Oaklawn Park: Call Pat brings solid form into Thursday's feature

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Call Pat will be seeking her second win of the Oaklawn Park meet on Thursday, when she takes on the promising Tapit’s World and Ode to a Skylark in the eighth race at 1 1/16 miles. She’s one of eight fillies and mares making up the optional $35,000 claiming race which carries second-level allowance conditions.

Oaklawn is back in action after weather conditions led the track to cancel the final five races of its program on Sunday. An overnight ice storm forced training to be scrapped Monday, when record low temperatures for March were recorded for Arkansas. The forecast for Thursday is promising, with partly cloudy skies and a high of 54 degrees.

Call Pat started her Oaklawn season with a first-level allowance win on Jan. 23. She rallied from sixth for a 1 1/2-length win in the 1 1/16-mile race, and was flattered when third-place finisher Ode to a Skylark came back to win a first-level allowance. Call Pat has raced once since, and was prominent throughout an optional $40,000 claimer before missing by a nose under regular rider Alex Birzer.

“She ran a really good race,” said Phil Sims, who owns and trains Call Pat. “She kind of laid closer than she normally does, but there wasn’t much early pace in the race. She kind of just drug Alex up there.

“She can come from off of it, too, a little bit.”

Call Pat could get an ideal stalking trip behind Ode to a Skylark, who can be closer to the pace than she found herself last time, and perhaps Tapit’s World, who worked a bullet half-mile in 47.80 seconds in her most recent breeze Feb. 24. Call Pat will break from post 6, and will be racing over what is one of her favorite racetracks, said Sims.

“She’s a Lawyer Ron, and Lawyer Ron loved it here, and she does, too,” he said.

Tapit’s World was third in a second-level allowance at Oaklawn in her most recent start Jan. 30. She must overcome the outside post, one start after breaking from the rail. Bret Calhoun trains Tapit’s World, a daughter of Tapit and the Grade 2-winning racemare Higher World. Cliff Berry has the mount for Terra Di Sienna Stables.

Ode to a Skylark was a five-length winner of a first-level allowance at Oaklawn in her last start Feb. 17. Jesus Castanon has the mount for trainer Brad Cox.