Ocean Atlantique heads to Kentucky Cup Classic with 99 Beyer in prep
Ocean Atlantique’s career has taken him across the Atlantic Ocean and back to the state of his birth. The well-traveled gelding earned his first U.S. stakes win, and first for his current connections, on Saturday night in the Dust Commander Stakes at Turfway Park.
His dominant performance earned one of the top Beyer Speed Figures of this season at the track and has stamped him as a candidate for the $300,000 Kentucky Cup Classic, part of Turfway’s stakes-heavy program on March 25.
Ocean Atlantique, from the first crop of Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, was a seven-figure juvenile purchase at Arqana and spent the early part of his career campaigning in France. As a 3-year-old in 2020, he won the Prix de Suresnes and finished second in the Group 3 Prix la Force. He came to the United States to race in 2021, and changed hands that summer, with current owner Three Diamonds Farm purchasing him for $180,000 at the Fasig-Tipton July horses of racing age sale and placing him with trainer Mike Maker.
Ocean Atlantique came off a long layoff in 2022 to hit the board in three starts in New York, on both turf and dirt, but has recently found his stride on Turfway’s Tapeta. The gelding was fourth in a December allowance race before scoring a pacesetting allowance win Jan. 21. In the Dust Commander on Saturday night, he again raced on the lead and kicked away in the stretch to win by 5 1/4 lengths.
Ocean Atlantique earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 99 in the Dust Commander, the highest for a still-active horse at the Turfway Park season that opened in late November. The only higher figures have been a pair of 102s earned by Visitant, who was retired to stud in California this month.
The Dust Commander serves as a local prep toward the Kentucky Cup Classic. Maker has saddled the winner of that race three times – Furthest Land in 2009, Camelot Kitten in 2018, and King Cause last year.
* Nominations close Thursday for Turfway’s $150,000 John Battaglia Memorial for 3-year-olds, and the $150,000 Cincinnati Trophy for sophomore fillies. Both races will be run March 4. The Battaglia awards points toward the Kentucky Derby on the 20-8-6-4-2 scale, with the sister race awarding Kentucky Oaks qualifying points on the same basis. The races are local preps toward the track’s major points races, the Grade 3, $700,000 Jeff Ruby (100-40-30-20-10) and the $300,000 Bourbonette Oaks (50-20-15-10-5) on March 25.
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