Oaklawn Barn Notes

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December Allowance Race Proves Fruitful

It wasn’t a stakes race, but it still packed quite the 1-2 punch.

Secret Oath and Matareya have taken different paths since finishing first and second, respectively, in a Dec. 31 entry-level allowance race at Oaklawn, but they continue to make headlines nationally in the 3-year-old filly division.

Secret Oath became the first Oaklawn-based horse since Rachel Alexandra in 2009 to win the Kentucky Oaks, holding off favored Nest by two lengths in the $1.25 million Grade 1 race Friday at Churchill Downs for Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas and breeder/owner Briland Farm (Robert and Stacy Mitchell).

Secret Oath ($10.80) won for the fourth time in her last five starts, the only blemish during that span a third-place finish against males as the favorite in the $1.25 million Arkansas Derby (G1) April 2. Secret Oath had won her previous three starts at the 2021-2022 Oaklawn meeting by a combined 23 lengths, including an 8 ¼-length breakout score over heavily favored Matareya in the 1-mile allowance race Dec. 31.

After finishing a distant second to Secret Oath, Matareya returned to sprinting for trainer Brad Cox and is 3 for 3, including the $400,000 Beaumont Stakes (G3) at about 7 furlongs

April 10 at Keeneland and the $500,000 Eight Belles Stakes (G2) at 7 furlongs on the Kentucky Oaks undercard.

The Kentucky Oaks – the nation’s biggest prize for 3-year-old fillies – marked the third career stakes victory for Secret Oath. She earlier won Oaklawn’s $200,000 Martha Washington by 7 ¼ lengths Jan. 29 and the $300,000 Honeybee (G3) by 7 ½ lengths Feb. 26. Overall, Secret Oath has won 5 of 8 starts and earned $1,295,417. Her winning time for the Kentucky Oaks, run over a wet-fast track, was 1:49.44. She was ridden by Luis Saez.

Heavily favored Matareya ($4) was a 2 ¼-length winner of the Eight Belles. Pretty Birdie, exiting a sharp front-running victory in the $150,000 Purple Martin Stakes for 3-year-old filly sprinters March 26 at Oaklawn, was second. Purple Martin third Wicked Halo also was third in the Eight Belles. Matareya’s winning time over a fast track was 1:21.86. Matareya is 4 for 7 overall, with earnings of $671,867. Flavien Prat rode Matareya in the Eight Belles.

Quinonez Still Riding at Highest Level

Jockey Luis Quinonez capped his most successful Oaklawn meeting in seven years with a riding triple Saturday, including the $200,000 Arkansas Breeders’ Championship Stakes aboard Souixper Charger ($14) for trainer John Henry Prather Jr. of Hot

Springs.

Quinonez recorded 17 victories, including three stakes, this season and his mounts earned $1,229,837 in purse money. It marked Quinonez’s best Oaklawn meeting since 2015, when he had 23 victories, including two stakes, and $1,477,222 in purse earnings.

Quinonez, 55, won the Arkansas Breeders’ Championship Stakes two weeks after Jon Court, 61, became the oldest jockey in American Thoroughbred history to capture a $1 million race, the Oaklawn Handicap (G2), aboard Last Samurai.

“He’s still doing it at the top level, so I guess I’ve got to jump it up and do it, too,” Quinonez said following the Arkansas Breeders’ Championship.

Quinonez’s other stakes victories at the meeting came aboard Bob’s Edge for trainer Larry Jones in the $150,000 King Cotton Jan. 29 and the $200,000 Whitmore (G3) March 19. The King Cotton represented Quinonez’s first Oaklawn stakes victory since the $500,000 Southwest (G3) aboard Suddenbreakingnews in 2016.

Quinonez, Oaklawn’s leading rider in 2007, has 633 career victories in Hot Springs to rank ninth all time. Quinonez has 29 career Oaklawn stakes victories. He entered Tuesday with 3,929 career victories overall (United States and Canada) to rank 85th in North American history, according to Equibase, racing’s official data gathering organization. Only 79 riders have reached 4,000.

“It’s keeping me going and then see if we can get it,” Quinonez said, referring to the career milestone chase. “It’s still a ways, but who knows?”

Quinonez said he will be based this summer at Lone Star Park.

Led by Ricardo Santana Jr. ($4,059,003), 17 riders at the 2021-2022 Oaklawn meeting reached $1 million in purse earnings, according to Equibase, racing’s official data gathering organization. The 66day meeting concluded Sunday. … Trainer Trisha Vance Duncan recorded her second career victory when Heart Rhythm ($14.60) captured Sunday’s ninth race, a $110,000 allowance sprint for older horses, under Geovanni Franco. Vance Duncan is the daughter of fourtime Oaklawn leading trainer David Vance and the younger sister of trainer Tommy Vance of Hot Springs. David Vance, on behalf of Trisha Vance Duncan and her husband, Kelly Duncan, claimed Heart Rhythm for $50,000 Nov. 3 at Churchill Downs. Following a runner-up finish Jan. 23 at Oaklawn, David Vance moved Heart Rhythm to her daughter, and one-time assistant, after she struck out on her own earlier this year. Heart Rhythm gave Vance Duncan her first career victory in a Feb. 20 allowance

Finish Lines

sprint. It was her second career starter. … Acting Out (2 for 2 this year at Oaklawn) was the $600,000 sale topper at the one day Keeneland Horses of Racing Age Sale April 29. Acting

Out won the $200,000 Carousel Stakes for older female sprinters April 2 at Oaklawn in her last start for Hall of Fame trainer Jerry Hollendorfer.