Fantasy Stakes kicks off Racing Festival of the South

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The Racing Festival of the South starts Saturday at Oaklawn Park with the Grade 3, $600,000 Fantasy, which has brought together an evenly matched group chasing after points for the Kentucky Oaks.

The first four finishers in the field, led by Pauline’s Pearl, will earn points on a scale of 100-40-20-10. There was one key scratch Saturday, with the defection of Sun Path.

The Racing Festival is a series of eight major stakes that this meet are being run over the first three Saturdays in April. Purses for the races total $4.9 million. The Fantasy, at 1 1/16 miles, shares a card with the $200,000 Purple Martin, a six-furlong race for 3-year-old fillies led by Windmill.

Will’s Secret has been the definitive leader among 3-year-old fillies this meet at Oaklawn, winning the track’s first two points races for the Kentucky Oaks. But she is running at Keeneland on Saturday in the Ashland, and her absence has led to a competitive cast of six for the Fantasy.

Trainer Brad Cox, who leads all trainers at the Oaklawn meet in stakes wins with six, sends out Coach. She is the winningest member of the field with a 3-for-6 record.

Coach exits a fifth-place finish in the Grade 3 Honeybee won by Will’s Secret on March 6 at Oaklawn. One start prior, Coach was second to Will’s Secret in the Martha Washington at Oaklawn. Cox noted the Honeybee was run a few weeks after Oaklawn-based horses missed 11 days of training due to a winter storm system.

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“She was in a little bit of a tough spot for her race last time, missed some training prior to the race,” Cox said. “She had one average work before. Didn’t do too much with her, didn’t have time. I feel like she’ll move forward off that last race, the fact that she’s coming into this race with more steady training after the 11 missed days.”

Coach ran third in last year’s Grade 2 Golden Rod at Churchill Downs and won that track’s Rags to Riches, both at the distance of the Fantasy. Fernando De La Cruz has the mount for Kueber Racing. Coach has 6 points for the Kentucky Oaks.

Ava’s Grace is a threat to wire the field. She makes her two-turn debut and is the lone sprint-to-route prospect in the Fantasy.

“Our plan is to put her on the front and see if she likes two turns,” said trainer Robertino Diodoro. “We’ve been wanting to try the two turns.”

Diodoro said Ramon Vazquez has the mount on Ava’s Grace, with David Cohen at Keeneland on Saturday to ride Keepmeinmind in the Blue Grass. Ava’s Grace shares the same sire as Keepmeinmind, with both by Jim Dandy winner Laoban.

Pauline’s Pearl, who is 15th on the Kentucky Oaks points leaderboard with 20, is the probable favorite in the Fantasy off a fast-closing second in the Honeybee. Ricardo Santana Jr. has the mount on the Steve Asmussen-trained filly, who is out of the Grade 1-winning mare Hot Dixie Chick.

Take Charge Lorin is a daughter of Tapit and the mare Take Charge Tressa, who is a full sister to Arkansas Derby winner Omaha Beach and a half-sister to champion Take Charge Brandi.

◗ In the Purple Martin, the quick Windmill puts a 2-for-2 record on the line. The daughter of Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense comes off a Dixie Belle score for which she earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 87 – the top number put up by a 3-year-old filly this meet at Oaklawn and one of the division’s best Beyers for 2021.

“I’m proud to see a Street Sense carry this much natural speed,” said trainer Larry Jones. “We’ll gradually keep trying to stretch her out. It looks like she will run farther. There’s nothing in her pedigree keeping her from stretching out.”

Talamo has the mount from post 2 for Fox Hill Farm.