Surprising pair of fillies pull away from favorites

HOT SPRINGS — Two local gals, meet winners at that, showed up two stakes-winning shippers Saturday at Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort.

Klassy Bridgette became the first three-time winner in 26 days by a neck over Pate in the $150,000 Dixie Belle Stakes for 3-year-old fillies. Before an estimated crowd of 23,000, both fillies benefited when favorite Key of Life, locally owned and with a Keeneland stakes victory, and Stone Silent, from California after seven months following a debut stakes win at Santa Anita, backed up in the stretch.

The modestly priced winner ($100,000 from two sales) is from the first crop of Army Mule, the 2018 Grade I≠≠≠ Carter Handicap winner at Aqueduct, who retired with a 3-0 record for trainer Todd Pletcher. The May 3 foal is a winner in all three months of the second Oaklawn season starting in December, a superb one for Chris Hartman, Oaklawn’s 2015 training champion and currently second to 2020 winner Robertino Diodoro.

Klassy Bridgette went off almost unannounced in a field that Key of Life, coowned by Hot Springs’ Staton Flurry, left the gate 6-5 with Stone Street a close second near 5-2.

A race expected to be decided between A-list trainers Brad Cox and John Sadler came down to a stretch duel between fillies trained by Hartman and Clinton Stuart, whose Pate ( by 2010 Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver) came off a Jan. 21 Oaklawn victory. Pate placed fourth, beaten a length, when she faced Klassy Bridgette on the first Sunday of the season on Dec. 11.

In that one, Klassy Bridgette rallied from seventh over a muddy surface, same as she found in the Dixie Belle. Starting her career with two seconds in Kentucky, her six-length victory Jan. 13 influenced Hartman to enter stakes company with the dark bay or brown miss owned by Jackie Slawson, Joey Keith Davis and Larry Romero.

Stone Silent, by Adios Charlie, set 22.29 and 46.16 splits under former Oaklawn regular Ramon Vazquez. Flavien Prat, aboard Key of Life, hung close to the rail, slowly drying after a February heavy rain. The two-horse race many expected looked imminent.

At which time two different horses seized the attention. Klassy Bridgette was responsible if nothing else for a creative chart footnote with words like “knifed out,” “challenged” and “dueled” in a race she won in “game fashion.” Pate, four wide on the turn, couldn’t match those superlatives, but she and Klassy Bridgette wrecked some exactas, the top pair paying $23.20. The winner clocked six furlongs in 1:11.63 and returned $7.40, $3.80 and $2.80.

Key of Life, the Myrtlewood winner at Keeneland in October, finished 71/ lengths 4 back in third. Always Angels, a meet winner for trainer John Ortiz, ran fourth at 39-1 with Stone Silent beaten 121/ lengths and Steve Asmussen-trainer 2 Twirled, yet another local winner, trailed the field.

Trainer Rodolphe Brisset cross-entered Parody, a stakes performer in California for Bob Baffert, in an allowance race today.

Earlier on the card, Silver Prospector, Oaklawn’s 2020 Grade III winner, put Asmussen closer to 10,000 career victories with a victory under Ricardo Santana Jr. Super Stock, the 2021 Arkansas Derby winner, then with the same connections, finished second. Asmussen started the card five wins short of 10,000 with 15 horses entered at five tracks.

Cristian Torres’ three-bagger riding included a victory each for trainers Diodoro, Tim Martin and Karl Broberg. Rafael Bejarano’s second victory came for Hartman, one race after sending veteran Terry Brennan to the winner’s circle.