Oaklawn Mile winner Nu What's New possible for Alysheba

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Nu What’s New has gone from maiden winner to graded stakes winner during the course of the Oaklawn Park meet and the next frontier could be Derby Week at Churchill Downs.

Trainer Jimmy DiVito said plans for the winner of the Grade 3, $500,000 Oaklawn Mile on March 28 are not yet determined but an option is the Grade 2, $750,000 Alysheba on May 1.

“I don’t really know exactly where I’m going to go, but maybe Kentucky,” he said. “There’s a race [Derby Week], the Alysheba. It’s a mile and a sixteenth. We might try that race.”

Nu What’s New put up his best career Beyer Speed Figure at the distance, a 103, for a win in a first-level allowance at Oaklawn. He’s come to hand over the course of the meet. In his first local start, Nu What’s New won a maiden special weight at a mile Dec. 26 over next-out winner Publisher. Nu What’s New was making his first start in a dirt route and earned a Beyer of 101.

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From there, Nu What’s New won the first-level allowance by 12 1/2 lengths in an effort that sent him to the Grade 3 Razorback Handicap. He finished a bold second to Magnitude, who would go on in his next start to win the Dubai World Cup. Nu What’s New came back in the Oaklawn Mile and won by three-quarters of a length, with a Beyer of 92. On the same card, Publisher won an overnight stakes, the American Pharoah.

DiVito said there are a number of different reasons for the progression of Nu What’s New.

“I think a little patience with him,” he said. “He’s matured and he’s just getting better and better. Obviously, he likes Oaklawn. And stretching him out, he likes to get to the front, it looks like, and going long it’s easier to get to the front than it is going short.”

Nu What’s New is a son of Munnings who races for Doubledown Stable.

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