McPeek sends a rested Restless Rider after elusive Kentucky Oaks win

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Ken McPeek has come tantalizingly close to the Kentucky Oaks trophy. Seventeen years ago, he led over favored Take Charge Lady, who had won all three of her prep races that season. Take Charge Lady – who went on to become a multiple Grade 1 winner and blue hen with strong ties to this year’s Kentucky Derby field – finished second to $42 upset winner Farda Amiga.

“The Oaks was her fourth race of the season,” McPeek said. “I think maybe I ran her one too many times.”

Daddys Lil Darling would go on to become a Grade 1 winner for McPeek late in her 3-year-old season in 2017. But before that, she was a rallying second to eventual divisional champion Abel Tasman in the Oaks. It was Daddys Lil Darling’s third start of the season.

McPeek sends out Restless Rider for this year’s Oaks on Friday. Unlike with Take Charge Lady and Daddys Lil Darling, McPeek has given Restless Rider just one prep for the Oaks. He says Restless Rider is faster than Daddys Lil Darling and “as good a shot as I’ve brought over” for the Kentucky Oaks.

The spring classics are coveted by all horsemen, but particularly by those such as McPeek who call Kentucky home. McPeek was born in Arkansas but grew up in Lexington, Ky., and attended the University of Kentucky. With barns at both Churchill Downs and Keeneland, he operates his Magdalena Farm out of Lexington.

“It’s certainly a race everybody would want to win, and we have knocked on the door,” McPeek said of the Oaks. “We’ve got our eye on it, and I think this is as good a filly as I’ve ever brought.”

In the hindsight department, McPeek admits that he may have done too much last year with Restless Rider, a Distorted Humor filly who is owned by Fern Circle Stable and Three Chimneys Farm. The filly did not finish worse than second in six starts, five of those outings in stakes company. After winning the Debutante Stakes last June at Churchill Downs, she was second in the Grade 1 Spinaway Stakes at Saratoga going seven furlongs, then won the Grade 1 Alcibiades Stakes at Keeneland while stretching out around two turns for the first time. She finished second in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Churchill Downs to eventual divisional champion Jaywalk, and, McPeek noted, finished ahead of Kentucky Oaks favorite Bellafina, who was fourth.

Three weeks later, Restless Rider came back to be second, beaten a nose by Liora, in the Grade 2 Golden Rod Stakes at Churchill Downs.

“In hindsight, I wish I hadn’t run her in” the Golden Rod, McPeek said. “She needed a little more time coming out of the fall campaign, and it put us in a position where we didn’t have her quite ready for early March.”

McPeek instead waited for the spring meet at Keeneland, where Restless Rider had scored her biggest victory. He spent the late winter watching her work in company with Signalman, a Grade 2-winning juvenile who went on to finish third in the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland.

“Those two, you can put them eyeball to eyeball and let them do their thing,” McPeek said. “That way they get a lot more out of it. . . . It’s difficult to find workmates for horses with that kind of talent.”

Off a layoff of more than four months, Restless Rider loomed a danger turning for home in the Grade 1 Ashland Stakes at Keeneland and wound up beaten a neck by Out for a Spin, with Jaywalk third.

“I think she’s spot on,” McPeek said. “She should improve off the Keeneland race. She needed that race, and I think she ran very respectably.”

McPeek had been hoping to run Signalman in the Kentucky Derby, but the colt will await the Preakness Stakes after missing the points cutoff to make the 20-horse field. McPeek still will have a rooting interest in the Derby thanks to Take Charge Lady. The mare’s foals include Charming, who is the dam of the Derby’s morning-line favorite Omaha Beach, and Grade 1 winner Take Charge Indy, the sire of Long Range Toddy.

“She was such a special filly to be around,” McPeek said. “I would love to see her family have a Derby winner. It would be unbelievable. I’m really proud of her.”

When the sun sets Friday night, McPeek may have another filly to be proud of.