Disarm ready to return to graded-stakes company
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HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Disarm is poised to return to graded-stakes company after opening his 5-year-old season with a sharp allowance win at Oaklawn Park.
Trainer Steve Asmussen said Disarm’s next race will likely come in either the Grade 2, $1.25 million Oaklawn Handicap at 1 1/8 miles on April 19 or the Grade 2, $750,000 Alysheba at 1 1/16 miles on May 2 at Churchill Downs.
Disarm, a Grade 3 winner of $1.3 million, fought for a neck win over the Group 1-placed Bendoog in the 1 1/16-mile allowance. For the effort, Disarm earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 96. The race was his first since finishing fourth in the Grade 2 Lukas Classic last September.
“It was nice to see him get back in the winner’s circle, run a solid race, put some good numbers in,” Asmussen said. “We’ll see where we end up. Most likely it will be either the Oaklawn Handicap or the Alysheba, just depending on how much time I think he needs off his last start.
Disarm is a son of Gun Runner who races for his breeder, Winchell Thoroughbreds.
Just Steel’s plans revealed
Just Steel, a stakes winner and the runner-up in last year’s Arkansas Derby, will likely make his next start in the Oaklawn Handicap, said trainer D. Wayne Lukas. Just Steel was fourth in a mile allowance on March 16 in his second race since running fifth in last year’s Preakness.
“He’s a big, powerful horse that I’ve got to run into shape, it looks like,” Lukas said. “He was short again the other day. He’ll be all right. I just got to get him a little tighter. If I get him where I want him, I think we’ll put him in the [Oaklawn] Handicap.”
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