Keepmeinmind uncertain for rescheduled Southwest Stakes

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Keepmeinmind’s status for the postponed Southwest Stakes next week at Oaklawn Park will be determined by the status of training here.

Horses were last able to train over the Oaklawn surface on Feb. 11. A winter storm has since moved into the region, forcing the cancellation of five days of training through Tuesday and eight days of racing through Feb. 21.

The Southwest’s date has been moved twice from its original Feb. 15 spot on the calendar and will now be run next week on a date that had not yet been announced by Oaklawn as of the close of business Tuesday.

Keepmeinmind, winner of the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes last November at Churchill Downs and the top 3-year-old based at Oaklawn, had been one of three leading Kentucky Derby hopefuls scheduled to launch their seasons in the Southwest. The others are champion Essential Quality and multiple Grade 1 winner Jackie’s Warrior. Of the three, Keepmeinmind is the lone horse currently stabled at Oaklawn, which is the winter base of trainer Robertino Diodoro, who won the local title in 2020.

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“For us to run, we need to be on the track on the weekend and we’ll just play our cards from there,” Diodoro said Tuesday. “Our plan is still to run in it. But I really can’t see us running next weekend if we’re not on the track by Saturday.

“Running in the Southwest is our goal, and we want to stay at Oaklawn, but that’s not our number one goal. Our number one goal is to do what’s right for the horse, and horses. No one can control Mother Nature.”

Diodoro said the alternate plan for Keepmeinmind would be to await the Grade 2, $1 million Rebel Stakes, which is set for March 13 at Oaklawn. Both races will be run over 1 1/16 miles. The Southwest offers its winner 10 points for the Kentucky Derby and the Rebel, 50.

Diodoro on Tuesday was taking in the winter storm from his office at Oaklawn. The snow is hardly foreign to the native of Canada.

“This is the exact same kind of weather I was born and raised in,” he said. “Everything is made for it up there. Nothing is made for this kind of weather around here. This is crazy.

“If you don’t have four-wheel drive, I don’t think you want to be going anywhere around town.”

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The snowfall in Hot Springs is expected to continue through Thursday, with another four to eight inches in the forecast from The Weather Channel.

The situation complicates approaching a race like the Southwest.

“It’s the hand we’ve been dealt with and it’s not an easy hand to play,” Diodoro said. “It’s a tough situation because you want to run. The financial part plays into it, there’s big money here, and this and that. At the same time, one of our jobs as a trainer is to do what’s right by the horse and put the horse first. If these horses aren’t properly prepared and just go up there, you can injure them, or at least increase the chances of injuring them. It’s a very tough deal.

“If we’re not comfortable, we’re not running in the Southwest. We’ll just wait for the Rebel.”

Essential Quality and Jackie’s Warrior have both been working at the warmer locale of Fair Grounds in New Orleans. Trainer Steve Asmussen said Tuesday that Jackie’s Warrior remained on deck for the Southwest and that he would be ridden by Joel Rosario.

– additional reporting by Jay Privman