Power Gal set up for Oaks preps after Martha Washington win
Trainer Mark Casse said Power Gal will continue through Oaklawn Park’s Kentucky Oaks prep series following her victory in Saturday’s $125,000 Martha Washington Stakes for 3-year-old fillies, trainer Mark Casse said immediately following the 1-mile race.
The Japanese-bred Power Gal earned 10 Kentucky Oaks qualifying points for her half-length victory in the one-mile race under David Cohen in her 2019 debut.
Power Gal, a daughter of Empire Maker owned by Gary Barber, is among four horses on the grounds for Casse, who won the 2017 Arkansas Derby with champion Classic Empire. Casse said that number should grow in the coming weeks.
“We don’t have a lot of horses there right now, but as the year goes on, we’re going to send some of the best horses we have here to run because it’s such a great stakes program,” the Florida-based Casse said. “Just a great program. It was nice to get this one, but we’ll be sending more.”
Power Gal, who was making her stakes debut, won for the second time in four starts to raise her career earnings to $126,370.
Oaklawn’s Kentucky Oaks prep series continues with the Grade 2 $200,000 Honeybee Stakes on March 9 and the Grade 3 $500,000 Fantasy Stakes on April 12. Both races are 1 1/16 miles.
The Grade 1 $1.25 million Kentucky Oaks — the country’s top race for 3-year-old fillies — is May 3 at Churchill Downs.
Riders for agent Bill Castle swept Saturday’s late daily double, with Cohen winning the Martha Washington aboard Power Gal and Orlando Mojica taking the nightcap aboard Lighthawk for trainer Ron Moquett.
Through Sunday, the sixth day of the scheduled 57-day meeting, Cohen is tied for second in the jockey standings with six victories. Mojica has four victories to rank fourth.
Cohen wintered at Oaklawn for the first time last year, winning 37 races to finish third in the
standings.
“It’s like a good marriage,” said Castle, who has represented Cohen for more than a decade. “It’s like we couldn’t wait to come back.
“Both David and I were so excited to return. We wish it was an 11 1/2-month longer meet. We didn’t want to leave and we still don’t want to leave.”
Backed strongly by trainer Robertino Diodoro and owner Mike Sisk (M and M Racing), Cohen, 34, had a bounce-back year in 2018. He won 114 races and had $6,775,883 in purse earnings.
Competing in New York and the Mid-Atlantic, Cohen ranked sixth nationally in victories with 288 and 24th nationally in purse earnings at $7,357,326 in 2009 before a severe leg injury in early 2014 and the subsequent deaths of his father and sister derailed his career for approximately three years.
Cohen’s comeback came in late 2017 at Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans. He had four mounts there and two more at Delta Downs in advance of the 2018 Oaklawn meeting.
“Like David always said, it wasn’t a matter of when he was returning, it was just a matter of when he was ready,” Castle said. “What people had to see, as with any type of athlete, was the timing. Where are you at?
“Whether you are a rider or throwing a baseball, you had to see where his abilities were. We were very grateful and lucky that we had Diodoro and M and M and Cody Autrey.”
Diodoro was Oaklawn’s second-leading trainer the last two years and helped M and M secure its first career owner’s title at the 2018 Oaklawn meeting. Autrey is M and M’s racing manager.
Cohen rode 20 winners for Diodoro and M and M last year at Oaklawn.
“So grateful to be here,” Castle said. “From the ownership, from the fan base, from every employee, from top to bottom, the fans, the restaurants – everywhere we go.
“Even when you go into Starbucks, ‘Good morning. How have you been, Bill?’ They’re like a cousin. It’s something I’m not accustomed to, coming out of New York.”