Dunbar Road crashes the party in Gulfstream Park Oaks

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – After initially planning to run her in next Saturday’s Gazelle Stakes at Aqueduct, the connections of maiden winner Dunbar Road have opted to run their 3-year-old filly in Saturday’s Grade 2, $250,000 Gulfstream Park Oaks.

Dunbar Road, a daughter of Quality Road, was supplemented to the Gulfstream Oaks at entry time as the race came up with a fairly light field. Trainer Chad Brown discussed the options with owner Peter Brant and the decision was made to run at Gulfstream.

“We decided to stay here and avoid having to ship to New York and run on a track she’s never been on,” Brown said Friday at Palm Meadows.

Dunbar Road won her debut by 8 3/4 lengths here on March 3, stalking a modest pace and drawing off in the lane under Jose Ortiz. Irad Ortiz Jr. will ride Dunbar Road Saturday because Jose is in Dubai.

The Gulfstream Park Oaks offers 170 points (100-40-20-10) to its top four finishers to the $1.5 million Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on May 3.

Prior to Dunbar Road’s confirmation in the race, the Gulfstream Park Oaks figured to be a showdown between the speedy Cookie Dough and the late-running Point of Honor. Both horses have solid wins over this surface going the Oaks distance of 1 1/16 miles.

Point of Honor won an off-the-turf maiden race Dec. 16 here in her career debut. Trainer George Weaver entered Point of Honor in that turf race more for the distance than the surface. When the race came off the turf, Weaver was not displeased.

“I thought ‘This is probably going to be a good thing. She’s going to get to run against some easier competition than she would have in a maiden special weight against those pointing to the dirt,’ ” Weaver said. “The rest is kind of history. She jumped up and ran kind of stylishly. I don’t know what was behind her, but she won pretty easy and then she backed it up with another good performance at Tampa.”

Point of Honor overcame a slow start and a wide trip to win the Suncoast Stakes on Feb. 9 at Tampa Bay Downs. Weaver has liked what he’s seen from Point of Honor since that race.

“I anticipate her to run well and I anticipate her to go to the Kentucky Oaks off this unless something goes differently than I see it,” Weaver said.

Point of Honor, a daughter of Curlin owned by Stetson Racing, will break from post 3 under Javier Castellano.

Last September, Cookie Dough overcame post 12 to win the My Dear Girl division of the Florida Stallion Stakes by 7 1/2 lengths. Her time was slow, but the performance in that 1 1/16-mile race deserves high marks for how wide Cookie Dough was throughout.

Off that performance, Cookie Dough was scheduled to run in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, but she developed pneumonia after arriving in Kentucky, according to trainer Stanley Gold.

Cookie Dough wasn’t ready for the Forward Gal here on Feb. 2 and had to begin her campaign in the one-mile Davona Dale on March 2.

In that race, Cookie Dough made all the pace – stalked by the 2-year-old champion Jaywalk – only to be run down by 50-1 shot Jeltrin, losing by a head.

“She was a little antsy because it was her first start back. She was a little sharper than you’d like her to be,” Gold said. “She ran good, she just got caught at the wire. She’ll be on the money for Saturday. She should be pretty tough.”

Jeffrey Sanchez rides Cookie Dough from the outside post in the seven-horse field.

Champagne Anyone, third in the Forward Gal and Davona Dale, is getting blinkers for the first time. Trainer Ian Wilkes said he’s not necessarily looking for more speed from the filly, but is looking for her to focus more.

“She worked in blinkers and I was quite impressed with the work,” Wilkes said. “We just want her to pay a little more attention early on in the race.”

Bella Ciao, Shacklette, and the maiden Safta complete the field.

The Gulfstream Park Oaks goes as race 8 on the 14-race card.