Azeri attracts classy group

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – It’s the smackdown before the Apple Blossom.

In a field befitting of its namesake, the Grade 2, $350,000 Azeri on Saturday at Oaklawn Park has drawn a champion in Shamrock Rose and three other Grade 1 winners in Elate, Eskimo Kisses, and Midnight Bisou.

All this class is packed into a field of six, with some of the fillies and mares expected to be heard from again next month in the meet’s main event for their division, the Grade 1, $750,000 Apple Blossom.

The Azeri, named for the Hall of Fame mare who won the Apple Blossom three times, will be run over 1 1/16 miles and is the first of four stakes to be run consecutively on the 11-race program. The card also features a pair of $750,000 divisions of the Rebel and the $350,000 Essex Handicap.

KEY CONTENDERS

Shamrock Rose, by First Dude
Last 3 Beyers: 87-92-86

◗ She won the Eclipse Award as outstanding female sprinter of 2018 for a 3-year-old campaign topped by a victory in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint over older rivals. Shamrock Rose also won the Grade 2 Raven Run, a seven-furlong race for 3-year-old fillies at Keeneland. For the Azeri, she is stretching out around two turns for the first time since last September, when she won the La Lorgnette going 1 1/16 miles at Woodbine.

“In my opinion, I’ve always thought she was a better two-turn horse,” said trainer Mark Casse. “After she won at Woodbine I wanted to keep her with her same age group, so I looked around and there really wasn’t anything going two turns. I thought well, we’ll shorten up for the Raven Run, and she won so impressively we went to the Breeders’ Cup.”

◗ Shamrock Rose has raced once since the Breeders’ Cup, finishing fourth in the Grade 3 Hurricane Bertie, a seven-furlong race Jan. 26 at Gulfstream Park.

“That was an impossible situation,” Casse said. “The track was sloppy and speed was just carrying and she was actually one of the few horses that did make up ground that day.”

◗ Casse and owner Conrad Farms sent Shamrock Rose to the trainer’s Oaklawn division afterward, and she’s logged several strong works over the local surface. David Cohen has the mount from post 6.

Elate, by Megalia d’Oro
Last 3 Beyers: 105-95-93

◗ She is making her first start since August, when she finished second by a neck in the Grade 1 Personal Ensign at Saratoga. She’s been working at her winter base of Payson Park in Florida. Her moves include a bullet five-eighths in 1:01.20 on March 4.

“We had some time off,” said trainer Bill Mott. “She developed a splint that took quite a while to calm down, and then by the time we got that settled down we had to start all over again. She wound up missing a couple of months before we went back into training. She’s put up some pretty nice works recently getting ready.”

◗ Elate is a two-time Grade 1 winner, with those victories coming at 3 in the 2017 Alabama at Saratoga and Beldame at Belmont. She won her 4-year-old debut last year in the Grade 2 Delaware Handicap, with her other start on the year the Personal Ensign.

“We’d love to have a full season,” Mott said. “It would be nice to get six to eight races, a normal type of campaign.”

◗ The Azeri became her launching pad this year because its timing worked for her, said Mott.

“A mile and a sixteenth is probably a sprint for her,” he said. “I think she’s probably at her best between nine and 10 furlongs. I would much prefer to be going a little further with her, but right at the moment there weren’t any races that were available that offered the distance. We’re getting started. We’ll see where this takes her.”

◗ Jose Ortiz has the mount for Elate’s breeders and owners, Claiborne Farm and Adele Dilschneider.

Midnight Bisou, by Midnight Lute
Last 3 Beyers: 91-94-101

◗ She was an Eclipse Award finalist for champion 3-year-old filly of 2018 for a season in which she won a pair of Grade 1 races and earned $1.5 million.

◗ Midnight Bisou launched her 4-year-old season in the Grade 3 Houston Ladies Classic on Jan. 27 at Sam Houston. She closed from next-to-last for a three-quarter-length win in the 1 1/16-mile race. It was her first out since running third in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.

◗ Mike Smith has the mount for Steve Asmussen, who trains Midnight Bisou for Bloom Racing, Madaket Stables, and Allen Racing.