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HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas is planning another New Orleans invasion. He said at his Oaklawn Park base on Tuesday that Oxbow is among four horses he has pointing for each of the graded stakes to be run at Fair Grounds on Feb. 23.
“The races fit, and it’s a lot easier to take four down there than one,” said Lukas.
Lukas is 2 for 4 with his stakes starters this meet at Fair Grounds. Oxbow was an 11-length winner of the Grade 3, $200,000 Lecomte on Jan. 19, and last weekend Optimizer put up a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 100 for winning the Grade 3, $125,000 Colonel E.R. Bradley.
Oxbow is now going back for the Grade 2, $400,000 Risen Star, said Lukas. The 1 1/16-mile race is worth 50 points to the winner on the new system governing Kentucky Derby eligibility. Oxbow sits third in the latest standings, with 11 points. Jon Court, who rode Oxbow in the Lecomte, has the mount in the Risen Star, which could serve as Oxbow’s springboard to the richest race at Fair Grounds, the Grade 2, $1 million Louisiana Derby on March 30.
“If he continues to have an affinity for that whole situation, he could end up going right back for the derby,” Lukas said of Oxbow.
[ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Prep races, point standings, replays]
Optimizer will run next in the Grade 3, $150,000 Fair Grounds Handicap, while Lukas said Skyring is scheduled to join his stablemates on the trip to New Orleans to run in the Grade 3, $150,000 Mineshaft Handicap. Lukas also plans to bring a 3-year-old filly for the Grade 3, $200,000 Rachel Alexandra. At this point, he said it could be Broken Spell, the runner-up in last year’s Grade 1 Alcibiades, or Neith, fourth-place finisher in the $60,000 Dixie Belle at Oaklawn.
Court will have the mount on Lukas’s other stakes starters Feb. 23. All of the horses on deck for the rich program are owned by the Bluegrass Hall operation of Brad Kelley.
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what happened to the Lukas horse who beat Bradester by 10 lengths.
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a
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Let me think of a catchy phrase. Thinking. Thinking. I've got it!
You have to be in it to win it.
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Good
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I hope he doesn't run this horse into the ground before the derby, the TC will be hard
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So he enters all four in all four races...
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Best Bets
GHOSTLY APPEAL has been on the sidelines for more than nine months. She'll be hard to deny on the drop from $12,500 N2L to $5,000 N2L if she's ready to roll in her return. WINTER ROCKET made up ground late, but still finished in the rear-half of the pack when she was overmatched against Louisiana-bred $12,500 N2L's in her return from a freshening. She'll be a factor in the exotics on the class drop to open $5,000 N2L. SHE'S BONAFIDE didn't show as much early speed as usual, then rallied to challenge for the lead.
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