Chel-c Bailey going for a takedown with Arkansas-bred Summer Shoes

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Jockey Chel-c Bailey helped guide three high school wrestlers to individual state championship honors last weekend in Arkansas as a volunteer coach at Lakeside High School. This weekend, she hopes to land in the winner’s circle herself.

Bailey will be aboard Summer Shoes on Saturday at Oaklawn Park as the mare seeks to win the $150,000 Downthedustyroad for the second year in a row.

“She’s my Ferrari,” Bailey said.

The Downthedustyroad is one of two Arkansas-bred sprint stakes on the card, with the $150,000 Nodouble for 3-year-olds and up. Both races are six furlongs.

Bailey was a national champion wrestler in high school who later competed in the Olympic World Team trials. She went on to become a professional mixed martial arts fighter and fulfilled a childhood dream in 2020 at Oaklawn when she won her first race as a jockey.

Bailey also picked up her first stakes win here, with Summer Shoes in last year’s Downthedustyroad. She’s made it a priority to be involved in the local community, and in addition to helping with the wrestling team has worked food and coat drives for Jackson House. The boys wrestling team finished second overall in the 5A state championship last weekend in Little Rock.

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“Only one of the high schools here had a wrestling program, and I’ve been volunteering on non race days,” Bailey said. “I like to help out in the community. I’m thinking about buying a house here.”

Summer Shoes, who is owned by John Carver and trained by Tom Swearingen, is part of a field of nine led by Kantex, Connie K, and Kaboom Baby. Summer Shoes is seeking to recapture her best form, after finishing an uncharacteristic 11th in the allowance prep Jan. 13.

“She’d beaten horses like Kaboom Baby and Connie K and it makes you say, ‘What’s going on? She’s not her old self,’ ” Bailey said. “We figured out there was a breathing issue, which has been fixed, and we just had a little blowout the other day. She went nicely, in hand, galloped out really well. I feel like the old Summer is back. So, I’m really excited about that.”

Summer Shoes will start from post 6.

“She’s more a front-end filly,” Bailey said. “But you never know who’s going to be gunning it. You never know how the race is going to play out. It’s just going to all chalk up to whenever the gates open of where we’re going to be.

“But I would say I would like to be forwardly placed. That’s where she performs her best.”

Connie K, who won the Downthedustyroad in 2022, also has speed. She will break from post 2, just outside of Kantex, who exits an open-company allowance won by next-out Carousel winner Zeitlos. Kaboom Baby could get a stalking trip from post 9.

Willow Creek Road and King Peanut, who were separated by a neck when finishing one-two in the Arkansas Breeders’ Championship in May, meet again in the Nodouble.

The card also includes a first-level allowance route for 3-year-olds that drew Time for Truth, who was scratched from the Rebel.

“Whoever runs well should definitely be looking at the Arkansas Derby,” Oaklawn racing secretary Pat Pope said.

Others set to start include Awesome Road, who was fourth in the Southwest.

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