Barkley points Arch Avenue toward Martha Washington

While Jason Barkley might not have had a stakes starter in his young career as a trainer, he is aiming Arch Avenue toward the filly’s first stakes start at Oaklawn.

The 3-year-old daughter of ArchArchArch, the 2011 Arkansas Derby winner, is being pointed to the $125,000 Martha Washington on Feb. 2, a onemile race that is the first of three local preps for the Kentucky Oaks, the country’s biggest prize for 3-year-old fillies. Arch Avenue was purchased for just $5,500 at Fasig-Tipton’s Kentucky Fall Yearling Sale, and she has a 2-0-0 record from five starts, including a first-level allowance score at Turfway Park in her last start on Dec. 7.

Barkley said his father, trainer Jeff Barkley, broke Arch Avenue, adding “she was tough to get going.”

In her third career start, the filly broke her maiden for a $50,000 claiming tag at a mile on Sept. 28 at Churchill Downs before taking 10th over a sloppy surface on Oct. 26 at Keeneland in an entry-leve allowance. Arch Avenue was a three-quarter length winner over a mile last month on a synthetic surface at Turfway after scratching from a first-level spot on Nov. 24 at Churchill.

“I was pretty confident she could win that day,” Jason Barkley said of the Turfway race. “She did it impressively. She just gets stronger the farther she goes. As long as we hit all of our points, we’ll be in that stake and see what we can do.”

The bay filly is known as “Brown Ear” around the barn because the outside of her right ear is tan, Barkley said.

“They said she was born like that, and it’s just gotten more prevalent,” Barkley said. “She’s gotten a little darker … very unusual. I’ve never seen anything like that.”

Barkley, 29, saddled his first career winner Oct. 6, 2017, at Keeneland and is wintering in Hot Springs for his second consecutive year.