Gray Attempt draws the rail in 11-horse Southwest Stakes

Dwight Pruett’s Gray Attempt drew the rail Friday morning for the Grade 3 $500,000 Southwest Stakes for 3-year-olds, part of a stakes tripleheader Monday at Oaklawn Park.

The 1 1/16-mile Southwest is Oaklawn’s second of four major preps for the Kentucky Derby and offers 17 points (10-4-2-1) to the top four finishers toward starting eligibility for the Run for the Roses. Trained by Jinks Fires, of Hot Springs, Gray Attempt has won his last three starts, including the $150,000 Smarty Jones Stakes Jan. 25 at Oaklawn.

Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen entered five horses – Bankit, Boldor, Jersey Agenda, Long Range Toddy and Ninth Street – with Cutting Humor, Olympic Runner, Six Shooter, Sueno and Super Steed completing the projected 11-horse field.

Long Range Toddy, Boldor, Six Shooter, Bankit and Super Steed also ran in the 1-mile Smarty Jones. finishing second, third, fourth, sixth and seventh, respectivelys Probable post time for the Southwest, the ninth of 10 races, is 5:09 p.m.

There are 14 older horses entered in the Grade 3 $500,000 Razorback Handicap at 1 1/16 miles. The entrants are Copper Bullet, Remembering Rita, Rocking the Boat, Sonneteer, Souper Tapit, Nun the Less, Nanoosh, Lone Rock, Rated R Superstar, All Out Blitz, Tiz He the One, M G Warrior, Thirstforlife and Coal Front.

The Razorback goes as race 8, with a probable post time of 4:38 p.m.

There are 10 older fillies and mares entered in the Grade 3 $200,000 Bayakoa Stakes for older fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles. They are Auspicious Babe, Holiday’s Angel, Promise of Spring, Dutch Parrot, Smart Emma, She’s a Julie, Remedy, Rose of Malibu, Sydney Freeman and Moonlit Garden.

Probable post time for the Bayakoa, which goes as race 7, is 4:09 p.m.

Doors open Monday at 11 a.m. with first post at 1:05 p.m. for the Presidents’ Day card.

Keith Desormeaux is seeking a second straight Southwest victory with Sueno and more Kentucky Derby qualifying points. He won last year’s Southwest with My Boy Jack, who was exiting a third-place finish in the Grade 3 $100,000 Sham Stakes at Santa Anita Park in California. Sueno – Spanish for “dream” – has four points on the Kentucky Derby leaderboard after finishing second in the Sham on Jan. 5 at Santa Anita.

“Honestly, just the way it worked out,” said Desormeaux, who will also send out Sonneteer in the Razorback. “It seemed like good timing for us. I didn’t want to run him back after the Sham in four weeks in the Bob Lewis, which is the next race at Santa Anita in their series.

“I’d love to set him up for the Santa Anita Derby, so as you can see we have big aspirations for him. If you’re thinking at that level with these horses, in my mind at least, shipping is good for them, running on a different surface is good for them, just to give them experience and tighten them up a bit. My goal off of this race is to come back in the Santa Anita Derby. Things can change, but that’s the plan.”

The Grade 1 $1 million Santa Anita Derby is April 6 at Santa Anita, its final major prep for the Kentucky Derby.

Sueno is from the first crop of the regally bred Atreides (Medaglia d’Oro out of multiple Grade 1 winner Dream Rush), who won 4 of 5 career starts in 2014 before being retired because of a tendon injury.

Sueno ran for a claiming tag in his first two career starts — both sprints — last August at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in California and won the $75,900 Gold Rush Stakes at a mile on Dec. 1 at Golden Gate Fields in his third and final race of 2018. He was beaten a length in the 1-mile Sham, which was his 3-year-old debut.

“Obviously, my judge of talent was suspect in the fact that I ran this horse for ($62,500) first time out,” Desormeaux said. “Part of that is because he is by a kind of an under-the-radar first-year sire. Not a big price as a yearling.

“The horse is totally built and has that mentality for distance, so he was not showing his cards early in the summer. That’s why I got away running him like I did.”

Sueno, who broke his maiden for an $80,000 claiming price on Aug. 31, is the co-7-2 second choice in the program for the Southwest. Cutting Humor is the 3-1 program favorite for trainer Todd Pletcher.

Sueno is owned by Bonnie and Tommy Hamilton’s Silverton Hill Farm, which campaigned Great Notion, a nine-length winner of the 2003 Southwest. Desormeaux said Sueno, a $61,000 Keeneland September Yearling Sale purchase, was among the first two horses he received from Silverton Hill last spring.

Following the Southwest, My Boy Jack won the Grade 3 $200,000 Lexington Stakes at Keeneland Race Course and finished fifth in the Kentucky Derby.