Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Chief Oakie Doakie looks solid
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Arthur Coontz used to work for trainer Chris Block. Now he’ll try to beat him in the $75,000 Springfield Stakes on Saturday at Arlington.
The Springfield is one of two one-mile Polytrack stakes for Illinois-bred 3-year-olds. It goes as race 4 (post time 3 p.m. Central), with the $75,000 Purple Violet, restricted to 3-year-old fillies, carded as race 7 (post time 4:36).
Coontz, 32, has started just eight horses over two calendar years as a head trainer, and his Springfield entrant, Chief Oakie Doakie, is his lone winner. But Chief Oakie Dokie won a Hawthorne maiden race in decent fashion this spring, and most recently was a solid fourth facing older horses going a turf mile at Arlington. If he can overcome post 1 – and the Block-trained Wile E. Peyote – he could give his young trainer a stakes win.
“This horse trained good at Hawthorne, but he’s been training great since we moved over to Arlington,” Coontz said. “He really seems to get over the Polytrack.”
Coontz went to work for Block in 2007 as a hotwalker and groom, eventually rising to the level of assistant trainer. He was in the Block barn when Giant Oak arrived in 2008. Giant Oak went on to be a Grade 1 winner, and is Chief Oakie Dokie’s sire. Coontz and his father, Arthur, bred Chief Oakie Dokie and own him.
Wile E. Peyote has raced only once, beating Illinoisbred maidens May 19, but he is a grand-looking gelding with a strong pedigree (by City Zip and out of the very good race mare Peyote Patty) who has room to improve second time out.
“He seemed to come out of his first race well mentally, which is what I worry about after their first start more than physically,” Block said. “He seems to be pretty darned focused since then and has had a couple good breezes. He doesn’t seem to be overaggressive, and that should help him get the mile.”
Pass The Gravy, from the barn of leading trainer Larry Rivelli, won the Sun Power and the Hawthorne Futurity over Hawthorne dirt last fall. He went well over Arlington Polytrack, scoring a debut win last summer, but was all-out to hold on in the two-turn Futurity and, making his first start of the year, could be vulnerable at one mile Saturday.
Rivelli also has the morningline favorite for the Purple Violet in Jean Elizabeth, an Adios Charlie filly who has won all four of her races: two at age 2, two more this year. Jean Elizabeth has plenty of speed but never has raced beyond six furlongs and could be opposed at the distance, especially with several decent alternatives entered.
Bramble Queen never has raced on a synthetic surface but also never has run in a statebred-restricted race, and
she comes out of a fourth-place finish in the $81,000 Boiling Spring Stakes, a turf route at Monmouth.
Hayworth also has been turf routing, on the Kentucky circuit, and if her form going longer on a different surface transfers to the Purple Violet conditions, she, too, is a player.
But the play here is Royal’s Position. Royal’s Position was beaten 1 3/4 lengths by Jean Elizabeth at Hawthorne this spring, but showed her stamina with a nose loss last December in the 1 1/16-mile Debutante at Hawthorne. She raced for the first time on Polytrack in a May 11 allowance race and closed staunchly for third at a 5 1/2-furlong distance, short of her best. She did get a careerhigh 65 Beyer Speed Figure in that start, and her connections – owner-breeder Bill Stiritz, trainer Scott Becker, and jockey Chris Emigh – are no strangers to Illinois-bred stakes success.
Large group in Cyclones
You may not think it, but there are some mighty decent Iowa-breds running around out there – and a bunch are entered in the $65,000 Cyclones Handicap on Saturday at Prairie Meadows.
The 1 1/16-mile Cyclones, carded as race 8 (post time 4:07 Central) drew 10 entrants and is highly competitive. Han Sense is the 122-pound highweight and has the distinction of having finished third – a distant third – to Metropolitan Handicap winner Bee Jersey in an Oaklawn Park allowance race earlier this year. His most recent start came at a sprint distance at Prairie Meadows, and Han Sense is a route horse.
Han Sense and jockey Ramon Vazquez must work out a trip from post 9. The one-two finishers from the 2017 Cyclones, Net Gain and One Fine Dream, also are drawn wide in posts 8 and 10.