Brewing aims for third straight win in Bachelor Stakes

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Brewing, who has developed into arguably the best 3-year-old sprinter on the grounds this meet at Oaklawn Park, and Pimpernel, a son of Xtra Heat invading from Southern California, make the $100,000 Bachelor Stakes here Friday an intriguing prelude to the card’s centerpiece, the Grade 1, $600,000 Apple Blossom Handicap.

The Bachelor is a six-furlong race for 3-year-olds that drew a field of 11. The group also includes Guns Loaded, who was third in last year’s Grade 2 Best Pal at Del Mar; Mighty Brown, who exits the highly productive Grade 3 Hutcheson at Gulfstream Park; and Burning Warrior, an impressive stakes winner last summer at Louisiana Downs.

Brewing has won two of three starts this meet at Oaklawn, and on Friday, he will be seeking his third straight score. He accounted for a maiden special weight race two starts ago with a Beyer Speed Figure of 92. Brewing then backed up the performance in his most recent outing March 22, winning the $100,000 Gazebo by three lengths on the front end and covering six furlongs in a sharp 1:10.40.

“It was a breakout race for him,” said D. Wayne Lukas, who trains Brewing for the horse’s breeder, Zayat Stables. “The good fractions, very strong all the way through. He set the pace, and then when they came to him, he kicked on again. We just need to repeat that, and I think we’re tough.”

Brewing, a son of the Vindication stallion Maimonides, will break from post 11. He figures to again be prominent under Jon Court.

“He’s a six-furlong horse, so the three important ingredients in a six-furlong race are speed, speed, and speed,” Lukas said. “He has that.”

Pimpernel, an Elusive Quality colt whose dam, Xtra Heat, was a multiple Grade 1 winner of $2.3 million, also is seeking his third straight win. He is making his stakes debut after taking a maiden special weight and a first-level allowance, both at six furlongs, this spring at Santa Anita. Gary Stevens has the mount for Juddmonte Farms and trainer Bob Baffert.

Mighty Brown, who in January won the $53,000 Pasco at Tampa Bay Downs, was seventh last out in the Hutcheson. The Feb. 1 race has produced three next-out winners in the victorious Wildcat Red, who returned to take the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth; fifth-place finisher Spot, the Grade 2 Swale; and sixth-place finisher Tashir, the $75,000 Smooth Air at Calder.

Mighty Brown, who will add blinkers, worked a stellar half-mile over the Oaklawn surface in 47.40 seconds last Saturday, with clockers catching him galloping out five furlongs in 59.60. Ramon Vazquez has the mount for trainer Scotty McNair.

The Friday card also includes an optional $50,000 claimer at 1 1/16 miles that drew graded stakes winners Guilt Trip, Called to Serve, and Sabercat. In addition, Frac Daddy, the runner-up in last year’s Arkansas Derby, makes his second start of the year after finishing second in the $100,000 Maxxam Gold Cup, which went in track-record time at Sam Houston on March 1.