Leading trainer Diodoro has contenders in top three Thursday races

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Oaklawn Park leading trainer Robertino Diodoro will attempt to keep the tide rolling on Thursday, when he sends out chief contenders in the track’s three richest races on the program. The card will be conducted spectator-free ontrack in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, with racing to continue here as such through at least March 30.

Diodoro sends out Hamazing Destiny in the fourth race, a $92,000 allowance for Arkansas-breds over a mile and a sixteenth. He’s also represented in the seventh race, a $91,000 first-level allowance at a mile and a sixteenth, with the entry of Aqwaam and Starship Zeus, and in the eighth, an optional $50,000 claiming route worth $92,000, with Street to Indy.

The races are all for 4-year-olds and upward.

Aqwaam brings a good deal of upside into the seventh race, which drew a field of nine. He comes off a career performance, having won a $50,000 starter allowance at 1 1/16 miles by more than five lengths March 7 at Oaklawn. Aqwaam earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 88, which is the co-highest last-race number in the field Thursday.

“He’s a nice young horse that’s getting better, and how much better he’ll get, I don’t know,” Diodoro said of the lightly raced son of Bernardini. “He definitely likes the distance and I think he’ll run good again. He’s come around, that horse.”

Aqwaam was making his first two-turn start for Diodoro. Earlier in his career, he won his maiden at a mile at Monmouth Park.

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“In the morning he trains like a horse that wants to run on,” said Diodoro.

Aqwaam set the pace on the stretchout to two turns last out, but Diodoro does not feel he’s a one-dimensional runner.

“Not necessarily,” he said.

Starship Zeus was second at this level two starts ago at Oaklawn. Orlando Mojica has been named to ride both halves of the entry for M and M Racing, the leading owner at Oaklawn.

Diodoro has won 38 races from 117 starters at the meet for a 32 percent win rate. The meet’s second-leading trainer is Steve Asmussen, with 29 wins heading into Thursday.

M and M Racing has won 18 races from 85 starts this meet, for a 21 percent win rate. Danny Caldwell and Asmussen are tied for second-leading owner, with seven wins through Sunday.

Other contenders in Thursday’s seventh race include Franknjymme, who was second at this level last time, also with a Beyer of 88. He is bidding to become the first winner for new trainer Reeve McGaughey, the son of Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey.

The eighth race, which will be run at a mile, drew a field of 11.

Street to Indy, who won over Franknjymme when the pair met Feb. 8 at Oaklawn, should vie for favoritism for Diodoro. Home Run Trick will get good support off a win in a first-level allowance Feb. 17 at Oaklawn. For the wire-to-wire score he earned a Beyer of 90.

Rotation makes his first start since capturing the Grade 3 Super Derby on Sept. 7 at Louisiana Downs. The Beyer Figure of 91 that he earned is the best last-race number in the field Thursday. Asmussen has given the mount to Ricardo Santana Jr., who leads the rider standings at Oaklawn with 35 wins. Joe Talamo ranks second with 29.

Talamo will be aboard Cashanova for trainer Brad Cox. Talamo won two of the three stakes run here Saturday – the Grade 2, $350,000 Azeri with Serengeti Empress and the $350,000 Essex Handicap with the Cox-trained Night Ops.

Talamo overall won four races on Saturday and came back and captured three Sunday.