Flat Out Speed heavy favorite in Iowa Breeders' Oaks

Flat Out Speed is a filly with opinions. People, with a few exceptions, aren’t worth her time. Running faster than other horses is.

Flat Out Speed has raced eight times and visited the winner’s circle after seven of those starts, and she’s 3-5 on the morning line to win the Iowa Breeders’ Oaks on Saturday at Prairie Meadows. She’s an Iowa-bred 3-year-old filly with three wins in open company, including two stakes, one of them the Grade 3 Iowa Oaks. Flat Out Speed’s only defeat came in her 3-year-old debut April 25 at Oaklawn, where she faced older horses, breaking from the rail in an 11-horse field.

“She probably wasn’t as tight as she might have been,” said trainer Lynn Chleborad.

Chleborad is one of three people Flat Out Speed abides. The others are her groom and regular rider, Alex Canchari. The filly at best will ignore other folks, at worst lash out at them.

:: Click to learn about our DRF's Free Past Performance program.

“She’s just one of those special kinds of horses,” Chleborad said. “If she likes you, she loves you. If she doesn’t like you, well . . . She acts like I’m her mama. I’ve never had a horse like this before. She likes to lick me – licks my hands, my face. She comes to me like a dog.”

Five of Flat Out Speed’s wins have come sprinting, two around two turns, including a comfortable score in the Iowa Oaks and a narrow last-out win facing older Iowa-breds Aug. 29 in the Hawkeyes Stakes. She’s one of seven entrants in the Iowa Breeders’ Oaks, which is one of seven Iowa-bred stakes on an evening card at Prairie Meadows that begins with four Quarter Horse races.