Robertson challenged in pursuit of Fantasy, Count Fleet sweep
Only two lengths separated Mac Robertson from a sweep of the March 10 stakes at Oaklawn Park.
The trainer is scheduled to have a second chance at a similar sweep when he sends out Amy’s Challenge in the Grade 3 $400,000 Fantasy Stakes for 3-year-old fillies on Friday and Wynn Time in the Grade 3 $400,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap for older horses in one week, the final day of the 2018 live racing season at Oaklawn.
Amy’s Challenge suffered her first career loss in the Grade 3 $200,000 Honeybee Stakes on March 10, when she was runner-up to Cosmic Burst, beaten 1 ¾ lengths in the 1 1/16-mile race.
Wynn Time, about an hour earlier, was beaten a neck by Whitmore in the $125,000 Hot Springs Stakes at 6 furlongs on March 10.
“Any time the horses run good in good races, I’m happy,” Robertson said Thursday. “The owners always want to win, win, win. But, any time you run in a good race and your horses run good, I’m pretty happy with the effort. I thought the horses ran as hard as they could for me. I was really happy.”
Amy’s Challenge, in her two-turn debut, opened a long lead on the backstretch before being over-
hauled late under regular rider Jareth Loveberry. Robertson said “it looks like” Hall of Famer Mike Smith will ride Amy’s Challenge
(3 for 4 overall) in the 1 1/16-mile Fantasy.
Robertson said Tahoe Dream, a two-time winner at the meet, is also pointing for the Fantasy.
Terra Promessa, winner of the
2016 Fantasy, has been retired, according to Stonestreet Stables LLC, which bred and raced the
5-year-old daughter of Curlin. Terra Promessa, who won 2016 Honeybee and three other Oaklawn stakes, will join Stonestreet’s broodmare band and is to be bred this year to champion Uncle Mo.
Trained by Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, Terra Promessa retires with a 7-3-1 record from 16 starts and earnings of $920,350. She finished fifth in her final career start, the Grade 2 $350,000 Azeri Stakes on March 17.
Robertson said Martin Pedroza will be reunited with Wynn Time in the 6-furlong Count Fleet. The gelding was making his stakes debut in the Hot Springs and is 5 for
7 overall.
Multiple stakes winner and near-millionaire Ivan Fallunovalot worked a half-mile Thursday morning at Oaklawn for trainer Kathy Howard, of Hot Springs, who said the 8-year-old gelding remains under consideration for Count Fleet.
Breezing over a fast track under Luis Contreras, Ivan Fallunovalot went in :49.20, getting his final quarter-mile in :23.60.
A career winner of $998,903, Ivan Fallunovalot hasn’t started since finishing third in the
$125,000 Hot Springs Stakes March
10, the final major local prep for the Count Fleet.
Howard became the trainer of record after her husband, Tom, died of cancer hours after the Hot Springs. On behalf of owner Lewis Mathews, of Bismarck, Tom Howard claimed Ivan Fallunovalot for
$25,000 at the 2014 Oaklawn meeting. The gelding developed into a multiple stakes winner, winning Oaklawn’s King Cotton in 2015 and 2016.
Mathews said Ivan Fallunovalot will receive “a little vacation” following the Oaklawn meeting “and let him tell us what to do.” Ivan Fallunovalot has battled foot problems the last few years.
Howard recorded her second career training victory in Thursday’s ninth race with favored Alvin’s Touch ($7), a homebred for Mathews. She said Thursday the process of phasing out her late husband’s racing operation continues. Amaze is being claimed today and another, Shadynstella, is now retired with an injury. Howard said she is selling her husband’s tack.
The remaining six horses under her care, including Ghost Rocket, will be turned out or given to other trainers when the meet ends April 14. Howard said she has no desire to continue training, but will continue to work in the industry as racing manager for owner Frank Fletcher.
Howard said Fletcher originally intended to send Ghost Rocket to trainer Al Stall, but has now decided to send the 3-year-old Ghostzapper colt to trainer Will VanMeter. Ghost Rocket is pointing for an April 14 maiden special weights event, Howard said.
Mathews has started a new partnership with Robertino Diodoro, Oaklawn’s second-leading trainer this year. On behalf of Mathews, Diodoro claimed Gettysburg, best known as the workout partner of 2017 Horse of the Year Gun Runner, for
$50,000 week ago and Match Play for $25,000 pm Wednesday. Both horses had been with Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen.
Mathews said Saturday morning he wanted to claim “two or three” horses before the meet ends to go with Diodoro’s Churchill Downs string.
Trainer Norman McKnight said Smart Spree, unbeaten in three starts at the meet, is under consideration for the Count Fleet Sprint Handicap.
Smart Spree cruised to a front-running three-length victory in the eighth race on March
29, an allowance/optional claimer, under Ramon Vazquez. Smart Spree covered 6 furlongs over a good track in 1:10.04, following up times of 1:09.50 and 1:09.84 in starter-allowance victories earlier in the meeting.
“He’s turned out to be a little trooper and a little champion,” McKnight said.
Smart Spree, a 7-year-old gelded son of Smart Strike, has not run in a stakes race since competing in the final two legs of the Canadian Triple Crown in 2014.
After competing most of his career on a synthetic surface at Woodbine, Smart Spree has flourished in his return to dirt, bankrolling $102,000 at the meet and helping McKnight – in his first season wintering in Hot Springs – to a 15-7-7 record from 68 starts. The trainer has purse earnings of
$472,013.
McKnight, sixth in the Oaklawn standings, was coming off his first training title at Woodbine in Toronto.
“We’re very pleased with the meet that we’ve had,” McKnight said. “When I first came down here, we didn’t get off to the quickest of starts. But I knew everything would jell together. We brought some nice horses. It’s just a matter of getting them into the right races, and they’re going to run for you.”
Smart Spree represented McKnight’s first Oaklawn winner on Jan. 25.
Trainer Chris Hartman said Thursday Wilbo is also under consideration for the Count Fleet. Wilbo has won two races at the meeting, including the $125,000 King Cotton Stakes on Feb. 3.