Oaklawn Park: Rosario to ride Strong Mandate in Southwest Stakes

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Joel Rosario will ride Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes winner Strong Mandate in the Grade 3, $300,000 Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park on Feb. 17, trainer D. Wayne Lukas said. The race will be Strong Mandate’s first since he finished third under Rosario to New Year’s Day in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita on Nov. 2.

It was the first time Rosario had teamed with Strong Mandate, who last September was a 9 1/4-length winner of the Hopeful at Saratoga. The horse has been working sharply toward his 3-year-old debut and will have his final major prep for the Southwest early next week at Oaklawn.

“The weather is going to dictate a little bit of this, but he’s shooting for a Monday or Tuesday work,” Lukas said. “That will be his last one. He’s pretty fit.”

Strong Mandate’s most recent drill was a bullet half-mile in 48.60 seconds Sunday. Before that work, he breezed five furlongs in 1:00.40 on Jan. 27, the fastest move of 60 at the distance that morning at Oaklawn.

Strong Mandate is the lone Oaklawn-based runner listed as an individual betting interest in Pool 2 of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager, which opens Thursday. He races for Robert Baker and William Mack.

[ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Prep races, point standings, replays]

The Southwest field also could include the Fair Grounds-based Tapiture, the winner of the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes; Chitu, undefeated in two starts, both for Tanma Corp. and trainer Bob Baffert; Bourbonize, another 2-for-2 colt, coming off an allowance win at Oaklawn; Ride On Curlin, the third-place finisher in the Grade 1 Champagne; Dunkin Bend, the Grade 3 Sapling Stakes winner; Louies Flower, the winner of the $250,000 Springboard Mile at Remington Park; Paganol, an impressive debut winner at Oaklawn; and Tanzanite Cat, Walt, and Coastline, the first three finishers in the $150,000 Smarty Jones Stakes last month at Oaklawn.

Trainer Bret Calhoun said either Son of a Preacher, who was fourth in the Smarty Jones, or Son of Dixie, third in a recent allowance at Oaklawn, could return in the Southwest. Fire Starter, the fifth-place finisher in the Smarty Jones, is a candidate for the race, said his trainer, Steve Hobby.