Allowance has stakes implications

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - There are no stakes scheduled for Sunday at Oaklawn Park, but there is an allowance on the card with stakes implications, and a competitive optional claiming race for sprinters that drew a full field of 12.

Kettleoneup and Miss Goodnight will meet in the second race, a one-mile allowance for fillies and mares who have never won three races. Both should see stakes action this meet. Kettleoneup, a 4-year-old by Victory Gallop, is a candidate for the $50,000 Pippin here Feb. 17, said her trainer, Mike Tomlinson.

She has won 2 of her last 3 starts, with her maiden score coming by 11 lengths in a one-mile race at Mountaineer Park in September. One start later, Kettleoneup beat winners there by 12 lengths. She last raced on Nov. 17, finishing second in a one-turn mile allowance race at Churchill Downs.

"She loves two turns," said Tomlinson. "She's a very well-bred filly. The one-turn mile, I don't think it was her type of race at Churchill Downs. I think the filly wants the two turns, although she ran a good race to a very nice horse."

Sugar Shake, who won the allowance, came back in her next start to win the Grade 2 El Encino.

Kettleoneup will be ridden by Terry Thompson.

Miss Goodnight, a 3-year-old filly who won the $97,000 Blue Hen at Delaware Park, was entered in the $50,000 Dixie Belle at six furlongs here Saturday, but will run instead in the allowance, said her trainer, Tim Ritchey.

"It's a perfect condition for her," he said. "And I think she's a much better filly going long. Obviously, her pedigree says it. She's by Johannesburg and her mother, Night Fax, won the Delaware Handicap, which is a mile and a quarter, so distance will help her.

"She's a very, very nice young filly."

Ritchey said Miss Goodnight is a candidate for the meet's two-turn series of stakes for 3-year-old fillies, which concludes with the Grade 2, $250,000 Fantasy on April 6. She will break from post 5 under Stewart Elliott.

"I would look for her to probably be laying second, third, fourth, in a stalking position, and just make a good run from the three-eighths pole to the wire," said Ritchey.

* Fairmont has stepped up his game since he began racing on the front end, and he will be looking for his third straight win in the eighth, a $40,000 optional claimer to be run over six furlongs. Others in the race include Kings Challenge and Mt. Splendor.