Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
McPeek finds a softer spot for Count Dracula
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Trainer Kenny McPeek and jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. will team with leading contenders in each of the feature races this week at Oaklawn Park, starting Thursday with Count Dracula and continuing through Saturday with Mystik Dan in the Grade 1, $1.5 million Arkansas Derby.
There is no racing Sunday in observance of Easter.
Oaklawn’s week opens with Thursday’s card of nine races, highlighted by an entry-level allowance for 3-year-olds at a mile. It’s slated as the finale, and it will end at the sixteenth pole. Count Dracula will vie for favoritism in the field of 12 that includes Big to Do, an impressive debut winner at Fair Grounds; and Willy D’s, who comes off a runner-up finish to Arkansas Derby entrant Time for Truth.
Count Dracula, a Triple Crown nominee who on Saturday was scratched from the $200,000 Hot Springs at Oaklawn, comes off a runnerup finish in the off-the-turf Black Gold Stakes on March 2 at Fair Grounds. He was beaten just a neck one start after a maiden special weight win at a mile and 70 yards on the main track in New Orleans.
“He’s been a horse that’s a really hard-tryer,” McPeek said. “It’s a good spot for him. We opted out of the stakes race, running against Nash. We thought the allowance would be so much easier.
“He’s handled about anything you’ve asked him to do. I think his last start at Fair Grounds was super. He just needs to replicate that and maybe a little bit better.”
Hernandez has been aboard Count Dracula in his last two starts. The pair will break from post 2 on Thursday. Count Dracula is a son of Temple City who races for David Bernsen.
Big to Do debuted over 1 1/16 miles on March 1 at Fair Grounds and wired his maiden special weight rivals for a 2 1/2-length win. The Beyer Speed Figure of 81 that Big to Do earned is the best last-race number in the race Thursday.
Flavien Prat has the mount from post 5 for trainer Brad Cox.
Willy D’s also raced over 1 1/16 miles in his most recent start and was second to Time for Truth in the entry-level allowance. Willy D’s will carry 13 fewer pounds than both Big to Do and Count Dracula as he gets in at 109 under apprentice Joseph Bealmear.
Another leading contender in the field is Give Me a Reason, a son of Justify and the Grade 1-winning mare Dream of Summer. Give Me a Reason, who is coming off a maiden special weight win at 1 1/16 miles at Oaklawn, is a halfbrother to Grade 1 winners Creative Cause and Vexatious and Grade 2 winner Destin. Ricardo Santana Jr. has the mount for trainer Steve Asmussen.
◗ Mystik Dan shipped Monday morning from Fair Grounds to Oaklawn for the Arkansas Derby, McPeek said.
◗ Asmussen had two of his three Arkansas Derby entrants out for half-mile works Monday on a good track at Oaklawn. Imperial Gun went in 49.80 seconds, and Informed Patriot in 50.20. Dimatic worked Sunday, on a fast track in 50 seconds.