Oaks draws two local stakes winners
Once known as Louisville’s day at the races, the Kentucky Oaks is a May tradition at Churchill Downs for which patrons are advised to arrive early and prepare to stay late.
The Oaks, for 3-year-old fillies, does not suffer a little-sister complex with big brother on the first Saturday in May. It and the Kentucky Derby, along with the Clark Stakes in November, celebrate their 150th runnings this year. In theory, the Derby assembles top 3-year-old males (three fillies have won) for the first time. The Clark is for older horses, and Louisville native Brad Cox and Hall of Fame trainer Wayne Lukas, both prominent at Oaklawn, have won all three.
The Oaks is race 11 of 13 on a card starting at 9:30 a.m. CT, same as on Derby day. Both are Grade 1 with the Derby $5 million at a mile and a quarter and the Oaks $1.5 million, and a furlong shorter, at a mile and an eighth. Fields are determined through a points system in prep races designated by Churchill Downs.
The Oaks offers a rematch between Oaklawn stakes winners Thorpedo Anna and Lemon Muffin in a field with Cox-trained early favorite Tarifa, a Bernardini filly from prominent Godolphin Stable with three wins this year.
Just F Y I, juvenile filly champion after a Breeders’ Cup victory, makes her second start at 3 for HOF trainer Bill Mott. Justify’s daughter, owned by breeder George Krikorian, finished second in the Grade 1 Ashland April 5 at Keeneland after a wide trip. Ashland winner Leslie’s Rose, owned by Whisper Hill Farm, is trained by HOF member and past Oaks winner Todd Pletcher. Ken McPeek, Thorpedo Anna’s trainer, fired a figurative shot across the bow at the competition. A mere $40,000 yearling purchase, Fast Anna’s daughter won the Grade 3 Fantasy by four lengths March 30 at Oaklawn so impressively, McPeek said, “You better bring a bear to the Oaks, because Thorpedo Anna is a grizzly.”
Referencing his Derby 150 starter, McPeek said, “Mystik Dan has had to look her in the eye in their last few breezes. She’s given him everything he could handle. She’s a serious (Oaks) contender.” Brian Hernandez Jr., his go-to rider, stays aboard the early 5-1 contestant.
Breaking outside Thorpedo Anna, in post six, is Lemon Muffin, Grade 3 Honeybee winner Feb. 24 at Oaklawn by 3 1/2 lengths. Lukas, the 2022 Oaks
winner with Oaklawn star Secret Oath, is willing to throw out Lemon Muffin’s seventh-place Fantasy finish, saying after the Honeybee that the Collected filly thrived in her first two-turn race.
“I don’t think she was right the other day,” Lukas said. “She was flat. She was flat saddling, flat warming up. She just wasn’t herself. So, we’ll draw a line through it. She sure didn’t act like herself.”
The Honeybee marked the first graded victory for jockey Keith Asmussen, son of HOF trainer Steve Asmussen. He rides Lemon Muffin on Friday and Lukas-trained Just Steel in the Derby.
“He’s extremely smart. He’s very smart about riding. He’s got that horsemanship background from that family,” Lukas said. “He listens and tries to do what you want to do. He’s too tall; I’d like to take a foot off him. But he gets over and down pretty good and, every time I ride him, he does even better than I expect him to do. He’s earned my trust.”
A third Oaklawn alumna in Oaks 150 is the late Willis Horton’s Tapit Jenallie, a Tapit homebred produced by Take Charge Tressa. A second-out stakes winner at Delta Downs in Louisiana, she ran four times at Oaklawn, three points races included, with a best finish of second in the Honeybee. Manny Esquivel, after a solid season in Hot Springs, keeps the mount, breaking from the rail in a 14-horse field with two also-eligibles.
“She’s a nice filly,” trainer Eddie Milligan Jr. said. “We’ve had some unfortunate luck with her after Delta. I kind of got behind on her a little bit. She had a few minor things that we had to work on. I feel very blessed and fortunate that she’s been able to be as consistent as she is.”
The Oaks is set for 4:51 p.m. CT with two Churchill Downs races to follow.
Derby scratch: The Kentucky Derby lost a starter Tuesday, gaining another whose name aptly describes what Epic Ride will need to win Saturday at Churchill Downs.
John Ennis trains the Blame colt, who qualified when Brad Cox-trained Encino scratched. Third in the Grade 1 Blue Grass at Keeneland and second in the Battaglia at Turfway Park, Epic Ride saw his opening odds swell from 30-1 to 70-1. Adam Beschizza has the mount in a 20-horse field that Hall of Famer Javier Castellano, firsttime Derby winner last year on Mage, does not have one.
Cox, a Louisville native whose Mandaloun was declared the 2021 Derby winner after the late Medina Spirit (trained by Bob Baffert) failed a drug test, still has two horses in the field. Besides Just a Touch, the trainer entered Grade 2 Louisiana Derby winner Catching Freedom, Oaklawn’s Smarty Jones winner Jan. 1.
Eclipse Award-winning apprentice Axel Concepcion was named aboard Encino, the Grade 3 Lexington winner at Keeneland last time out and 20-1 on the morning line.