Chocolate Martini returns from break in optional claimer

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Grade 2 winner Chocolate Martini will swing back into action Sunday, launching her 4-year-old season in the seventh race at Oaklawn Park. The feature on a nine-race program, the optional $50,000 claiming route for fillies and mares carries second-level allowance conditions. It will be run over 1 1/16 miles, and the purse is $85,000.

The field of eight includes Hold Her Tight, the third-place finisher in last year’s Grade 3 Iowa Oaks who was third at this level in her 4-year-old debut Feb. 1 at Oaklawn; First Alternate, a candidate to wire the field; and Harbor Lights, an up-and-coming sort from the barn of Oaklawn leading trainer Steve Asmussen.

Chocolate Martini, who won last year’s Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks, wrapped up her season in October. She has prepped for her return at her base of Fair Grounds, among her drills a sharp five-eighths in 1:00.60 on Feb. 15.

“We would have loved to run out of our barn here at Fair Grounds, but Fair Grounds was unable to fill an allowance race at the same level, which is a two-other-than,” trainer Tom Amoss said Thursday. “Oaklawn was the backup plan. The purse is great.”

Chocolate Martini left New Orleans last year and ran fifth in the Kentucky Oaks, third in the Grade 2 Summertime Oaks at Santa Anita, and third in the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga. She finished her campaign with a fifth-place finish against older rivals in the Grade 1 Spinster on Oct. 7 at Keeneland.

“She had about 60 days off, came in around Christmastime at the Fair Grounds,” Amoss said. “She’s a bigger version of herself.”

Chocolate Martini’s campaign goals for 2019 will be determined after she gets back racing, Amoss said. She launches her season from post 6, with Jermaine Bridgmohan to ride for Double Doors Racing.

“This is a starting point,” Amoss said. “We recognize this is the first step.

“I expect to see a good performance, one that she’ll benefit from.”

Amoss and Bridgmohan teamed to win Thursday’s fifth race at Oaklawn with Lady Cleopatra ($10.60).

Hold Her Tight brings tactical speed to the table and could get an ideal trip off First Alternate and perhaps Summer’s Indy. Terry Thompson has the mount on Hold Her Tight for trainer Larry Jones, the same team that upset the Grade 3, $500,000 Southwest Stakes here Monday with 62-1 shot Super Steed.