Grade 1 winner R Heat Lightning, the likely favorite for Friday’s $1 million
Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks, put in her
final drill for the headliner Saturday morning, working a half-mile on Churchill
Downs’ fast dirt under
exercise rider Hector Ramos at 8:45 a.m. (EDT), a drill that was clocked in
:48 1/5.
Ramos galloped his eager filly around past the six-furlong pole with
assistant trainer Mike McCarthy alongside on a pony, then went on his own with
his filly under stout restraint. He let out a notch on her coming to the
half-mile pole and the racy bay zoomed into her exercise.
Coming to the quarter-pole, Ramos had
to alter course slightly when he encountered a pair of two-year-olds blowing out a
quarter-mile down the lane right along the rail. The rider shifted out and went
on by the twosome inside him, all the while never really letting his charge have
her head. Churchill clockers caught R Heat Lightning’s splits in :11 4/5, :23 and
:34 4/5, then gave her a gallop out time of 1:01 4/5.
“Some might say she’s headstrong,”
said trainer Todd Pletcher, who watched the move from the Churchill Downs grandstand. “But I
just think she’s very enthusiastic about her work. She’ll go on a light schedule
from here on out up to the race on Friday.”
R Heat Lightning will enter the Oaks off two dominating victories at
Gulfstream Park, a 7 1/4-length score in the Grade 2 Davona Dale and an 8
1/4-length romp in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Oaks.
Stablemate and Grade 3 Comely runner-up Her Smile galloped 1 1/4 miles Saturday morning with exercise rider Kevin Willey aboard.
They went trackside at 8:30 a.m. following the renovation break when the track is
reserved for Oaks and Grade 1 Kentucky Derby runners. Her Smile entered the Oaks
picture after being bought by celebrity chef Bobby Flay following her Comely
run.
“We’re going to work her tomorrow at
8:30 following the break,” Pletcher said. “We’ll see how she goes
and then I’ll talk to Bobby. If we decide to run, Garrett Gomez will ride her.”
Her Smile has finished off
the board just once in seven lifetime starts, finishing fourth in the grassy
Florida Oaks at Tampa Bay Downs, but followed that with a third in the Suncoast
and the Comely second.
Lilacs and Lace breezed five
furlongs in 1:02 3/5 under exercise rider Eliel DeJesus following the renovation
break Saturday morning at Churchill.
“She just had an easy five-eighths. We just wanted to see how she got over the
track and everything seemed to go good. She started off easy and seemed to
finish up well,” trainer John Terranova said.
Lilacs and Lace, who captured the Grade 1 Ashland over Keeneland’s Polytrack
last out, has run only once on dirt, finishing a distant seventh in her career
debut at Santa Rosa in California.
“I think she handles it great,” Terranova asserted. “She’s a great moving filly and she gets over the
ground really, really nicely. My rider said she feels great going over it.”
Javier Castellano, who rode the Kentucky-bred chestnut in the Ashland, has the
return mount for the Oaks.
With jockey Julien Leparoux up, Grade 2 victress Kathmanblu logged five furlongs in 1:01
4/5 over the fast track after the
renovation break, the 16th fastest of 36 works at the distance. Working on her own, Kathmanblu
clicked off fractions of :12 1/5, :24 2/5, :36 4/5 and :49 before galloping out six
furlongs in 1:15 1/5.
“It was a nice and steady work,”
trainer Ken McPeek said. “I got her last quarter in :24, which is all we
wanted.”
Also working for McPeek after the
renovation break in the time reserved for Kentucky Derby and Oaks horses was
Niji’s Grand Girl, third-place finisher in the Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks in her most recent start.
Niji’s Grand Girl worked in company with the winning Sassy’s Dream, with each
being credited with a time of 1:02 for five furlongs, the 17th fastest clocking
of the morning at the distance.
“I have not ruled it out,”
McPeek said of an Oaks run for Niji’s Grand Girl. The chestnut miss, as well as Sassy’s
Dream, are nominated to the $100,000 Edgewood to be run at 1 1/16 miles over the
turf on Oaks Day.
Grade 3 Bourbonette Oaks queen
Summer Soiree breezed a half-mile in
:48 4/5 Saturday morning under exercise rider Heather Craig.
“She went great. She went perfect,” trainer Graham Motion
said. “She’s had two really fast works at Keeneland. I said today, I just wanted
to have an easy go. It’s completely the opposite of what I wanted to do with
(Kentucky Derby candidate) Animal Kingdom.
“She just went a handy half-mile in :48 and change. I said to
shut her down after the wire. I don’t want her galloping out too strong. She’s a
filly that wants to do a lot in the morning. Today was just about giving her a
little blow and setting her up for Friday.”
Motion moved the work up a day because rain is in the
forecast for Sunday.
“I wanted to do it on Sunday, but the weather was just too iffy,” he said. “I
thought it was crazy to wait and then have to breeze her on a sloppy track.
There was no sense in doing that.”
Grade 1 heroine
Zazu turned in her final workout prior to her
start Friday in the Kentucky Oaks when she covered seven furlongs in
1:24 2/5 over Hollywood Park’s Cushion Track on Saturday morning.
“She went really well; we’re very
pleased,” trainer John Sadler said from his Hollywood barn. “Joel Rosario was
aboard for the move and he’ll ride her Friday.”
Zazu has been first or second in six
of her seven starts, including a tally in the Grade 1 Las Virgenes in February at
Santa Anita. She figures to be among the favorites for the nine-furlong Oaks.
“We’ll see how she comes out of this
work tomorrow,” Sadler said, “then train her a bit more after that. On
Tuesday, she’s on a plane to Louisville. I’m on a plane that day, too, but it’s
the (owner) Moss’ private jet. We’re all looking forward to the trip to Kentucky.”
In other Oaks news:
Canadian champion
Delightful Mary was withdrawn from Kentucky Oaks
consideration by her connections following a five-furlong work of 1:01 3/5 on
Friday.
“It was a good work yesterday, but we
wanted a tremendous work and we did not get that,” said Norman Casse, son of and
assistant to trainer Mark Casse. “I think she is going to go back to Woodbine
and regroup. There are no definite plans for her next race. We will let her tell
us when she is ready.”
Delightful Mary ran second in the Grade 3 Mazarine at Woodbine before
shipping to Kentucky for the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, where she
wound up third, last year. So far during her sophomore season she’s captured the
O.B.S. Championship and run seventh of nine in the Ashland.
Grade 2 Fantasy runner-up
Arienza walked the shedrow at
Barn 37 Saturday morning at Churchill, a day after working a bullet five furlongs in :59
2/5.
“She came out of the work real good and ate up, which is good to see when she
worked as fast as she did,” trainer Dan Peitz said.
Arienza is also nominated to the $100,000 Grade 3 Eight Belles,
to be run at seven furlongs on the Kentucky Oaks undercard this coming Friday.
“After the Fantasy, we thought we might try to make it to the Oaks, but we have
crammed in a lot so fast,” Peitz said of Arienza, who did not make her racing
debut until March 6. “I am leaning toward the Eight Belles. (Co-owner) Mr.
(Robert) Low says she
doesn’t have to run there either and they are going to be here.
“If we are not 100 percent happy with her, we will wait for another spot. We
will let her tell us what to do and go from there.”
Grade 3 scorer
Bouquet Booth also walked the shedrow Saturday morning at trainer Steve Margolis’ barn a day after working five furlongs in
1:02 1/5.
“She came out of the work fine and
will go back to the track and jog tomorrow,” Margolis said of the dark bay filly who will be ridden in the Oaks by Robby Albarado.
Grade 2-placed stakes winner
Holy Heavens will pick up the pace on Sunday after walking the shedrow Saturday
morning.
“I’m going to send her a two-minute
mile,” said trainer Benard Chatters, making reference to a training procedure
that falls between a gallop and a full work. “I’m hoping to get (Kent)
Desormeaux to be up on her for me.”
Hall of Famer Desormeaux will be
aboard the chestnut filly for the first time in a race on Friday. The
Florida-bred has had five riders in her nine-race career thus far.
Fair Grounds Oaks runner-up
St. John’s River was a shedrow walker again
Saturday morning, then returned to her stall in Barn 43 where she amused herself
with a tether ball hung above its doorway. She worked five furlongs at
Churchill Downs Thursday in 1:00 4/5 and had walked the day after.
The three-year-old filly is overseen by
veteran trainer Andy Leggio Jr., the Louisiana horseman who had good luck with a
sharp filly named Happy Ticket a few years back.
“St John’s River will go back to
galloping tomorrow,” Leggio said. “She’ll gallop up to the race. It’s all
downhill from here.”
Plum Pretty spent some time standing in the
starting gate and then galloped 1 1/2 miles during the period reserved for
Oaks and Derby horses following the renovation break on Saturday. Trainer Bob Baffert said the filly, a 25-length
winner of the Sunland Oaks, is likely to breeze Monday morning and indicated his
charge is doing everything right in her preparation for the Oaks.
“She’s very lightly raced, but her last race at Sunland was
pretty amazing. I’ve never had a horse win by 25,” Baffert said. “She’s been
training really well here. It’s a big field, so she needs to be up there close,
I think. There is a lot of speed in there. That’s another pretty tough race, a
wide-open race.”
Martin Garcia will ride the filly in
the Kentucky Oaks.
Fair Grounds Oaks star
Daisy Devine galloped 1 1/4 miles at 8:30 a.m. following the Churchill Downs’ renovation break with former
rider Larry Melancon in the saddle and trainer Andrew McKeever looking on.
“It’s all good and we’re doing
great,” said McKeever, making the sign of the cross and flashing a big Irish
smile. James Graham is scheduled to ride
Daisy Devine in the Oaks.
Fantasy heroine
Joyful Victory galloped 1 1/2 miles after the renovation break and is scheduled
to breeze under jockey Gabriel Saez on Sunday morning. Trainer Larry Jones was up for the filly’s morning
exercise during the time reserved for Derby and Oaks horses following the
renovation break.
“Everything went well,” Jones said. “I was on again. That’s
two days in a row that she packed me around there, so she really should be
getting fit.”
Suave Voir Faire jogged Saturday
morning under Frederick Carmouche at the HighPointe Training Center.
“She’s very good this morning,”
trainer Speedy Smithwick said of Suave Voir Faire, who worked five furlongs in
:59 4/5 on Friday. “She cleaned up her feed last night, which she normally
doesn’t do after she works. She jogged this morning and probably will get the
day off tomorrow.”
Miguel Mena has the Oaks riding
assignment on Suave Voir Faire, who ran third in last fall’s Grade 2 Golden Rod in
her lone Churchill Downs appearance.