Oaklawn Park: Don't Tell Sophia on a roll for Bayakoa

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Don’t Tell Sophia is one of the kindest mares stabled at Oaklawn Park – a gentle giant quick to greet visitors with a motherly nuzzle. But on the racetrack she’s fierce, and on Sunday she will be looking for her third stakes win in her last four starts when she runs in the $100,000 Bayakoa.

The Bayakoa, a 1 1/16-mile stakes for fillies and mares, drew a field of 10, among them Grade 3 winners Imposing Grace, Sisterly Love, and Dixie Strike. For some in the field, the race is a building block to the Grade 1, $600,000 Apple Blossom here April 11.

“We’re stair-stepping to the Apple Blossom,” said Phil Sims, who co-owns and trains Don’t Tell Sophia.

Don’t Tell Sophia, who also races for Jerry Namy, won the Bayakoa last year with a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 101. She comes into this year’s edition in equally sharp form, having won the Grade 2 Chilukki at Churchill Downs three races back Nov. 2. She defended her title in the $100,000 Pippin in her 6-year-old debut on Jan. 18 by rallying from 10 lengths back for a 1 1/2-length.

“I guess the race was picture-perfect for her,” Sims said.

Sims said he’d like to see a similar trip Sunday. Don’t Tell Sophia will break from the rail, under jockey Channing Hill.

“I have no issue with the post,” Sims said. “She’s going to fall out of the gate, anyway, like she always does, and come from off of it.”

Don’t Tell Sophia had her final work for the Pippin on Wednesday afternoon, when the track opened late and she breezed first after the renovation break, getting a half-mile in a bullet 47.60 seconds. She eased into the drill with an opening quarter in 25 seconds, then came home her final eighth-mile in 11 seconds, according to clockers. She galloped out five furlongs, around dogs set up on the first turn, in 1:00.

“It was a nice little maintenance work,” Sims said. “She did it easy . . . kind of her typical work.”

Sister Ginger, who won last year’s Martha Washington over multiple graded stakes winner Rose to Gold, will be making her second start since running fourth in the $300,000 Zia Park Oaks on Nov. 27. She was third in the Pippin in her 4-year-old debut Jan. 18.

“I was very pleased with her first start of the year,” said Steve Asmussen, who trains Sister Ginger for Millennium Farms.

Ricardo Santana Jr. has the mount from post 8.