HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – As winter turned to spring, trainer Brad Cox kept waiting, hoping, for Cyberknife to show in the afternoon what he’d been hinting at in the mornings. He’d take a step forward, then regress, his lone stakes performance in his first five starts a gross disappointment. But late Saturday afternoon at Oaklawn Park, before a packed grandstand and a raucous crowd that somewhat approximated what he’ll encounter in five weeks at Churchill Downs, Cyberknife grew up in a hurry. He made a menacing middle move into a strong pace, then kept on going, turning back the filly Secret Oath and then easily holding safe Barber Road to win the Grade 1, $1.25 million Arkansas Derby. “Watching him train, we had high hopes. Sometimes it works out, sometimes they let you down,” Cox said. “As long as he keeps improving, he’ll be a Derby starter and maybe a Derby winner.” Cyberknife gave Cox and jockey Florent Geroux their second stakes win in concert on the card, following Fulsome in the Oaklawn Mile. Geroux won three of the day’s four stakes, as he also captured the Fantasy with Yuugirl. :: For the first time ever, our premium past performances are free! Get free Formulator now! Cyberknife ($13.60) won the race by 2 3/4 lengths over Barber Road, who finished well for second. Secret Oath, favored at 7-5, was another three-quarters of a length back in third. It was another 4 1/2 lengths back to fourth-place Doppelganger, then came, in order, Kavod, Ben Diesel, We the People, Un Ojo, and Chasing Time. Over a track rated fast, Cyberknife completed 1 1/8 miles in 1:50.42, getting a Beyer Speed Figure of 92. The win was worth $750,000, as well as 100 points towards a berth in the Kentucky Derby on May 7 at Churchill Downs. Cox – officially now the winner of the 2021 Derby with Mandaloun via the disqualification of Medina Spirit - has a second potential starter in Zozos, who earned 40 points finishing second one week earlier in the Louisiana Derby to the Kentucky Derby’s current favorite, Epicenter. Cyberknife showed both his talent and his immaturity right from the start, as he was disqualified for bumping after crossing the wire first in his debut Sept. 25 at Churchill Downs. He then was second in a maiden race at Churchill Downs, before finally getting his official maiden win in his third start, and his first at Fair Grounds, on Dec. 26. But in his next start, Cyberknife was a dull sixth of nine in the Lecomte Stakes. He was outfitted with blinkers that day, as he was in his debut. They came off anew for his most-recent start, a Feb. 19 allowance race at Fair Grounds that he won with a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 87. The question was whether Cyberknife would go forward from that effort. Every sign he gave off this week here at Oaklawn was encouraging, as he schooled well at the gate, and went about his morning gallops under exercise rider Katie Tolbert like a gentleman. Cyberknife was fourth in the early going, as Kavod sped through fractions of 22.11 seconds for the opening quarter and 46.54 seconds for the half, with Chasing Time and Doppelganger closest. Midway down the backstretch, Geroux let Cyberknife move into that hot pace, and with three furlongs to go he was battling for the lead. “If he’d have gotten nailed I’d have been a little upset,” Cox said. But Cyberknife went on with it. He opened a daylight lead coming off the bend, was up by 2 1/2 lengths at midstretch, and maintained a safe margin to the wire. “We’ve had high hopes for him,” Geroux said. “He still wasn’t 100 percent down the lane. Hopefully for the first Saturday in May he’ll be straighter.” Barber Road was eighth of nine during the first half-mile, then made a sustained run to get the place. Though he didn’t win at this meet, he ran in four point-scoring races and finished second three times – previously in the Smarty Jones and Southwest – and third in the Rebel. Reylu Gutierrez, who rode Barber Road, and John Ortiz, the colt’s trainer, both were thrilled after the race, hugging one another as though they had won. “I’m excited for him going a mile and a quarter,” Gutierrez said. “We’ve got a horse with guts, and who will run through traffic, and you need a horse that has guts and will run through traffic in the Kentucky Derby,” Ortiz said. :: Want to start playing with a $510 bankroll and have access to free Formulator? Learn more Secret Oath, who dropped back to last in the opening half-mile, launched a wide rally on the far turn that propelled her all the way to second, and brought forth a roar from a crowd – estimated by track officials at 60,000 - that favored her both in the win pool and in their hearts, but she could not sustain the run. “She swept past a lot of them. She had a right to hang,” said her trainer, D. Wayne Lukas. Cyberknife has now won consecutive races for the first time, and owns three victories in six starts. He is a colt by Gun Runner out of the Flower Alley mare Awesome Flower. He was purchased as a yearling for $400,000 by agent Joe Hardoon on behalf of the colt’s owner, Al Gold’s Gold Square LLC. He’ll be going early this coming week to Churchill Downs. He’s headed north, in more ways than one.