Farrell raced with Kentucky Oaks distance in mind

NEW ORLEANS – It’s not that trainer Wayne Catalano was looking past the Fair Grounds Oaks with the 3-year-old filly Farrell, but Catalano definitely was looking forward. Before the race, Catalano instructed Farrell’s jockey – and his son-in-law – Channing Hill to have Farrell go strongly at least a sixteenth of a mile past the finish line. The Fair Grounds Oaks, which Farrell won by 3 1/4 lengths as an odds-on favorite, was contested at 1 1/16 miles, but the Kentucky Oaks, Farrell’s next start, will be run over 1 1/8 miles.

“I wanted to give her a taste of that,” Catalano said Sunday morning.

Catalano said Farrell had come out of the Fair Grounds Oaks in good shape, which is not surprising, since she appeared to win the race handily. Hill really only asked her – and did not ask her for everything – about an eighth of a mile from the finish after Farrell had stalked three wide and swooped to the front at the quarter pole under her own courage. Farrell ran 1 1/16 miles in 1:43.67 and got a career-best 86 Beyer Speed Figure while winning her fourth straight stakes race. Catalano said she will be shipped from Fair Grounds to Churchill Downs on Tuesday.

Wicked Lick, a well-beaten second in the local Oaks, also came out of the race well, according to trainer Brendan Walsh, but having given a night’s thought to upcoming plans, Walsh said Wicked Lick was more likely to make her next start in the Black Eyed Susan Stakes at Pimlico than in the Oaks at Churchill Downs.

Walsh also reported that Honorable Duty, who won his third stakes of the Fair Grounds meet when he ran down Breaking Lucky to win the Grade 2, $400,000 New Orleans Handicap by a neck, came out of the race in good shape. Honorable Duty, who is 3-3 since being gelded last fall, ran 1 1/8 miles in 1:48.35 and got a career-best 105 Beyer.

“He’s very fresh this morning after that race – surprisingly so,” Walsh said.

Honorable Duty was en route from Fair Grounds to Keeneland on Sunday, and Walsh reiterated that the Alysheba Stakes at Churchill would be a logical next spot for his sharply improved 5-year-old.

Enterprising also got a career-best Beyer of 96 in winning the Grade 2, $400,000 Mervin Muniz Handicap by a neck over favored Kasaqui. Enterprising, who had won the Fair Grounds Handicap in his most recent start, ran 1 1/8 miles on a course called “good” but probably closer to firm in 1:48.41.

Kasaqui almost certainly ran at least as well as the winner, coming from last of 10 behind a moderate pace to just miss getting up.

“He’s already on his way to Keeneland,” trainer Ignacio Correas said Sunday. “He came out of it really well. I think he was way too far behind. He fired a big race, but he doesn’t like that much to do.”

Correas said Kasaqui was a likely runner in the Grade 1 Turf Classic on the Kentucky Derby undercard, and would also be pointed to a second run in the Arlington Million, a race in which he finished second last summer.