Come Dancing breezes five furlongs for stakes at Oaklawn

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. -- The millionaire Come Dancing got her first real feel for the Oaklawn surface on Tuesday morning, when she worked toward a potential start in the Grade 1, $600,000 Apple Blossom Handicap here April 18.

She also is being considered for the Grade 3, $350,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap the same day at Oaklawn, according to her trainer, Carlos Martin.

Come Dancing, who is under the care of trainer D. Wayne Lukas at Oaklawn, breezed first after the break. She went five-eighths by herself in 1:00.60 on a sealed, muddy track.

Oaklawn head clocker Jim Hamilton caught Come Dancing with fractions of 11.80 seconds for her opening eighth of a mile, 23.60 for her first quarter and 36 seconds for three-eighths.

Come Dancing is preparing for her first start since running sixth in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint on Nov. 2. Prior to that race she won the Grade 1 Ballerina on Aug. 24 at Saratoga and the Grade 2 Gallant Bloom on Sept. 22 at Belmont Park.

Come Dancing is a 6-year-old mare by Malibu Moon who races for Marc Holliday.

--additional reporting by David Grening