Grade 2 winner Just Wicked launches season in allowance
Just Wicked, the winner of last year’s Grade 2 Adirondack at Saratoga, and My Master Plan, who won the first four starts of her career last year at 2, are among the top contenders in Friday’s featured ninth race at Oaklawn.
The first-level allowance for fillies and mares will be run at six furlongs.
Just Wicked will be making a couple of notable moves in her first start at 3. She will be cutting back to one turn and returning to the overnight ranks off the Grade 1 Alcibiades, in which she finished sixth as the favorite in her season finale Oct. 2.
My Master Plan, a stakes winner at both one and two turns, also is cutting back after dueling and finishing sixth in the Martha Washington Stakes at a mile last month at Oaklawn.
“Although she can run two turns, she might be better at one turn,” said Donnie Von Hemel, who trains My Master Plan.
The race Friday also could move My Master Plan back into stakes competition in a race like the $125,000 Instant Racing at six furlongs April 16.
“There’s a sprint stakes here at the end of the meet,” Von Hemel said, “and races early in the meet at other places like Lone Star or Prairie Meadows. There are a number of opportunities.”
Luis Quinonez has the mount for Joyce McGough