Kentucky Oaks trail begins with light Rags to Riches
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Many important races, and many excellent horses race every year at Churchill Downs, but there is no doubt the two most important days for Churchill are the first Friday and Saturday in May. The last Sunday in October opens Churchill’s 24-day fall meeting, and even there, Oaks Day and Derby Day loom large.
Sunday’s card features nothing but 2-year-old races, 11 of them, anchored by the Rags to Riches for 2-year-old fillies, which came up light, and the Street Sense for 2-year-olds, which came up heavy.
The card includes one turf-sprint allowance contest, but the other eight races are for maidens. Handicappers will find themselves staring intently at dozens of workout videos.
The Breeders’ Cup on Oct. 30 and 31 at Keeneland loudly interrupts the start of the fall meet, after which all Kentucky attention turns to Churchill, which races five-day weeks, Wednesday through Sunday. The meet closes Nov. 29 with a flurry of important stakes races: the Kentucky Jockey Club and Golden Rod for 2-year-olds; the Clark for older dirt-route horses; and the Falls City for older dirt-route fillies and mares.
The Thanksgiving card starts at 11:30 a.m. First post the other 23 race days is 1 p.m.
The Bill Mott stable stays relatively busy during Churchill fall meetings. Sovereignty won the 2024 Street Sense, while Knightsbridge debuted in November 2023 with a romping maiden win.
Mott runs three horses Sunday: Essen Lane, a good-looking first-time starter by first-crop stallion Scalding; Fullback, second to Breeders’ Cup Juvenile-bound Coach Pope in his debut; and the filly Wharfie, the 9-5 morning-line favorite for the Rags to Riches.
Carded for 1 1/16 miles around two turns on dirt, the $200,000 Rags to Riches drew seven fillies. Juana Margarita and Countthetrue exit $30,000 maiden-claiming victories. First Laugh has been based this fall with trainer Brad Cox’s Horseshoe Indianapolis string and won her debut there with a modest 56 Beyer Speed.
Wharfie earned a 74 in her maiden win at Belmont Park, but who knows what that means. Wharfie’s three foes in a one-turn mile all were racing for the first time and none has run back. Wharfie was making her second start following an even sixth in a Saratoga sprint race that probably was too short for her.
Intraosseous won a Saratoga maiden sprint in her second start but turned in a very modest run trying two turns Aug. 29 at Monmouth in the Sorority Stakes. The winner of the Sorority, Emphatic, rates as one of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies favorites and defeated Intraosseous by more than 14 lengths that day. Trainer Kinnon LaRose adds blinkers and freshened the filly.
Oh She Said Yes got a great pace setup debuting Sept. 20 in a one-turn maiden mile and made the most of it, riding the rails to 5 1/4-length score. She managed a third in the Grade 1 Alcibiades on Oct. 2 but was beaten more than 18 lengths after racing so aggressively in the early and middle stages that she ran up on the heels of Summer Starlet, and actually ran into her at the five-furlong marker.
“She wheeled back pretty quick. I was chasing some black type and I got it, but that was asking a lot,” said trainer Kenny McPeek. “Now, we’ve been able to space her [races] a little bit. She’s a good two-turn type filly.”
The Kentucky Oaks is only a half a year away.
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