Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Amy’s Challenge tries 2 turns
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Triple Crown nominee Amy’s Challenge could burst onto the Kentucky Oaks scene Saturday. The undefeated multiple stakes winner will be making her two-turn debut in the Grade 3, $200,000 Honeybee at Oaklawn Park.
“She may improve when she runs two turns Saturday,” trainer Mac Robertson said. “She’s got a lot of talent.”
The Honeybee is the middle leg of Oaklawn’s stakes series for 3-year-old fillies and will award Kentucky Oaks qualifying points to its first four finishers on a scale of 50-20-10-5. The local series wraps up with the Grade 3, $400,000 Fantasy on April 13.
Amy’s Challenge will be making her first run at Kentucky Oaks points after starting her career 3 for 3 in sprints, her wins coming on the front end. She defeated males by 16 1/2 lengths in her debut, an Aug. 6 maiden special weight race at Canterbury Park in which she covered 5 1/2 furlongs in 1:03.89 and earned a 91 Beyer Speed Figure.
One start later, Amy’s Challenge backed up the performance when she captured the Shakopee Juvenile, again over colts, on Sept. 16 at Canterbury. Amy’s Challenge covered six furlongs in 1:09.58 and earned a Beyer of 92. The starts against males were a means to split up young horses owned by Joe Novogratz, a businessman and former football player for the Minnesota Vikings.
“Joe had another couple of fillies, and I felt she was the best 2-year-old I had,” Robertson said. “I wasn’t worried to run her against the boys at Canterbury.”
Amy’s Challenge was given a break on the farm after the races and launched her 3-yearold season Jan. 20 at Oaklawn in the $125,000 Dixie Belle. She fought with Mia Mischief through the stretch for a neck win in a demanding race off the bench, leading Robertson to skip the first route in Oaklawn’s stakes series for fillies, the Martha Washington.
Amy’s Challenge regressed to an 80 Beyer Figure for the Dixie Belle.
“She bobbled a little bit,” Robertson said of the Dixie Belle. “She was behind, a little wide, got a little tired. She needed a good break after the race.”
Amy’s Challenge’s preparations for her two-turn debut included a six-furlong work in 1:13.80 on Feb. 27 at her base of Oaklawn.
“We had a long, slow for her, work,” Robertson said. “The exercise rider was on her so she doesn’t go too fast early. I was really happy.
“She got a lot out of it. I think she’s plenty fit.”
Amy’s Challenge was a $20,000 purchase at FasigTipton in October 2016. She is a daughter of Artie Schiller, and Robertson said Novogratz likes offspring by that stallion. Robertson trained a Grade 1placed runner by the same stud in Slip and Drive. Amy’s Challenge is out of the Jump Start mare Jump Up, who was 3 for 3 in her career, including an optional $62,500 claiming route over 1 1/16 miles at Gulfstream at 3. For that effort, Jump Up earned a career-high 88 Beyer.
Robertson said at auction there was a lot to like about Amy’s Challenge.
“I think anybody who took the time to look at her would like her,” he said. “She’s a pretty good-looking horse.”
Amy’s Challenge has since proven to have some physical advantages over some of her peers.
“She’s a big 3-year-old filly,” said Robertson, who estimated that Amy’s Challenge stands 16 hands tall and weighs 1,100 pounds.
Robertson said Amy’s Challenge was nominated to the Triple Crown because of buyer interest in the imposing filly.
“It was keeping options open – maybe not for us but for somebody else,” he said. “That’s what’s behind it.”
Robertson made a splash with a Triple Crown nominee at Oaklawn back in 2009, sending out Win Willy to win the Grade 2 Rebel. The horse later captured the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap and has been one of the defining runners in the nearly 25-year training career of Robertson.
The 43-year-old won his first race as a teenager in 1994 and has an excellent mark in stakes, winning 117 from 544 stakes starts, according to Daily Racing Form statistics. Robertson overall has won 1,156 races from 5,053 starts (22 percent). Robertson’s starters have earned more than $27 million. He is the son of trainer Hugh Robertson.
As for Saturday, Mac Robertson is taking things in stride as far as the two-turn test with Amy’s Challenge.
“Sometimes it takes more than a time or two,” he said of getting the distance. “I don’t want to put too much pressure on her. I think she’ll try to do her best, and that’s enough for me.”
The Honeybee will share a card with the $125,000 Hot Springs Stakes, in which Robertson will send out Wynn Time. Jareth Loveberry has the mount on both horses Saturday.