Fl Rizzo Gets First Black Type Victory In Walter Merrick Stakes at Fair Meadows
TULSA, OK–JULY 19, 2024–Fl Rizzo battled to his third win and first stakes victory in the $17,500 Walter Merrick Stakes on Friday evening at Fair Meadows Racetrack in Tulsa.
Breaking from the outside post, jockey Salvador Martinez drove Fl Rizzo to the lead as he came six wide off the turn, then battled head-to-head with runner-up We Call Him Joneson to score a neck victory. Oro Cartel finished 5-1/2 lengths back to take third.
Saddled by trainer Matt Whitekiller, Fl Rizzon completed the 870 yards in 46.722 seconds, equaling an 85-speed index with a 4 mph tailwind. The victory worth $8,892 pushed the Kvn Corona gelding's bankroll to $35,985.
Bred in Washington state by owner-breeders Lindley and Julie Myers, Fl Rizzo was unstarted at two and winless in two starts at 3. From the Fly Jess Fly mare Fly Reba Fly, he has now compiled a (7) 3-2-0 record and is a black-type winner.
Runner-up We Call Him Joneson earned $3,464 for finishing second. Trainer Gary Walker named jockey Roman Cruz to ride the multiple stakes-placed son of Furrtreeous for owner-breeder Michael Gavin. Bred from the Gold Medal Jess mare Chics Legacy, We Call Him Joneson has earned $80,082 in 22 starts to 7.
Oro Cartel, a 5-year-old son of multiple stakes sire Bv Travelin Soldier, earned $1,905 for third. Alonzo Barraza trains the Oklahoma homebred for owner-breeder Maria Solis. Larren Delome was aboard the gelding out of Gold Ounce by Apollitical Jess.
Bojangles Comin, Htr Slambam Tequilla, Docs Best Bud, and Invincible Streak completed the field. His trainer scratched R U Freal.
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The Walter Merrick Stakes is named after longtime Oklahoma horseman Walter Merrick.
"We raise the horses we run and run the horses we raise," said Walter Merrick, the Sayre, Oklahoma, horseman who started raising Quarter Horses in the 1930s. His 14 Ranch produced some of the top quarter-running horses of all time.
Merrick moved from Colorado to Oklahoma in 1928.
In 1936, Merrick purchased Midnight Jr, by Midnight, by Peter McCue, and the little stallion laid the foundation for Merrick’s breeding program. Merrick added Thoroughbred mare Lena Valenti to his broodmare band a few years later. The mare ran six furlongs like a quarter-type horse and was considered a foundation mare for Merrick.
In 1951, Merrick persuaded Sid Vail, owner of the Thoroughbred stallion Three Bars, to lease the stallion. Merrick bred the Thoroughbred to his Quarter Horse mares and to Lena Valenti. The cross between Three Bars and Lena Valenti produced Lena’s Bar (TB), who raced successfully against Quarter Horses.
Lena’s Bar was bred to Jet Deck, as well as the cross-produced stakes winner and AQHA Champion Jet Smooth. Merrick bred the mare back to Jet Deck, and got Easy Jet, a world champion 2-year-old winner of the 1969 All American Futurity. The sorrel colt propelled Merrick’s reputation to the top of the breeding industry.
Merrick was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 1993 and died in February 2006 at the age of 94.