Last Samurai returns to work for 6-year-old campaign

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Last Samurai, a $2.2 million earner who won two-thirds of the handicap series last season at Oaklawn Park, is back on the work tab in Arkansas.

He is gearing up for a 6-year-old campaign, but there is not a specific target for his return, trainer Eddie Milligan Jr. said Tuesday.

“I worked him a half-mile last weekend and he handled it well,” Milligan said. “We’re moving forward.”

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Last Samurai went in 48.60 seconds Feb. 23. His first published work back was three-eighths in 37 seconds Feb. 16. Last Samurai is preparing for his first start since August, when he was sixth in the Whitney at Saratoga.

Last fall, Milligan became a private trainer for Kevin Horton, who races under the stable name Willis Horton Racing in honor of his late father. Last Samurai had previously been based with D. Wayne Lukas, who operates a public racing stable.

Last Samurai won last year’s Razorback Handicap and Essex at Oaklawn.

Horton and Milligan do have a runner pointing for this year’s Grade 3, $600,000 Essex on March 23. Milligan said Seize the Night, who was the runner-up in the recent Fifth Season, is on deck for the race.

Other stakes runners for the barn include Tapit Jenallie, who was second in the Grade 3 Honeybee last Saturday. Milligan said she is being pointed toward the Grade 3, $750,000 Fantasy on March 30.

“I thought she ran really well,” Milligan said of the Honeybee, “and look for her to get a little better and a little better.”

Tapit Jenallie, who won the My Trusty Cat last year at Delta Downs, is a homebred daughter of Tapit. She is out of the mare Take Charge Tressa, who is a half-sister to champion Take Charge Brandi and a full sister to Arkansas Derby winner Omaha Beach.

Magic Grant, a stakes winner last fall who is coming off a 10th-place finish in the Grade 2, $1.25 million Rebel on Saturday, will return to the overnight ranks for his next start, said Milligan.

Milligan is scheduled to base in Kentucky following Oaklawn, which is the home track for Horton.

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