Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Filly not overlooked after victory
Off at 12-1, Sassy Sienna ran down the favorites and all the rest to win Friday’s Grade III $400,000 Fantasy Stakes for 3-year-old fillies over a fast but wet track at Oaklawn Park. The victory earned Sassy Sienna 100 points on the Road to the Kentucky Oaks, enough to qualify her for the race at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., on May 5.
HOT SPRINGS — Sassy Sienna, off at 12-1, ran down the favorites and all the rest to win the Grade III $400,000 1 1/16-mile Fantasy Stakes for 3-year-old fillies over a fast but wet track at Oaklawn Park on Friday.
Wonder Gadot, gamblers’ second choice at 2-1, finished second by a nose, 2¼ lengths in front of the 8-5 favorite Amy’s Challenge, who finished third.
The victory earned Sassy Sienna 100 points on the Road to the Kentucky Oaks, enough to qualify her for the race at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., on May 5.
Sassy Sienna’s trainer Brad Cox is a Louisville native, raised in a home two blocks from the racetrack.
“She’s a tough filly,” Cox said. “She’s shown a lot from the get-go. On to the Oaks.”
The Fantasy sparkled from the start as a potential showcase for local rivals Cosmic Burst and Amy’s Challenge, with Sassy Sienna no more than an afterthought among most of Oaklawn’s crowd of 18,500.
That changed little through the first three-quarters of a mile. As expected, Amy’s Challenge led from the start and through an opening quarter-mile in 22.87, the half in 45.88 and three-quarters in 1:10.82.
From there Amy’s Challenge’s fade became apparent, and she soon succumbed to the pressure applied by Sassy Sienna and Wonder Gadot.
Cosmic Burst, a daughter of Violence, won the Grade III 11/16-mile Honeybee Stakes by 1¾ lengths over second-place Amy’s Challenge on March 10. Amy’s Challenge’s runner-up effort was nearly as impressive for its style as the win was for Cosmic Burst.
Amy’s Challenge, in her first start beyond 6 furlongs, took off from the gate with jockey Jareth Loveberry and ran through an opening quarter mile in 23.40 and through a half in 46.00. She led by as many as 10 lengths.
Her trainer, Mac Robertson, said he had worked with Amy’s Challenge, by Artie Schiller, throughout the intervening 34 days before the Fantasy to calm her high-strung nature.
“There’s only so much you can do,” Robertson said Thursday morning during a break from his training duties.
Robertson also hoped a different rider would help, so he enlisted Mike Smith, a member of the National Racing Museum and Hall of Fame. Smith has ridden winners of the Kentucky Derby, the Belmont and Preakness Stakes, and 25 Breeders’ Cup races.
“I think Mike Smith knows how to read the Racing Form,” Robertson said. “He’ll see how fast she started, and he might know how to slow her down if he needs to.”
Smith said Amy’s Challenge, though clearly talented, struggled to respond to his requests, limited by noise from hooves as they cut through the sealed track surface.
“I just couldn’t get her to turn off,” Smith said. “When the track is sealed like that, it can really make a lot of noise, and she just kept running from it. I tried to slow her down, and it made it worse. I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. She just didn’t get into a rhythm.”
Robertson said he worked her with a pony in an attempt to change her focus. He hoped on race day she would pay more attention to her accompanying pony as she warmed up for the Fantasy than to the crowd in Oaklawn’s grandstands.
Overall, Robertson sounded pleased by the effort put forward by Amy’s Challenge. He said her next race might be at a shorter distance, with Churchill’s Grade II 7-furlong Eight Belles Stakes a possibility.
“I think she’ll be a Grade I horse, whether it’s sprinting on the dirt or sprinting on the grass, but I don’t know about going two turns as a 3-yearold filly unless something pops up,” Robertson said. “She went into the race very sound, and she was training well. I thought through the turn, she ran them off their feet. It looks like she gets about seven-eighths to me.”