Oaklawn Park: Aireofdistinction in the hunt for 5th straight win
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Aireofdistinction has not lost since moving back to dirt in November, and when she runs Sunday in the $100,000 Carousel Stakes at Oaklawn Park, she will be seeking her fifth consecutive win. Aireofdistinction is part of a seven-horse field for the filly and mare sprint, which continues the $3.3 million Racing Festival of the South.
Others set to start in the six-furlong Carousel include stakes winners Ms Anna Destiny and Livi Makenzie, as well as the multiple-Grade 3-placed Speedinthruthecity.
Aireofdistinction flirted with turf last summer at Saratoga, when she was making her first two starts for trainer Steve Asmussen, finishing third in a pair of maiden races in her fifth and sixth career outs. But she ratcheted up her game when put back on the dirt by promptly winning her maiden by 5 1/2 lengths Nov. 6 at Churchill Downs.
“I think my couple turf tries, they were solid but not who she is on the dirt,” said Asmussen.
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Aireofdistinction, who races for Gillian S. Campbell, proceeded to win a first-level allowance Nov. 30 at Fair Grounds; a second-level allowance Jan. 18 at Oaklawn; and the $100,000 Spring Fever Stakes, also at Oaklawn, in her most recent start Feb. 22. In the Spring Fever Stakes, she showed determination winning by a nose winner over Chortle.
Ricardo Santana Jr. was aboard and has the mount again from post 6.
Aireofdistinction has natural speed and could get a tracking trip behind Jury Wise, who breaks from the rail, and perhaps Livi Makenzie.
Asmussen, who has won five runnings of the Carousel, will also send out Speedinthruthecity, a romping winner of an Oaklawn allowance March 8 in her first race since July. She has now won three of her last four starts, with her one loss during that time frame a third-place finish in the Grade 3 Azalea Stakes at Calder. Luis Quinonez has the mount for Winchell Thoroughbreds.