Callback, Honor Code among Oaks Day stakes stars

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The five undercard stakes were drawn Tuesday for Friday’s stakes-laden Kentucky Oaks Day at Churchill Downs.

Callback, the Grade 1 Las Virgenes winner, had been considered a Kentucky Oaks prospect earlier this year but was entered in the Grade 3, $200,000 Eight Belles at seven furlongs. After being disqualified from first and placed fourth for interference in the Sunland Park Oaks, she lacked the necessary Kentucky Oaks qualifying points to make the field.

Even in the Eight Belles she is facing a deep cast of 11 rivals, including the unbeaten Promise Me Silver and stakes winners Ekati’s Phaeton and Taylor S.

Callback, a 3-year-old daughter of Street Sense owned by Spendthrift Farm and trained by Bob Baffert, breaks from the rail with Victor Espinoza aboard. She adds blinkers after racing without them in her last two starts.

Besides the Kentucky Oaks, the other Grade 1 race Friday at Churchill is the $300,000 La Troienne, which drew nine fillies and mares, topped by My Miss Sophia and Sheer Drama.

Sheer Drama won the Grade 2 Royal Delta by 6 1/2 lengths in her last start March 21 at Gulfstream, earning a career-best 99 Beyer Speed Figure.

With Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Bayern running in the seven-furlong Churchill Downs Stakes on Derby Day, Honor Code is the headliner of the Grade 2, $400,000 Alysheba at 1 1/16 miles on dirt Friday. The winner of the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Handicap, Honor Code likely will start as the favorite over Protonico, the winner of the Grade 3 Ben Ali at Keeneland on April 11.

In the Grade 3, $150,000 Twin Spires Turf Sprint, standout turf-sprinting female Good Deed faces a crack group of males in the five-furlong race. Among them are Heitai, Power Alert, Something Extra, and Undrafted.

With a field of eight, the Grade 3, $150,000 Edgewood at 1 1/16 miles on the grass has the shortest field among the stakes at Churchill on Friday. Still, it attracted two of the better 3-year-old turf fillies in the country in Quality Rocks and Sunset Glow. Quality Rocks won the Grade 3 Florida Oaks in her last race, and Sunset Glow was the runner-up in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf. She makes her second start of 2015 after a third-place finish behind Lady Eli in the Grade 3 Appalachian at Keeneland on April 12.

The Friday card also is brimming with depth in allowance and maiden events; 132 horses are in the body of 12 races, with another 14 horses being also-eligibles.

First post on Kentucky Oaks Day at Churchill Downs is 11:30 a.m. Eastern, with the first of the stakes, the Edgewood, scheduled for 1:26 p.m. The Kentucky Oaks goes at 5:49 and is followed by the 12th and final race, a maiden race, at 6:21.