Marathon starter allowance the meet's long goodbye

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Oaklawn Park saved the best for last on Sunday.

The track will close its meet with an excellent betting race, the $125,000 Trail’s End starter allowance, which has drawn a well-matched field of 14.

It’s the traditional farewell race to the season – and one filled with pageantry. During the post parade, the horses stop and face the grandstand as Auld Lang Syne plays. From there, it’s off to the starting gate for a three-turn starter allowance that keeps the meet lingering for just a little longer.

“It’s just a special, special race,” said Tom Van Berg, who will saddle Indian Gulch. “You could almost consider it a stakes race.”

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Original Intent, who won last year’s Trail’s End when the purse was $75,000, is back for the 1 3/4-mile test for 3-year-olds and up who have started for a claiming price of $10,000 or less in 2021-22. His rivals include Blueridge Mountain, a winner of back-to-back routes; Leader of Men, who is a half-brother to multiple Grade 1 winner Hoppertunity; and Venture Forth.

Indian Gulch was claimed with this spot in mind, Van Berg said. Grit to Glory Racing took him for $12,500 out of a mile race Dec. 23 at Turfway Park. The start came following Indian Gulch’s win over two miles on Dec. 1 at Mountaineer, making him proven at a marathon distance.

“We know that part of the equation,” Van Berg said.

The other will be how the surface is playing Sunday.

“If there’s more depth to it, the better off for him,” Van Berg said.

Indian Gulch enters the Trail’s End off a $10,000 starter-allowance win over 1 1/16 miles on April 24 at Keeneland. He closed from last with a sustained run and won by a nose, earning a Beyer Speed Figure of 87. It’s the best last-race number in the field Sunday.

“He made a move around the turn, showed what he was capable of,” Van Berg said.

Indian Gulch will break from post 6 on Sunday, under Francisco Arrieta.

“I think he’ll probably settle in seven or eight [lengths] off the leaders,” Van Berg said. “Not too far back. I’ll let Francisco figure that out. Last time, he was a little farther back than” usual.

Van Berg speaks for many in racing when he says he enjoys the challenge of the Trail’s End.

“Year after year, people point for it,” he said. “There’s the puzzle pieces of finding that horse that can [run that far] and that’s eligible for it. Then you have to open the gate and see what they can do.”

Original Intent ran one of the best races of his career in last year’s Trail’s End, earning a peak Beyer Speed Figure of 87. He’s back at Oaklawn after finishing fourth in the $75,000 Stud Muffin on March 26 at Aqueduct. Original Intent closed from well back in the race run over 1 3/8 miles.

“He kind of didn’t get the best of breaks there,” trainer Bentley Combs said. “He came running.”

Martin Garcia has the mount from post 4 for Ten Strike Racing.

◗ The Budweiser Clydesdales are scheduled to parade between races Sunday.