Chocolate Martini hangs on for Fair Grounds Oaks upset

Tom Amoss has made some memorable claims during a long, successful training career. Chocolate Martini will rank right up there with the best of them after posting a 13-1 upset in the Grade 2, $400,000 Fair Grounds Oaks two starts after Amoss and Double Doors Racing claimed her for $25,000.

Mitchell Murrill rode Chocolate Martini to the biggest win of his career, just holding on for a narrow victory over Eskimo Kisses, who was coming hard on the far outside.

“We were running a little short toward the end, but she had a lot of gameness to her,” said Murrill.

Chocolate Martini had only Eskimo Kisses, who was a distant last, behind her around the clubhouse turn and down the backstretch, but that was the right place to be. Classy Act, the even-money favorite under Javier Castellano, broke a beat slow, just as she had last month in the Rachel Alexandra Stakes, and just like in that race, she quickly went to the lead and set a strong pace – too strong.

The half-mile went in a taxing 46.28 seconds, and when Classy Act tripped the timer in 1:11.02 for six furlongs, the pursuers were coming to her. Chocolate Martini launched her outside bid at about the five-sixteenths pole, and as Classy Act tired and drifted out at the furlong marker, Chocolate Martini collared her just before the sixteenth pole. She got the best of Wonder Gadot down to the inside and hit the line just before Eskimo Kisses, who was finishing fastest, could reach her.

“The race set up kind of how I planned, with a blistering pace up front,” Murrill said. “I just held her together and waited to punch the button.”

Chocolate Martini was timed in 1:44.44 for the 1 1/16 miles and paid $29.80 to win. Wonder Gadot finished third, as she had in the Rachel Alexandra Stakes last month, while Classy Act faded to fourth, just ahead of Just a Julie.

The Fair Grounds Oaks is a major qualifying race for the Kentucky Oaks, offering a total of 170 points distributed 100-40-20-10 to the first four finishers. Chocolate Martini obviously is in, and her connections plan on running.

Chocolate Martini is by Broken Vow and out of Nicksappealinglady, by Successful Appeal, and she resided in the barn of Bret Calhoun, Classy Act’s trainer, when Amoss and Double Doors claimed her Feb. 2. Chocolate Martini narrowly won a first-level allowance race while entered under a $50,000 claiming option on Feb. 18, and Amoss elected to pass on another race at that class level last week at Fair Grounds in favor of the local Oaks.

“She came to me in great shape,” Amoss said. “We didn’t really do anything different than the other guys, but we caught her coming into her maturity level at just the right time.”

And now that $25,000 claim is bound for the Kentucky Oaks.