It's been a decade since a Remington Park-based outfit won the meet's premier stakes, the GIII Oklahoma Derby, and at 15-1 on the morning line, Crupper (Candy Ride {Arg}) will have his work cut out for him Sunday night if he is to accomplish that feat for trainer Donnie K. Von Hemel and owner/breeder Robert H. Zoellner.The nine-furlong race drew a well-matched field of 10 that includes the recent winners of the GIII Iowa and West Virginia Derbies, plus two dropdown colts–Silent Tactic (Tacitus) and Pavlovian (Pavlov)–seeking class relief after having no luck at the Grade I level in the Travers Stakes and Kentucky Derby, respectively.But Crupper, a son of Candy Ride (Arg), could be ready to rebound after recovering from a rough start in the GI Preakness Stakes, a no-spark effort in the Iowa Derby, and a bout with splint bone inflammation that has since healed.Off four published workouts, one a bullet five-eighths at the Churchill Downs training center and a Wednesday three-eighths breeze to get acquainted with the Remington surface, 3-year-old Crupper (8-2-0-3, $211,165) seeks a return to the visually appealing form that earned him an 80 Beyer Speed Figure when winning the nine-furlong Apr. 18 Bathhouse Row Stakes at Oaklawn Park.Crupper, at 6-1 odds, broke inward and bumped, then dragged Junior Alvarado to a contending position under a snug hold. He dueled outside of a maiden, repulsed bids from two favorites on the far turn, then swatted back a deep closer to score by half a length, galloping out with gusto.“Mr. Zoellner is from Oklahoma, so we thought the Oklahoma Derby would be a good spot to try,” Von Hemel told TDN. “Plus, his best race was a mile and an eighth, and his family has all been two-turn, distance-type horses.”Donnie Von Hemel at the Preakness | Sarah AndrewWith Von Hemel training, Zoellner bred and raced the two most recent dams in Crupper's pedigree. First dam She's All In was a millionaire GSW Oklahoma-bred who compiled a rugged 16-8-3 record from 38 lifetime starts. That sort of durability is emblematic of her sire, Include, who himself was a 10-for-20, Grade I-winning grinder a quarter-century ago.It was a bit surprising to go back through the charts and see that Von Hemel hasn't had an Oklahoma Derby starter since 2016.After all, as a second-generation horseman from a racing-centric family, he settled with his family just outside Oklahoma City four decades ago, closing on a nearby farm the same week that Remington opened in 1988. For years Von Hemel ran a powerhouse outfit that routinely topped the standings there, and he was elected to the Oklahoma Racing Hall of Fame in 2012.But Von Hemel (2,283 lifetime wins with over $66 million in earnings) has both branched out geographically and pared back his operation in size in recent seasons.“Oklahoma's home. I just don't get to be there as much as I'd like to be,” Von Hemel said. “We've got about 15 in Louisville and half a dozen at Remington.”He rationalized that “if you're going to have some nice horses” and be based out of the Southwest, a division at Oaklawn through the winter months is a necessity.“And then the Kentucky circuit is the place you got to try and be” because of that circuit's level of prestige and purses, Von Hemel added.So far in 2026, Von Hemel has saddled 51 starters and had six winners, well shy of the multiple seasons of 400-plus starters that produced victories over or near the 100 mark decades ago.Von Hemel last won the Oklahoma Derby in 2007 with Going Ballistic, who was part of a two-horse favored entry.Crupper in advance of the Preakness | Sarah AndrewBut it was the inaugural version of that stakes in 1989–then known as the Remington Park Derby–that launched the career of the Oklahoma-bred gelding Clever Trevor, who would go on to be Von Hemel's first (of six) million-dollar-earning trainees.“He was a good one. As far as my first national type horse, he was the one,” Von Hemel recalled.Back then, Remington ran split meets in the winter/spring and fall, and its top stakes was a 1 1/16-mile race during the spring that served as a Kentucky Derby prep for its first eight runnings.After beginning his career at now-defunct tracks like Ak-Sar-Ben and Blue Ribbon Downs, Clever Trevor was already making his 10th lifetime start when he stalked the pace and won the Remington Derby at 9-2 odds on Mar. 18, 1989.Under a far different racing and training regimen than what today's Triple Crown aspirants experience, Von Hemel had ample time for two nine-furlong preps before the first Saturday in May.Clever Trevor was fourth in the Apr. 1 GII Jim Beam Stakes at Turfway Park, then ran second in the then-GII Arkansas Derby three weeks later.At Churchill, the gelding ran 13th at 52-1 odds in the May 6 Derby, well behind the nation's top two colts, Sunday Silence and Easy Goer. (Von Hemel has since had just one other Kentucky Derby entrant, Suddenbreakingnews, who was fifth in 2016.)“We gave him about six weeks off before we raced him again, and then he just blew them away the next two times,” Von Hemel said, referring to Clever Trevor's tallies in the GII St. Paul Derby at Canterbury Park and the GI Arlington Classic at Arlington Park.“Then he probably ran the best race of his life when he was second to Easy Goer in the Travers,” Von Hemel said.Off at 5-1 at Saratoga Race Course, pace-pressing Clever Trevor led until the final furlong of the 1 1/4-mile Travers, when the 1-5 Easy Goer reeled him in to win by three lengths. It was nine lengths back to the rest of the field.“It was a great thrill,” Von Hemel said.Clever Trevor eventually transitioned to shorter races, running sixth in the 1991 GI Breeders' Cup Sprint.While much has changed in the decades since Von Hemel first settled in Oklahoma, the purse level for Remington's big race has remained level for 17 years. The Oklahoma Derby has been run for $400,000 since 2009, with the brief exception the pandemic-altered 2020 season, when it was carded for half that amount.Yet it continues to attract attention and entrants from top national stables. Trainer Brad Cox has won four of the last seven Oklahoma Derbies, while Steve Asmussen (twice) and Kenny McPeek have also hit the winner's circle at Remington since the last local trainer, J.R. Caldwell, won the race with Texas Chrome in 2016.Von Hemel explained Crupper's last four months: “We kind of got roughed up pretty good at the Preakness, and that didn't work out [13th after getting bumped and put in tight at the break]. And then it wasn't much better at Prairie Meadows, really [7th with an inside but fading trip]. And then three or four weeks after the Iowa Derby, he popped a splint, so we had to stop and take care of that little problem. And now he's had a couple of months to work.”On Sunday, Crupper breaks from post eight with Stewart Elliott–who last Saturday at Remington hit the 6,000 lifetime-win mark–riding him for the first time.“I think we're going to sure enough let him run away from there,” Von Hemel said of his Oklahoma Derby strategy. “I think he's got a little more of an outside post this time than he's had the last couple times, so I think he'll have a clear path to kind of get going down the lane there. You've got about three-sixteenths to the first turn, and then just have to see what [kind of] pace is going on there and place him accordingly.”The post Crupper Tries to Win One for the Home Team in Oklahoma Derby appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.