Gray Attempt's heart lands him in Southwest Stakes

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Heart.

It’s one of those intangibles that sets a racehorse apart: It never reveals itself on a yearling catalog page, but rather shows up on the track, in the heat of battle.

Dwight Pruett is genuinely delighted to have a horse with heart in Gray Attempt. He purchased the colt as a yearling for $50,000 in July 2017 at a Fasig-Tipton auction in Kentucky and on Monday the horse will be shooting for his third straight stakes win when he starts as one of the top choices in the Grade 3, $500,000 Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park.

“You can’t train that heart, the want-to,” Pruett said. “That’s what I like about this horse – his desire.”

Gray Attempt has the necessary physical attributes, including athleticism, to back up that desire, and Pruett said it was trainer Jinks Fires who selected the horse at auction. Gray Attempt’s sire, Grade 1 winner Graydar, was 5 for 6 in his career, while Gray Attempt’s dam, Attempt to Name, is from the female family of Grade 2 winners Tower of Texas and Street Sounds.

Fires has sent out Gray Attempt to win 3 of 4 starts, with his latest a neck victory in the $150,000 Smarty Jones on Jan. 25 at Oaklawn. The mile race was Gray Attempt’s first start around two turns, and he set the pace and prevailed while being surrounded late by Long Range Toddy and Boldor, both of whom are being pointed to the Southwest.

“We had the outside post and wanted to be ahead going into the first turn,” Pruett said. “By the first turn, he was up by two lengths, and just kind of kept on. He had horses coming up on him on both sides in the stretch and he fought back. The horse’s desire to win just came on.”

Gray Attempt will move to 1 1/16 miles for the Southwest.

“Jinks doesn’t think the longer distance will hurt us,” Pruett said.

In preparation, Gray Attempt bounded home in a Sunday work for the Southwest. He covered five furlongs in 1:00.20 on a muddy, sealed track. Gray Attempt worked by himself, and Oaklawn clockers caught his final quarter in 23.60 seconds and galloping out six furlongs in 1:12.60.

“I just wanted a maintenance work, just keep him where we got him, and he’s where we want him to be,” Fires said.

Shaun Bridgmohan, who has ridden the horse in all four of his starts, has the mount in the Southwest.

Pruett, a 65-year-old who is retired from his consumer-lending business, bought his first racehorse in 2013.

“I’ve been around Oaklawn for 30, 40 years, then six years ago claimed a horse just to have one,” he said. “I kind of got into it, and before I knew it I had two dozen!”

Pruett has 12 horses in training, and often buys at yearling and 2-year-old auctions. One of his local success stories was Discreetness, who won the Smarty Jones in 2016.

Gray Attempt will try to advance the cause for Pruett by taking down the next 3-year-old race in the Oaklawn series Monday.

◗ The Thursday card features an allowance for Arkansas-breds that drew a number of stakes winners, including Weast Hill, Glacken’s Ghost, Racer, and Hoonani Road. It is expected to produce starters for the $100,000 Nodouble here March 23.