Chicago horses seeing success at Keeneland

With Hawthorne, the lone remaining Chicago track, conducting a harness meet, there’s not even training, much less racing in Chicago this fall. So, what are Chicago horsemen up to this October? Winning races at Keeneland.

Illinois horses won four races in the span of three race days last week led by trainer Armando Hernandez going 3 for 3: Lucky Boss won on Oct. 19, Camp Daddy on Oct. 20, and Comiskey Park on Oct. 21.

All those horses shipped from FanDuel Racing in southern Illinois, where several Hawthorne trainers relocated when Hawthorne’s meet ended in September. Trainer Jose Rodriguez shipped Samarita from FanDuel to win Oct. 13 at Keeneland.

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The best Illinois performance last week belonged to the Illinois-bred filly Oeuvre, an established stakes horse in turf sprints, and to a lesser extent dirt sprints, who stretched out in distance to win a high-level, two-turn grass allowance race by 1 3/4 lengths on Oct. 21.

Oeuvre, a 4-year-old Shackleford filly bred and owned by Richard Perkins, won for the sixth time in eight starts this year after going 7 for 8 during 2022, making her 13 for 16 since Chris Block began training her. She has 14 wins overall.

Block felt confident Oeuvre could stretch out having watched the filly’s lone two-turn start, which came at age 2 before Block began training Oeuvre, and considering the route influences in her pedigree.

Oeuvre won comfortably with a 90 Beyer Speed Figure despite drifting closer to the outer rail than the inner through the final furlong. Block believes Oeuvre was eyeing the large infield video monitor, as she might have done winning last month at Kentucky Downs.

Oeuvre will have ample options – sprinting and routing on turf, sprinting on dirt – at the Fair Grounds meet, where she’ll head for the winter in a couple weeks.

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