Oeuvre has a lot going for her in Powerless

Even if her trainer is correct and the 3-year-old filly Oeuvre is better on turf than dirt, she still can win the $75,000 Powerless, a six-furlong dirt race for Illinois-bred fillies and mares Saturday at Hawthorne.

Oeuvre, a homebred campaigned by longtime Illinois owner Richard Perkins, showed promising 2-year-old form in 2021, but has come far forward this season since being moved into the barn of trainer Chris Block. She won her season debut on May 1 and comes into the Powerless with five wins and a third from her six races this year. That lone loss might have been Oeuvre’s strongest race. Facing 11 foes in the $471,000 Music City Stakes at Kentucky Downs, Oeuvre, who has done almost all her best work on or near the lead, rallied from ninth past all but two foes in a salty field.

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The Music City, like her two open allowance race wins before it, came on grass, and though Oeuvre, by Shackleford, has gone 3 for 3 in 2022 dirt sprints, her Beyer Speed Figures support Block’s belief regarding Oeuvre’s surface preference.

“She’s good on dirt, but I think she’s better on grass,” he said.

On Oct. 2, Oeuvre turned in her best dirt race yet, an easy six-length score in an allowance race with a basic “non-winners of three-other-than” condition. Still, she beat only five foes there while getting a favorable trip. Coming back just 20 days later against capable opposition, Oeuvre will start as an underlay.

She does, however, figure to get a perfect stalking journey under leading rider Jareth Loveberry, who should position Oeuvre just behind likely pacesetters Purr Sea and Dancin At Midnight.

Purr Sea would be dangerous if she shakes loose on the lead from post 1. She’s won all three of her Hawthorne starts, including the Showtime Deb and the Debutante over Oeuvre last fall, and while Oeuvre is a considerably better horse now than then, Purr Sea just went wire to wire Oct. 8 in an open second-level Hawthorne allowance.

Dancin At Midnight’s TimeformUS early pace figure of 114 is higher than Purr Sea’s 109, and with noted gate rider E.T. Baird aboard, Dancin At Midnight is likely to be latched onto Purr Sea from the start. This past May, Dancin At Midnight was much the best in the Third Chance, another Illinois-bred filly and mare dirt-sprint stakes at Hawthorne, but she beat lesser horses than Purr Sea and Oeuvre there and was second at odds-on in her most recent start, a Sept. 17 FanDuel allowance race.

The Powerless is race 3 with a scheduled post time of 3:44 Central.

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