Bye Bye J back with statebreds in Rainbow Miss

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Bye Bye J has made a splash since a private purchase brought her to her home state of Arkansas this year, and on Saturday she will be a strong favorite to win Oaklawn’s biggest offering for her division in the $100,000 Rainbow Miss.

The race, which is restricted to 3-year-old fillies bred in Arkansas, will share a card with the $100,000 Rainbow. Both stakes are at six furlongs, with the Rainbow for 3-year-olds bred in Arkansas.

Alex and JoAnn Lieblong purchased Bye Bye J following her runner-up finish in the Grade 3 Forward Gal in February at Gulfstream Park. She was sent to Oaklawn and trainer Ron Moquett, and in her first start for her new connections she romped by 8 1/4 lengths in an Arkansas-bred allowance for fillies and mares on March 14, defeating a field that included older stakes winners Usual Suspect and Easter Indy.

“That was who I hoped we had bought,” Alex Lieblong said Thursday.

Bye Bye J earned a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 86 for covering six furlongs in 1:10.77 in her allowance win, and that performance makes her the one to beat in the Rainbow Miss. The field of eight also includes Tiger Bait, a 14-length debut winner who has won both of her starts this meet, and Another Rocket, who gets back with straight 3-year-olds after a close third facing older in a local allowance April 4.

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Bye Bye J, who comes into the Rainbow Miss off a fifth-place finish as the favorite in the Purple Martin Stakes on March 30 at Oaklawn, defeated open company when winning the six-furlong House Party at Gulfstream Park in December. She is daughter of Uncaptured bred by perennial leading Arkansas breeder McDowell Farm.

“We kind of had our eye on her,” Alex Lieblong said. “After she ran second in the Forward Gal, I said, ‘That filly could have some residual value.’ We’d been picking up mares we thought might match up with The Big Beast when they’re done racing.

“We checked several boxes at once. She’s a fast filly who happened to be an Arkansas-bred, which intrigued me, and third, when she’s through racing we thought her residual value might be pretty good.”

The Lieblongs, who reside in Arkansas, are the majority owners of The Big Beast, a Grade 1 winner they raced who now stands at Ocala Stud. The Big Beast had the fastest eighth of a mile worker at the recent Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company auction of 2-year-olds in training in March. The colt covered a furlong in 9.30 seconds and sold for $450,000. During the same sale, a filly by The Big Beast brought $850,000.

As for Bye Bye J, she will break from post 8 on Saturday under Ricardo Santana Jr.

Tapit Star could go favored in the seven-horse Rainbow after finishing second in a first-level allowance for statebreds March 28 at Oaklawn. Tapit Star broke from post 10 in the 1 1/16-mile race and was beaten a half-length with a Beyer of 70. On March 10 at Oaklawn, Tapit Star won a six-furlong maiden sprint. Walter De La Cruz has the mount for owner Bill Gossage and trainer Burl McBride.