Kentucky Oaks not in plans for Purely a Dream

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Although Purely a Dream earned enough qualifying points in winning the Grade 3 Bourbonette Oaks last Saturday at Turfway Park to become a starter in the Kentucky Oaks, that’s highly unlikely to happen, trainer Ken McPeek said this week from his winter base at Oaklawn Park.

“We didn’t even bother to nominate her,” said McPeek, who watched the Bourbonette from his hotel room in Dubai on the Horse Races Now app he founded.

In winning the Bourbonette, Purely a Dream earned 50 points toward the May 5 Kentucky Oaks, which suddenly appears far more competitive with the untimely recent defection of Unique Bella.

“I’ve got this filly pigeonholed as a grass horse,” said McPeek. “Her only race on the dirt was not good at all. I’m going to run her next in the Appalachian,” a one-mile turf race on April 13 at the Keeneland meet.

McPeek also trains the Bourbonette runner-up, Awesome Boss, who goes next in an allowance race, as well as the longshot runner-up in the Spiral Stakes, Blueridge Traveler, who could make his next start April 15 in the Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn.

“The owner is from Hot Springs,” said McPeek, referring to Ross Whipple of Horizon Stables. “We’re also talking about the possibility of running instead in the Illinois Derby or the Lexington, but we’re leaning toward Oaklawn. At this point, he hasn’t shown me he’s a Kentucky Derby horse, but he is a good, improving colt, really handsome. I imagine if he jumped up and ran another big race in the Arkansas Derby, we’d sit down and talk about it.”

McPeek has two other Kentucky Derby possibilities in Senior Investment, who runs Saturday in the Louisiana Derby at Fair Grounds, and It’s Your Nickel, a Dialed In colt being pointed to the April 8 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland following a 6 1/2-length victory early this month in the John Battaglia Memorial at Turfway.

“I think they’re both sitting on big races,” he said.