Pippin, Fifth Season stakes top Saturday Oaklawn card

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Oaklawn Park puts on a stakes double Saturday and both races, the $150,000 Fifth Season and $150,000 Pippin, could produce starters for a pair of $1 million stakes during the track's Racing Festival of the South in April.

The Pippin, for fillies and mares at a mile, is the first local prep on the road to the Grade 1 Apple Blossom. Istan Council is part of a field of 11 on Saturday that includes Grade 1 winner Wicked Whisper. Istan Council will be looking to give her trainer, Larry Jones, his second straight Pippin win behind last year’s running with the recently retired Whoa Nellie.

Istan Council established herself as a talented sprinter early in her career, and now is finding her niche routing.

“We didn’t see anything in her that would be a route horse early, but now then, it looks like this is what she really wants to do,” Jones said. “But you know, her mother is a full sister to Mr. Nightlinger, a turf sprinter, and we never dreamed this filly was really wanting to go long.

“As she’s gotten older, she’s settling a lot better, sitting a lot better. It’s part of maturing.”

Istan Council earned one of her best Beyer Speed Figures last out, when a troubled second in the She’s All In Stakes over a mile and 70 yards on Dec. 18 at Remington. She was beaten a head and earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 86.

“She had a horrendous trip in the race in Oklahoma,” Jones said.

Istan Council will start from post 6. Luis Quinonez has the mount for breeder-owner Brereton Jones.

Wicked Whisper starts from gate 7. She became a Grade 1 winner at 2, in the Frizette at Belmont Park. Wicked Whisper enters the Pippin off a fifth-place finish in the Fort Springs over six furlongs Nov. 7 at Keeneland.

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“She’s a Grade 1 winner at a mile, so a mile seems like a nice fit to me,” trainer Steve Asmussen said. “I love how she’s working on the racetrack. I think she’ll do well.”

The Fort Springs has become a productive race, with fourth-place finisher Fair Maiden coming back in her next start to take the Grade 1 La Brea at Santa Anita.

Ricardo Santana Jr. has the mount on Wicked Whisper for Alex and JoAnn Lieblong.

Fifth Season Stakes

The Fifth Season for 4-year-olds and up could produce starters for the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap. The field is led by a sharp Hunka Burning Love following the scratch of Grade 1 winner Combatant.

Hunka Burning Love is a candidate to show the way after wiring his rivals in the Jeffrey A. Hawk Memorial on Dec. 18 at Remington Park. It was the second straight stakes win for the horse, and his fourth stakes victory overall in 2020.

David Cabrera, who is coming off the riding title at Remington, has the mount from post 5 for End Zone Athletics and trainer Karl Broberg.

Night Ops won last year’s Essex Handicap at Oaklawn and also accounted for the Grade 3 Cornhusker Handicap in July at Prairie Meadows. Night Ops was third in the 2020 edition of the Fifth Season, which was run in divisions. Pioneer Spirit won the other division, and he’s back again Saturday. He enters off a third-place finish to Hunka Burning Love in the $100,000 Delta Downs Mile on Nov. 24.

Robertino Diodoro, who trains Pioneer Spirit, said the horse should benefit from moving back to a larger mile oval after racing on the six-furlong track at Delta.

“He did not like the bullring at all,” Diodoro said.

“He’s doing well. His last couple of works have been very good at Oaklawn.”

David Cohen has the mount from post 3.

Silver State will get good support off a two-other-than allowance sprint win at Churchill Downs for which he earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 101. Last year, he ran second in the Grade 3 Lecomte and third in division of the Grade 2 Risen Star, both at Fair Grounds. Santana has the mount for Asmussen.