Dixie City, Joyful Victory return in
Honeybee
Nine will line up on Saturday for the $125,000
Honeybee S. (G3) at Oaklawn Park, the final local prep for that track’s
April 10 Fantasy S. (G2), and the 1 1/16-mile test features the return of
Demoiselle S. (G2) heroine DIXIE CITY (Dixie Union) and Frizette S. (G1) third
JOYFUL VICTORY (Tapit).
Neither filly has been seen in competition since November, with Dixie City
closing out her juvenile campaign with a front-running, 3 1/4-length victory in
the Demoiselle. That followed a troubled trip in her stakes bow, the Tempted S.
(G3), where she rallied three wide rounding the turn before finding herself
carried out in the stretch. Dixie City still managed to take third in the
Tempted, and trainer Tony Dutrow sent the bay lass out for a bullet half-mile
move in :47 4/5 on March 1 to prepare for her return. Jeremy Rose has the call
aboard the 7-2 second choice on the morning line.
Joyful Victory broke her maiden in her first career outing, ran third in the
Frizette, then acquitted herself well when fifth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile
Fillies (G1) last out. A former stablemate of Dixie City, the gray miss will be
making her first start for new trainer Larry Jones in this spot and gets
blinkers added to help her chances. Joyful Victory also posted a recent bullet
move over the track, getting five furlongs in :58 4/5 on Monday, and will have
Mike Smith in the saddle for the first time.
Dixie City and Joyful Victory will be facing a number of fillies who have
already been competing successfully this year. Jones actually saddles another
major contender in the form of SUMMER SOIREE (War Front), who dominated an
allowance field by 9 3/4 lengths while going the Honeybee distance on January
30. Another nice winner, the Benard Chatters-trained HOLY HEAVENS (Holy Bull),
enters this race off a one-length score in the Martha Washington S. most
recently.
RIGOLETTA (Concerto), the 5-2 morning line favorite for the race, will be
trying a conventional dirt surface for the first time here after triumphing in
her maiden and the Oak Leaf S. (G1) last season on the synthetics in California.
The Dan Hendricks pupil opened her sophomore campaign with a fifth-place run in
the grassy La Habra S. (G3) in late February and gets Michael Baze, third in the
local jockey standings, in the irons.
“We laid her up after she got a tiny splint problem,” Hendricks explained
Friday morning. “All the dirt races for her (in California) gear up for the
Santa Anita Oaks (G1), and she wasn’t able to make that, but she’s worked really
well on the dirt and I wanted to give her a chance in a race like this. She was
a little aggressive coming back on the grass and she didn’t have the kind of
spurt that a good turf horse would have, but I think she got a lot out of it.
Now we just see how she handles this surface.”
Two races later on the card, Grade 3 winner WINSLOW HOMER (Unbridled’s Song)
will make his return to the races in the $125,000
Razorback H. (G3) following a more than seven-month layoff. The former
Dutrow charge will be saddled by Jones in the 1 1/16-mile test, and was last
seen romping by nine lengths in the August 1 Curlin S. at Saratoga. Last year’s
Holy Bull S. (G3) victor exited the Curlin S. with a condylar fracture of his
left foreleg that forced him to miss the rest of the year, and is using the
Razorback as a prep for his early season goal of the April 9 Oaklawn H. (G2).
Among those Winslow Homer will face in the Razorback is WIN WILLY
(Monarchos), who captured last year’s edition of the race before a medications
violation stripped him of the score. The gray colt proceeded to run second in
the 2010 Oaklawn ‘Cap, and opened this season with a gutsy neck victory in the
Fifth Season S. over the track. Win Willy most recently just missed by three
parts of a length in the February 13 Essex H. to KATE’S MAIN MAN (Bernstein),
who was third in the Fifth Season, and will be looking to get back to the
winner’s circle and stay there this time around. Leading jockey Cliff Berry has
the call on Win Willy.
Also entered in the Razorback are Grade 3 scorer THISKYHASNOLIMIT (Sky Mesa),
fourth in the San Fernando S. (G2) last out, and GOLDEN YANK (Yankee Gentleman),
who ran third in the Prairie Meadows Cornhusker H. (G2) to close out 2010.