5 Fast Facts: Remington Springboard Mile

Dec 13, 2017 Alastair Bull/TwinSpires.com

1. First staged in 1999, the $400,000 Springboard Mile is the most important 2-year-old race at Remington Park, Oklahoma City. It is one of five stakes races on the final day of the 2017 Remington Park Thoroughbred season.
2. The Springboard Mile received a big boost to its reputation when it was added to the Road to the Kentucky Derby series in 2017. It will be the final 2-year-old race in the Road to the 2018 Kentucky Derby, offering 10 points for the winner, four for the runner-up, two for the third horse across the line, and one for fourth.
3. Few horses have caused as much drama in the Springboard Mile as Texas Bling did in 2012. He arrived having had nine starts, taking eight to win his first race – on turf – and then finishing sixth in the El Joven Stakes at Retama Park, San Antonio, Texas. But back on dirt he showed great late speed to win at odds of 128-1. He unsuccessfully followed the Oaklawn Park Derby preps the next year, but he later won the Assault Stakes at Lone Star twice.
4. Though overrun by Texas Bling, the 2012 runner-up would go on to bigger and better things. Will Take Charge earned a spot in the Kentucky Derby after winning the Rebel Stakes (G2), and though he didn’t finish in the money in the Classics, he later became Champion 3-Year-Old Male after winning the Travers Stakes (G1), Pennsylvania Derby (G2), Clark Handicap (G1), and finishing a close second to Mucho Macho Man in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
5. It pays to watch the beaten runners, as the best-performed horses to have contested the Springboard Mile didn’t win. Along with Will Take Charge, they include 2015 runner-up Suddenbreakingnews, who later won the Southwest Stakes, finished second in the Arkansas Derby (G1), and fifth in the Kentucky Derby; and 2011 seventh-place finisher Caleb’s Posse, who the next year won the King’s Bishop Stakes (G1) and the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1).