Oaks provides rubber match

Pretty Mischievous avenged her lone career defeat when she upset Hoosier Philly in the Grade 2 Rachel Alexandra at Fair Grounds last month. Hoosier Philly will get a chance to avenge her only career defeat when she meets Pretty Mischievous again in Saturday’s Grade 2, $400,000 Fair Grounds Oaks.

Add to the field the stakeswinning The Alys Look; Southlawn, a sharp allowance winner last out; and Christian d’Oro, a Sunland Park stakes winner making her first start for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen; and the Fair Grounds Oaks is not your pedestrian five-horse field.

All five finishers will earn qualifying points to the Oaks as points are awarded to the top five finishers (100-40-30-20-10).

Pretty Mischievous, trained by Brendan Walsh for Godolphin Racing, is 4 for 5 with stakes wins in the Untapable and Rachel Alexandra at Fair Grounds. In the Rachel Alexandra, Pretty Mischievous was game in outfinishing a stubborn Miracle by a half-length while those two were nearly eight lengths clear of Hoosier Philly.

It was a far superior effort to what Pretty Mischievous showed in last November’s Golden Rod – her first start around two turns – when Walsh felt his filly got stuck down inside and acted a bit keen when finishing third, 5 1/4 lengths behind Hoosier Philly.

“That filly was doing great at the time, she beat us fair and square,” Walsh said. “I think our filly is such a better filly than what she was then and has shown that already.”

With Tyler Gaffalione in Dubai on Saturday, Brian Hernandez Jr. rides Pretty Mischievous from post 3.

Hoosier Philly’s two dominant stakes wins at 2 helped send her off as the 2-5 favorite in the Rachel Alexandra. Hoosier Philly bobbled at the break and got squeezed some around the first turn. She did eventually get clear run in the stretch but made no impact.

“Unquestionably, we got in trouble right out of the gate and had a lousy trip,” trainer Tom Amoss said. “My worry is once she did get clear down the lane she didn’t give us that punch. Maybe that’s because of all the things that happened before that.”

Amoss said he likes how Hoosier Philly has trained since the Rachel Alexandra and believes her outside draw in this compact field will be beneficial, especially if anything happens again at the start.

“I’m really pleased with her but I have to put a caveat on that,” Amoss said. “I was really pleased with her before her last race.”

Brad Cox has a top-flight Oaks contender in Wet Paint, who has won two stakes at Oaklawn and is pointing to the Grade 3, $600,000 Fantasy Stakes there April 1. In winning the Silverbulletday in January, The Alys Look gave the appearance of a filly who has taken a leap forward from 2 to 3.

“She’s a big filly. She looks like a filly that would develop with more distance and time,” Cox said.

Southlawn is coming off a monster allowance win at Fair Grounds, though that win did come on Lasix, medication she will not be permitted to use Saturday.

Christian d’Oro, a sprint stakes winner at Sunland, gets a second try around two turns after a disappointing fourth in the Island Fashion Stakes on Feb. 28 at Sunland.