Oaklawn Park: Ride On Curlin returns with big 3-year-old races in mind

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Ride On Curlin’s road to the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby will begin Sunday at Oaklawn Park in the sixth race, a first-level allowance for 3-year-olds. The race, which will be run over six furlongs, has drawn a field of 11.

The group is a diverse one. Guns Loaded spent the summer at Del Mar and ran third in the track’s Grade 2 Best Pal. Smiling Charlie has been racing on turf at Belmont Park. I See Back was sixth last out in the Golden Nugget at Golden Gate, and Quick Dagger was an impressive debut winner at Remington Park.

Ride On Curlin last raced Oct. 27 at Churchill Downs, finishing third in the $61,800 Street Sense won by Coastline. He was favored in the one-mile race, one start after finishing third in the Grade 1 Champagne at Belmont Park.

“He hung in the stretch,” said William Gowan, who trains Ride On Curlin for Daniel Dougherty. “I knew something wasn’t right. He doesn’t run like that. He came back coughing.”

Gowan said Ride On Curlin was found to have a lung infection, was treated, and had some turnout time at a farm. He will be making his first start in 2 1/2 months Sunday.

“We gave him some R and R and let him grow up,” Gowan said. “I think he’s grown a lot. He looks good.”

Gowan has horses stabled at Oaklawn for the first time in a number of years, and said Ride On Curlin is in town for the 3-year-old series. The horse served notice of his talent in July, when he won a maiden special weight sprint at Ellis Park with a Beyer Speed Figure of 91. He would go on to run fourth in the Grade 3 Iroquois at Churchill on Sept. 7 before finishing 1 3/4 lengths behind winner Havana in the Champagne on Oct. 5.

“That was probably his best effort,” Gowan said of the Champagne. “He showed he could run with that class of horse.

“We want to get his race in him and look at the Southwest, Rebel, and Arkansas Derby. That’s what we’re hoping, if he’ll take us that far.”

Calvin Borel has the mount from post 11.

The card Sunday also includes a $62,500 optional-claiming sprint that carries third-level allowance conditions. Apropos, who won a first-level allowance at Oaklawn by 10 1/4 lengths last March, has invaded from Fair Grounds. The start Sunday will be her first since August, when she ran fifth in a restricted stakes at Saratoga.

Another chief player is Delightful Magic, a front-runner who would benefit from a better trip than she had last time, when she was steadied at the start of the $61,699 Dream Supreme at Churchill on Nov. 1.