Exclamation Point takes next career step
Exclamation Point, a 3-year-old son of Concord Point, earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 77 for his front-running 2 ½-length career-debut victory sprinting on Feb. 3 at Oaklawn Park for owner/breeders Steve and Brandi Nicholson and trainer Brad Cox.
Today’s fifth race, a first-level allowance/optional claimer, will mark the two-turn debut for the half-brother to champion and 2017 Arkansas Derby winner Classic Empire.
Cox said he initially thought he would pass today’s 1-mile race, but changed his mind after Exclamation Point, in company, recorded a half-mile bullet workout Monday morning (:47.40). Exclamation Point worked with 4-year-old stablemate Bold Prophet, who is entered in today’s ninth race, a first-level allowance for older horses, after breaking his maiden Jan. 26 in his last start.
“I was kind of thinking about waiting, but he breezed so well this past week that there wasn’t any sense in waiting,” Cox said. “If the race was there … it was, it went. I just felt like we needed to be a part of it, just continue the process of developing him.”
Exclamation Point, the 9-5 program favorite, is scheduled to break from post 2 under Fernando De La Cruz and carry 114 pounds. De La Cruz was in a sixth-place tie with 13 victories from 91 starts after 28 days of racing. His mounts earned $594,162 in purse money in his first season in Hot Springs.
De La Cruz, 31, was riding at Tampa Bay Downs when agent Tony King said he called the jockey “out of the blue” in late December and asked if he would be willing to try Oaklawn, which opened Jan. 12.
“He was doing well in Tampa, but wasn’t having the success he had the previous couple of years,” King said. “I said, ‘What about the opportunity to go maybe hustle and ride at Oaklawn?’ He said, ‘Let me think about that. That’s an option for me.’”
King said the hook for De La Cruz relocating to Arkansas at the 11th hour was the opportunity to potentially “ride a few horses” for Cox, a close friend of the agent and Oaklawn’s leading trainer this year.
The Cox/De La Cruz combination has produced a 9-3-0 record from 24 starters at the meet and purse earnings of $355,722. “Been blessed,” King said. “It’s worked out very well so far.” One of De La Cruz’s victories for Cox came aboard Exclamation
Point on Feb. 3.
“That’s a nice horse,” De La Cruz said. Walter De La Cruz, who won 60 races at Oaklawn in 2015-2017, is the fourth-leading rider this year at Mahoning Valley.
Also entered in today’s fifth race are unbeaten Colour Guard, a son of Oaklawn stakes winners Archarcharch and Endless Parade; Articulator, 2 for 2 at the meeting; and Inge, moving to two turns after finishing fourth in last Saturday’s $125,000 Gazebo Stakes. Probable post time for the race is 3:08 p.m. A Triple Crown nominee, Exclamation Point will be making his first start since Staton Flurry of Hot Springs purchased 50 percent of the chestnut colt late last month. The Nicholsons also bred Classic Empire.