Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Dazzling Gem sitting on go
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Dazzling Gem makes his second start off a layoff Friday, when he attempts to start his Oaklawn Park meet with a win in the $125,000 Fifth Season Stakes.
“It would be a good way to get things going,” trainer Brad Cox said.
The feature on the meet’s opening-day card, the Fifth Season drew a full field of 12 older horses, including Grade 3 winners Far Right, Sticks stately dude, Shotgun Kowboy, Untrapped, and Chief Know It All. The 1 1/16-mile race is part of a series that builds to the Grade 2, $750,000 Oaklawn Handicap on the meet’s final program, April 14.
FIFTH SEASON (RACE 8) KEY CONTENDERS
Dazzling Gem, by Misremembered (Last 3 Beyers: 89-100-96)
◗ Dazzling Gem exits a runner-up finish, beaten a head, in the $75,000 Jeffrey Hawk Memorial, a mile and 70-yard race Dec. 17 at Remington Park. Since the start, Dazzling Gem has breezed five-eighths in 1:02 at the Evangeline Training Center on Jan. 6.
“He’s doing really well,” said Cox, who trains Dazzling Gem for Arkansas resident Steve Landers. “This is his second race off the layoff. I think he should move forward off his last race at Remington.”
◗ The Hawk Memorial marked Dazzling Gem’s first start in nine months, since the Essex Handicap last March at Oaklawn. In the Essex, he finished fourth behind Mor Spirit, who in his subsequent starts won the Grade 3 Steve Sexton Mile at Lone Star Park and the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont Park. Cox said the layoff was by design.
“We backed off him, gave him plenty of time,” he said.
◗ A return to Oaklawn is another key factor Dazzling Gem has in his favor Friday.
“He really likes Oaklawn,” Cox said. “He won the first two starts of his career at Oaklawn and was fourth in the Arkansas Derby. He ran a really good race there last year in the Essex – the only race he ran in at Oaklawn – and he was fourth behind a really good group of horses.”
◗ Shaun Bridgmohan, who has ridden Dazzling Gem in his last two starts, is up from Fair Grounds to ride the horse, one of a handful of mounts he has on the card Friday.
◗ Dazzling Gem could get a better pace setup than he did in the Hawk Memorial, when fellow Fifth Season rival Dan the Go to Man wired the field. There appears to be a fair amount of speed signed on Friday, with Sight for sore eyes and Royal Squeeze coming off pacesetting efforts in oneturn mile races at Churchill Downs, and Sticks state ly dude putting up the fractions in his last start, the Tenacious at Fair Grounds. Untrapped, by Trappe Shot (Last 3 Beyers: 93-95-88)
◗ He was a sharp winner of the Grade 3 Oklahoma Derby in September at Remington Park, defeating Battle of Midway by 1 3/4 lengths. Battle of Midway came back in his next start to capture the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Del Mar.
◗ Ricardo Santana Jr. has the mount on Untrapped for trainer Steve Asmussen, with both men out to defend their respective titles this meet at Oaklawn. Untrapped races for Arkansas resident Michael Langford.
Shotgun Kowboy, by Kodiak Kowboy (Last 3 Beyers: 88-66-87)
◗ He was third by a neck in the Hawk Memorial and needs just $3,998 in earnings Friday to hit $1 million.
◗ Shotgun Kowboy’s halfsister Euro K Shotgun goes in the fifth race Friday and meets the half-sister of Fifth Season rival Sticks state ly dude, named Swing and Sway.