Distance a plus for Strong Tide

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Oaklawn Park has carded more marathon races than usual this meet, and trainer Mike Lauer said he is appreciative of the chance he gets at one Wednesday with Strong Tide.

“The horses are out there,” he said.

Strong Tide goes in the eighth race, a conditioned allowance over 1 9/16 miles that carries a claiming option of $20,000. It comes on the heels of a 1 1/2-mile race here March 21. Last month, snow forced the cancellation of another 1 1/2-mile race, while there also has been a stakes at that distance this meet at Oaklawn.

The group Wednesday is comprised of seven older horses, some of whom are testing the marathon trip for the first time. Strong Tide did so in January. The three-time stakes winner ran seventh, beaten 6 3/4 lengths, in the Grade 3, $200,000 Connally Turf Cup at Sam Houston.

“We ran a mile and a half in Texas, and I thought he handled it,” Lauer said. “He’s a big, longstriding horse and he looks like a run-all-day horse.”

Strong Tide is a son of English Channel and the Pure Prize mare Dreamin Big. Dreamin Big was a multiple stakes winner who went 11 for 36 in her career, while earning more than $600,000. Lauer and his wife, Penny, are the breeders of Strong Tide.

Dreamin Big “was versatile on dirt and grass, and I’ve always been a fan of English Channel as a stallion,” Mike Lauer said.

Strong Tide has won three stakes races, all around two turns and all for Indiana-breds. He comes into Wednesday’s race off a fourth-place finish in a conditioned allowance at a mile, a race that ends at the sixteenth pole at Oaklawn. The start was March 19.

“A mile race is tough [at Oaklawn] because you’re running on the turn,” Lauer said. “He ran a solid fourth.”

Strong Tide will break from post 3 on Wednesday under Florent Geroux.

“He pretty much does what the rider wants him to do,” Lauer said. “He’s very easy to deal with.

“I think he’ll run a good race. I don’t really know what to expect going that far.”

Jumper was a winner over 1 3/8 miles last September. He is coming off a runner-up finish in a $25,000 starter allowance over 1 1/16 miles on March 6 at Oaklawn. Ken Tohill has the mount for trainer Chris Hartman.

Excession, who last year was second in the Grade 2 Rebel at Oaklawn, is part of the lineup Wednesday. Others of interest include Hit the Ticket, a winner of three of his last four starts.

The card Wednesday has been added to the Oaklawn schedule as one of the make-up dates for those lost to a snowstorm in February.