Motion Emotion looks to cap big meet with Fantasy Stakes score

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Motion Emotion has established herself as a 3-year-old filly of note this season at Oaklawn Park, and to win the meet’s biggest prize for her division, the Grade 3, $500,000 Fantasy on Friday, she will have to contend with invaders from the East in Oxy Lady and the West in Brill.

The Fantasy, the last chance to collect points for the Kentucky Oaks, opens the three-day Racing Festival of the South. The series of six stakes worth a cumulative $3.6 million includes the Arkansas Derby on Saturday and the Apple Blossom Handicap on Sunday.

The Fantasy will be run over 1 1/16 miles, and the first four finishers will earn Oaks points on a scale of 100-40-20-10. The race drew 12, including K P Slickem, the runner-up in the Sunland Park Oaks; Orra Moor, third in the Busher Invitational at Aqueduct; and Lady Apple, looking for her third straight win at Oaklawn.

Fantasy (Race 8)

KEY CONTENDERS

Motion Emotion, by Take Charge Indy
Last 3 Beyers: 80-84-83

◗ In her three starts this meet, she’s won a maiden special weight sprint, an allowance route, and finished second by a length in the Grade 3, $200,000 Honeybee. She has 20 points for the Kentucky Oaks.

“We’ve always thought she had talent,” said Tom Van Berg, who trains Motion Emotion for Mark DeDomenico.

◗ Motion Emotion has set the pace in her three local starts. Last out, after breaking from the inside, she put up quick, pressured fractions in the Honeybee. While there appears to be a good deal of pace in the Fantasy, Motion Emotion is not one-dimensional, said Van Berg.

“She doesn’t need to be on the lead,” he said. “The best thing about her is her mind. She’s got a high cruising speed. She’s got a great mind. It looks like she has to go to the lead, like she’s a speed freak, and she really isn’t.”

◗ Mike Smith has the mount from post 8.

Oxy Lady, by Oxbow
Last 3 Beyers: 79-66-77

◗ She is the most accomplished member of the field as a Grade 3 winner, having taken the Tempted in November at Aqueduct. It was the first stakes win for Jack Sisterson, who last year became a private trainer for Calumet Farm. Oxy Lady is a homebred by Preakness winner Oxbow.

“Oxbow has played a huge part in Oxy Lady being a graded stakes winner,” said Sisterson. “He can produce a runner. Gary Stevens, my good friend and mentor, called me right after the filly won at Aqueduct and [said she] reminded him of Oxbow because of her determination to win.”

Stevens was aboard Oxbow in the Preakness.

◗ Oxy Lady is stretching back out to two turns off a runner-up finish in the Busher on March 9 and will break from post 12. Sisterson said the strategy will be in the hands of Declan Cannon, who was aboard in the Tempted.

“Declan knows her well,” Sisterson said. “He’s ridden her twice. She’s got a lot of speed, will relax at the same time. She’s very adaptable.”

Brill, by Medaglia d’Oro
Last 3 Beyers: 84-72-59

◗ She’s moving back to two turns for her second start of the year, and when she last routed, she was third to Bellafina in the Grade 1 Chandelier in September at Santa Anita. Florent Geroux has the mount for trainer Jerry Hollendorfer.