been working well on the farm,” Keener, 59, said.
His three titles in a row is well short of the record set by Rodney Reed when the late top trainer here won the trophy for nine consecutive years from 1995-2003.
Keener set a meet record when he won his third training title in a row last year with 54 winners. He needed two victories on Champions Night, Saturday, May 31, 2025, to pass Eddie Willis, who had the record at 53. Keener solved the problem in a hurry on that night, winning the first race of the evening with Vesper Martini in the Grade 1, $20,000 Speedhorse Graham Paint and Appaloosa Stakes and then established a new record by winning the second race with JC Speeding, a double-registered Quarter Horse/Paint. Keener finished 26 wins ahead of runner-up Matt Whitekiller in the trainers’ race.
Many of Remington Park’s top jockeys are named to ride in the training races this week, including Juan Pulido, Francisco Calderon, James Flores, Roman Cruz, Mario Delgado and Cody Smith. Pulido won last year’s jockeys’ race for the riding title with 67 wins, well ahead of runner-up Calderon at 43 victories. In comparison to Pulido’s first riding title here in 2021, he had only 46 trips to the winner’s circle that year. Pulido’s 67 wins last year were the most since G.R. Carter’s 68 in 2014.
Training, or schooling, races are used by many trainers to gain approval by Oklahoma Horse Racing Commission stewards for 2-year-olds to make their first pari-mutuel attempt. All training races at Remington Park are contested at 250 yards.
The Remington Park stable are continues to grow in equine population with 601 horses on the grounds as of Monday morning.
The 2026 Spring Season begins March 5 and continues through May 30.
•••••
Remington Park has provided more than $407 Million to the State of Oklahoma general education fund since the opening of the casino in 2005. Located at the junction of Interstates 35 & 44, in the heart of the Oklahoma City Adventure District. The 2026 Remington Park American Quarter Horse, Paint and Appaloosa Season begins March 5. Remington Park presents year-round simulcast racing and casino gaming. Guests must be 18 or older to wager on horse racing or to enter the casino gaming floor. Visit remingtonpark.com for more information. ... ’Expand’See Less
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Wednesday, February 11 ↠ bit.ly/TROvernight-021126
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𝗦𝗖𝗛𝗢𝗢𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗥𝗔𝗖𝗘 𝗥𝗘𝗠𝗜𝗡𝗗𝗘𝗥 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗢𝗪𝗡𝗘𝗥𝗦 & 𝗧𝗥𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐑𝐒
✔️ Funds must be in the owner’s account at the time of entry for schooling races
✔️ Horse registration papers must be on file in the office at the time of entry
✔️ Schooling race fee: $125.00 per horse
💰 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗽𝗮𝘆𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗱𝘀:
• Personal check
• Cashier’s check
• Cash
• Bank wire transfer
🚫 Credit cards are NOT accepted
📬 If you are mailing funds, please allow adequate time for postal delivery. Funds must be posted to the specific owner account that owns the schooling horse at the time of entry.
🤝 Partnerships:
If the horse is owned by a partnership, please be sure the bookkeeper knows which partnership account the funds should be deposited into.
For questions or to coordinate deposits, please contact:
Gedda Quinonez, Horsemen’s Bookkeeper
One Remington Place, Oklahoma City, OK 73111
📞 405-419-4424 (Direct)
📧horsemensbookkeeper@remingtonpark.com ... ’Expand’See Less
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Schooling Race Reminder for Owners and Trainers
✔️ Funds must be in the owner’s account at the time of entry for schooling races
✔️ Horse registration papers must be on file in the office at the time of entry
✔️ Schooling race fee: $125.00 per horse
💰 Accepted payment methods:
• Personal check
• Cashier’s check
• Cash
• Bank wire transfer
🚫 Credit cards are NOT accepted
📬 If you are mailing funds, please allow adequate time for postal delivery. Funds must be posted to the specific owner account that owns the schooling horse at the time of entry.
🤝 Partnerships:
If the horse is owned by a partnership, please be sure the bookkeeper knows which partnership account the funds should be deposited into.
For questions or to coordinate deposits, please contact:
Gedda Quinonez
Horsemen’s Bookkeeper
One Remington Place
Oklahoma City, OK 73111
📞 405-419-4424 (Direct)
Horsemensbookkeeper@remingtonpark.com ... ’Expand’See Less
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Comment on Facebook
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