Oaklawn Park: Sugar Shock seeks redemption in Fantasy

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Sugar Shock will be out for a measure of revenge at Oaklawn Park next Saturday, when she runs in the Grade 3, $400,000 Fantasy. She had finished first in the local prep, the Grade 3, $150,000 Honeybee on March 8, but was disqualified and placed second after drifting out in the stretch and impeding a rival. Sugar Shock gets her second shot at graded glory in the Fantasy, which opens Oaklawn’s annual Racing Festival of the South.

The Fantasy, a 1 1/16-mile prep for the Kentucky Oaks, is the first of nine major stakes to be run over the final week of the Oaklawn meet that closes April 12. The races are worth a cumulative $3.3 million. Flights bringing horses from both coasts for various stakes are scheduled to arrive next week, with Florida runners due April 8 and California horses April 9. The carrier is Tex Sutton Forwarding Company.

Sugar Shock is expected to face Stopchargingmaria, a Grade 2 winner for Repole Stable and trainer Todd Pletcher, as well as the second-, third-, and fifth-place finishers from the Honeybee; Euphrosyne, who was placed first; Please Explain, and Courageous Julie. The field will be drawn Wednesday.

Sugar Shock had won a maiden special weight and a first-level allowance at Oaklawn in her starts preceding the Honeybee. She was making her two-turn debut in the stakes, and after breaking from post 11 was prominent throughout to finish first by a neck. Doug Anderson, who trains the filly for On Cloud Nine, chalked the drifting up to Sugar Shock running greenly.

“That’s about all we can come up with,” he said.

Anderson said there was some thought that Sugar Shock might have shied from the starting gate parked on a pad in the infield, so he worked her between races March 22 to simulate such conditions.

“That’s kind of why we wanted to work in between races. The gate was sitting there,” he said. “It didn’t bother her one bit. I thought she just worked fantastic. She never moved off the rail.”

Sugar Shock was timed in 46.40 seconds for the half-mile drill. Channing Hill has the mount in the Fantasy, said Anderson.

Oaklawn’s other festival stakes include the Grade 3, $300,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap on April 10; the Grade 1, $600,000 Apple Blossom on April 11; and the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby and Grade 2, $600,000 Oaklawn Handicap on April 12.

HRTV will be onsite April 11-12, said Jennifer Hoyt, spokesperson for Oaklawn.

The festivities on Arkansas Derby Day will include an appearance by cast and crew members of the new Mine That Bird movie “50 to 1.”

Gold Medal Dancer eyes Keeneland

Gold Medal Dancer, who impressively won her 4-year-old debut in a deep allowance March 20, could see action next at Keeneland, according to her trainer, Donnie Von Hemel. For her effort in the Oaklawn race, in which she defeated Grade 3 winner Imposing Grace, she earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 82.

Gold Medal Dancer, who last year ran second in the $200,000 Remington Park Oaks and $300,000 Zia Park Oaks, is a winner on dirt, turf, and Polytrack, noted Von Hemel, and would be nominated to suitable turf and Polytrack stakes at Keeneland, including the Grade 3, $100,000 Doubledogdare.

Grisham suffers stroke

Don Grisham, 83, a retired Daily Racing Form columnist and staple at Oaklawn Park, suffered a stroke on Thursday night, according to Hoyt. Grisham was taken to a local hospital, but had to be care flighted to a larger facility.