Oeuvre's triumph in Third Chance Handicap no weighty matter

It turns out 128 pounds wasn’t nearly enough to stop Oeuvre from winning the Third Chance Handicap on Sunday at Hawthorne Race Course.

Oeuvre gave seven pounds to pacesetting Purr Sea in the Third Chance, a six-furlong dirt race for older Illinois-bred fillies and mares, and still breezed haughtily past her at the three-sixteenths pole. The margin was four lengths in the end, Oeuvre running six furlongs over a fast track in 1:09.61, Purr Sea coming home 2 1/4 lengths ahead of third-place Commissioner Gulch.

Oeuvre paid $2.20 winning the Third Chance for the second year in a row while adding to her remarkable Hawthorne record. The 5-year-old mare, a Richard Perkins homebred, has made eight Hawthorne starts – seven on dirt, one on turf – since Chris Block began training her in 2022, and has won them all.

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The mare, by Shackleford out of Love This Kitten, by Kitten’s Joy, does not merely fatten up on Illinois-breds. Oeuvre has won five open stakes races, on both dirt and turf, and on Sunday ran her career mark to 28-16-4-3. The $45,000 winner’s share of a $75,000 purse boosted her earnings over $847,000.

Purr Sea was quick to take a lead in the Third Chance, racing unchallenged through a half-mile in 45.74, but Orlando Mojica had Ouevre positioned in second, a couple lengths behind the leader, and looked utterly confident going around the turn. Oeuvre has been heavily campaigned the last several years and carried a hefty amount of weight Sunday, but this race was over in short order once Mojica asked his mount to kick out of cruise control. An iron horse, a win machine, Oeuvre is too much mare for Illinois-breds, as she demonstrated again Sunday.

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