Strong Mandate heads Southwest dozen
The first four horses scheduled to enter the starting gate Monday in the Southwest at Oaklawn Park are stakes winners, but look to post eight for the favorite.
Strong Mandate, a Grade 1 winner for Hall of Fame trainer Wayne Lukas, makes his much- awaited 3- year- old debut in the Grade 3 $ 300,000 race on Presidents Day. With seven published workouts at Oaklawn, the Tiznow colt enjoys a class edge in an otherwise well- balanced field of 12 going a mile and a sixteenth.
Joel Rosario, a 2013 Eclipse Award finalist who won last year’s Kentucky Derby aboard Orb for trainer Shug McGaughey, keeps the mount. Rosario rode Strong Mandate to a game third- place finish from post 13 in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Nov. 2 at California’s Santa Anita Park. That marked the fifth start for Strong Mandate, Saratoga’s Grade 1 Hopeful winner three races back. Owned by longtime Lukas
clients Robert Baker and William Mack, Strong Mandate is the last foal produced by Grade 1 winner Clear Mandate.
Lukas comes off a renaissance season that Oxbow won the Preakness — the trainer’s record 14th Triple Crown victory — and Arkansas- owned Will Take Charge the Travers and 3- year- old championship. Lukas’ only Southwest victory came in 1992 when longshot Big Sur, which the trainer raced in partnership with Bill Young’s Overbrook Farm, upset the eventual Preakness and Kentucky Derby winners ( Pine Bluff and Lil E. Tee) going a mile under David Guillory.
The Southwest gains importance as a Kentucky Derby prep race with the top four finishers receiving points on a 10- 42- 1 basis for the May 3 classic at Churchill Downs. Churchill stakes winners Tapiture and Coastline drew adjoining gates along the inside rail, Tapiture is making his 3- year- old debut for trainer Steve Asmussen and Coastline has second start of the year for trainer Mark Casse. Rafael Santana rides Taptiture ( by Tapit) and Shaun Bridgmohan has the mount on Coastline ( Speightstown).
Coastline had a wide trip when third in Oaklawn’s one- mile Smarty Jones Jan. 13. “But I’m happy with where we are and we got a race over the track,” Casse said, “so that should be to our advantage.”
Although Coastline is sired by a champion sprinter, “The way he won the Street Sense at Churchill ( Oct. 27), it looked that day like he won’t have a problem running a route of ground,” said Casse, whose Conquest Titan, last- out Holy Bull runner- up at Florida’s Gulfstream Park, is another Derby contender. “We know he likes Churchill and that’s a plus ( for the Derby). I hope he likes Hot Springs as well.”
Smarty Jones winner Tanzanite Cat is coupled in the wagering with debut maiden winner Paganol, both owned by Texans James and Ywachetta Driver and trained by Cody Autrey. Corey Nakatani comes in from the West Coast to ride Tanzanite Cat, high- weighted at 122 pounds under allowance conditions, while Norberto Arroyo Jr. stays with Paganol.
Breaking from post four is Remington Park’s Springboard Mile winner, Louies Flower, with Luis Quinonez up for trainer Bret Calhoun. Completing the field are Smarty Jones runner- up Walt ( Ken Tohill), Kendall’s Boy ( Leonardo Goncalves), Son of Dixie ( Cliff Berry), Fire Starter ( Robby Albarado) and Oaklawn winners Ride on Curlin ( Calvin Borel) and Bourbonize ( Ramon Vazquez).
The 12 Southwest horses were two less than racing secretary Pat Pope’s maximum estimate. A $ 58,000 allowance race at one mile carded immediately before the Southwest drew 11 starters.
Conspicuous by his absence is Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, whose horses have won the last three Southwest runnings and four this decade. Super Ninety Nine won by 11 1/ 4 lengths last year under Rafael Bejarano over a track rendered sloppy by a late- afternoon thunderstorm. Bejarano rode both winners when the 2012 Southwest was split, Secret Circle subsequently taking the Grade 2 Rebel and placing second to stablemate Bodemeister in the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby. After a long layoff, Secret Circle returned as a 4- year- old and won the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Sprint last fall at Santa Anita.
Post time for the Southwest, carded ninth on a 10- race card is 5: 09 p. m. First post time for Oaklawn’s second holiday card of the season is 1: 05 p. m., a progressive cash giveaway starting with $ 1,000 after the first race and continuing to a possible $ 55,000 outlay on race 10.