Gray Attempt takes them all the way in Gazebo Stakes

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Gray Attempt cut back to move forward.

The horse turned back in distance for the $125,000 Gazebo on Saturday at Oaklawn and, after winning the six-furlong stakes in a sharp 1:09.72, remains on course for the Arkansas Derby.

The Gazebo, for 3-year-olds, was one of two stakes on the card. In the $100,000 Nodouble, Hoonani Road improved his Oaklawn record to 5 for 5. He was one of five winners on the card for jockey Ricardo Santana Jr., who hit the magic number when he won the nightcap with Zippy Lou ($6).

Ontrack attendance Saturday was an estimated 19,000.

Gray Attempt ($5.20) had been meant for the Rebel last weekend, but he missed training up to that race after a first-turn scuffle in the Southwest Stakes in February left him with some swelling in an ankle and soreness in his back end, said his trainer, Jinks Fires.

The Gazebo became an alternate gameplan. Gray Attempt broke well from post five in the six-horse field and was soon in command of the race, taking his peers through an opening quarter in 22.63 seconds and a half-mile in 45.94.

“He’s a fast horse,” said Fires.

In the stretch, Gray Attempt finished up strongly under Jon Court, winning by 3 1/4 lengths over Hidden Ruler. It was another nose back to Six Shooter in third.

Court, who won a division of the Rebel last week on Long Range Toddy, was riding Gray Attempt for the first time because the horse’s regular pilot, Shaun Bridgmohan, has been sidelined by a broken collarbone.

Fires trains Gray Attempt for Dwight Pruett, and both men said after the race the plan remains to advance to the Arkansas Derby.

Gray Attempt has been a candidate for the Grade 1, $1 million race here on April 13 since he won the first local prep in the Oaklawn series, the $150,000 Smarty Jones in January. For that effort, he picked up 10 points for the Kentucky Derby.

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“We’ll stretch back out and go around two turns,” Pruett said in a post-race interview broadcast by Oaklawn. “We expect to be in the Arkansas Derby three weeks from today.”

Gray Attempt was winning the third stakes race of his career. His other stakes win came in the $74,000 Sugar Bowl in December at Fair Grounds. Gray Attempt, a son of Graydar, overall has won 4 of 10 starts and earned $261,366.

Hoonani Road remained perfect at Oaklawn when he won the $100,000 Nodouble by 2 1/4 lengths. Overall, the horse is 6 for 10.

Hoonani Road ($2.80) stalked the pace in fourth as Weast Hill put up pressured fractions of 22.23 seconds for the opening quarter and 45.70 for the half-mile. Hoonani Road advanced three wide on the turn, came four wide into the stretch, and went on to cover six furlongs on a fast track in 1:10.11.

Ricardo Santana, who was winning his fourth race on the card, was aboard for trainer Wayne Catalano.

Jerry Caroom, who owns Hoonani Road, said the horse was the last one he purchased with Hall of Fame trainer Jack Van Berg. Van Berg died before Hoonani Road last February at Oaklwn.

Hoonani Road is a son of Jonesboro.