Honeybee's top three bound for Fantasy

Cosmic Burst, Amy’s Challenge, and Sassy Sienna – the first three finishers in the Grade 3, $200,000 Honeybee on March 10 at Oaklawn – are all bound for the Grade 3, $400,000 Fantasy on April 13 at Oaklawn.

Cosmic Burst picked up 50 points for the Kentucky Oaks with her win in the Honeybee. She won by 1 3/4 lengths over Amy’s Challenge, a multiple stakes winner who was making her two-turn debut. Cosmic Burst earned a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 84.

“Considering the quality of the competition in the race, I was very pleased, very excited, with the way she ran,” said Donnie Von Hemel, who trains Cosmic Burst for Norma Lee Stockseth and Todd Dunn. “There were several stakes winners in there.

“Going forward, I think the Fantasy is the main thing we want to concentrate on now. Stockseth and Dunn, they have been coming to Oaklawn for a lot of years. It was exciting to win a graded stakes race here, the Honeybee, and I think it would mean a lot to them to be able to run in, and possibly win, the Fantasy.”

Trained by Mac Robertson, Amy’s Challenge had won her three career starts going into the Honeybee, including a stakes over males.

Sassy Sienna was a 9 1/2-length allowance winner in January at Oaklawn before running second in the track’s $125,000 Martha Washington in February, then third in the Honeybee.

“She came out of the Honeybee in great shape and we feel like she earned the opportunity to take that next step to the Fantasy,” trainer Brad Cox said.