Oaklawn Park: Apropos possible for Carousel after allowance romp

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Apropos looked like a budding star Thursday at Oaklawn Park, when she won a first-level allowance sprint by more than 10 lengths to earn a Beyer Speed Figure of 101. She is a 4-year-old daughter of First Samurai.

“She’s a filly we’ve been high on from a long, long time ago,” said Al Stall Jr., who trains Apropos for her breeders, Claiborne Farm and Adele Dilschneider.

Apropos was making her third career start in the Oaklawn allowance, a six-furlong race in which she tracked the leaders in fourth, overtook them, and barreled home. She won on a track rated fast, in 1:10.04.

“The finish-up was really good,” Stall said of Apropos’s final eighth-mile in 11.71 seconds.

Apropos launched her career in January 2012 at Fair Grounds and ran third in a maiden special weight sprint. She did not return to action until the fall meet at Keeneland last October and was a clear maiden special weight winner, taking a six-furlong race in 1:11.20 with a Beyer of 77.

“There were little things that kept her in and out of training,” Stall said. “After Keeneland, she had surgery for an entrapped epiglottis. It was something we dealt with.”

Apropos has been based this winter at Oaklawn, where Stall has a division for the first time in several years. He said Friday that plans for her next start are to be discussed with her ownership. The options on the table include the $100,000 Carousel for fillies and mares at six furlongs at Oaklawn on April 11.

“We do have Cheery for that race, but Cherry has already won a stakes, has black type,” Stall said of the winner of this meet’s American Beauty for Claiborne and Dilschneider. “I’m not sure what we’ll do next.”

Apropos is from the A.P. Indy mare Apt.