William Spitler and Richard Spicer’s Wildcat Bill, a bay gelding by Wildcat Red out of the Quiet American mare Polite Company, captured the first running of the OTBO Sales Graduate Race Saturday in front running style at Mahoning Valley Racecourse. Wildcat Bill stopped the timer in 1:15:13 beating a fast closing Sammy’s Smile by 3/4 of a length. Chiseled Justice checked in a neck back in a game third place effort.
Jeff Radosevich trained and Luis Rivera rode the Maccabee Farm bred gelding who made every pole a winning one. Maccabee also bred and Radosevich trained the second place finisher Sammy’s Smile.
All photos are courtesy of Dustin Livesay of Conrad Photography.
All horses in this race were participants in an annual Mixed Sale conducted by the OTBO. This is the first year we have had this stake but we hope to make this an annual tradition. The race is open to any 3 year old Ohio bred horse who passed through any of our sales – including in utero. The sale is held every year in October. We encourage all breeders to enter their horses in the sale and all owners to strongly consider purchasing as well. Races like this, and all of the races in the Ohio program, are just part of the reason why breeding and owning Ohio breds is the best bet in the racing business!
The team of Spicer, Spitler, and Radosevich have combined over the years to win multiple stakes in Ohio. Jeff rode stakes winners for Will and Rick in the 1980’s and then trained their excellent homebred Versissimo to win the Horizon, Catlaunch and Buckeye Native Stakes in 2019-2020. Spicer and Spitler, both OTBO members, have long participated in both the Ohio program and the OTBO Sale including purchasing a horse in 2021 that will be eligible for the 2023 OTBO Graduate Stake as well!
A special thank you to Mr. Ed Vomacka, racing secretary at Mahoning Valley, and his team for all of their hard work, effort, and contributions to making this race happen. We could not have done it without them.
Thank you to all who made this possible and congratulations to Wildcat Bill and his connections!
