Oaklawn Park: All About Allie has options after stakes fails to fill

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – All About Allie was willing, but the race was not able.

Entered in the $60,000 Arkansas Breeders for Sunday at Oaklawn Park, the five-time stakes winner was set to make a rare start around two turns in the 1 1/16-mile race for fillies and mares. But the stakes did not draw sufficient entries. Instead, the feature Sunday will be a $62,500 optional claiming sprint that drew two horses that were entered in the $75,000 Hot Springs Stakes here Saturday, Prime Objecitve and Outta Tune.

As for All About Allie, trainer David Whited is looking at a couple of options for her next start. Oaklawn will open the male division of the $60,000 Arkansas Breeders’ on April 1 to fillies and mares, according to racing secretary Pat Pope, and that will be an option, Whited said. Whited also said All About Allie would be considered for the $75,000 Carousel, a six-furlong sprint for fillies and mares at Oaklawn on April 12.

“We’ll weigh our options,” said Whited, who trains All About Allie for Sanders Brothers Farm.

Prime Objective, who is a half-brother to Grade 2 Saratoga Special winner Prime Directive, enters Sunday’s featured eighth race off a third-place finish in a $75,000 optional claiming sprint here Feb. 23. Alex Cintron has the mount for co-owner and trainer Tim Ritchey.
Outta Tune has dominated the starter allowance sprint ranks this meet. He won a $10,000 starter in January with a Beyer Speed Figure of 90, then backed that effort up last month. Outta Tune won a $5,000 starter in February, with a Beyer of 93.

Von Hemel charge eyes Ark. Derby

Trainer Donnie Von Hemel already has two formidable older horses in Caleb’s Posse and Alternation. Now, it looks like he might have a 3-year-old of note. Z Rockstar won a recent allowance route by 2 1/4 lengths, with a Beyer of 96. He will now head to one of two April 14 stakes at Oaklawn.

“I think the Northern Spur is the most likely course for him, but I don’t think we can rule out the Arkansas Derby, either,” Von Hemel said Wednesday. “We’ll have to see how it comes it up.

“It was a real good race for him, and just the way he came down the lane, he was going somewhere. He ran a nice race.”

◗ She’s All In, runner-up in the Grade 3, Azeri, will run next in either the Grade 1 Apple Blossom or $100,000 Redbud at Oaklawn, or the Sixty Sails at Hawthorne, Von Hemel said.