Poker represents an audition for Oscar Performance

ELMONT, N.Y. – It’s later than perhaps planned, but Oscar Performance, a three-time Grade 1-winning turf male, will make his 4-year-old debut in Sunday’s Grade 3, $300,000 Poker Stakes at Belmont Park.

The one-mile turf race will be the first for Oscar Performance since he finished ninth in last November’s Breeders’ Cup Turf at Del Mar.

Trainer Brian Lynch said Oscar Performance had a little bit of a colic issue in May that forced him to miss a potential allowance prep for the Poker.

“Fortunately, it didn’t amount to anything, and he’s come back and had some solid works since,” Lynch said. “He seems like he’s in the game. Looking forward to kicking it off.”

Oscar Performance hasn’t run a mile since he captured the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf in 2016 at Santa Anita.

As a 3-year-old, Oscar Performance was gradually stretched out in distance to where he eventually won the Belmont Derby and Secretariat – both Grade 1 races at 1 1/4 miles.

When he faced older horses last fall, he finished third in the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic and ninth in the BC Turf, both at 1 1/2-miles.

“Towards the end of the year last year he was a 3-year-old starting to feel the wear and tear of a hard campaign,” Lynch said.

Lynch said the Poker could give him a good idea at what distances he should race Oscar Performance the remainder of the year.

“This comeback race is going to help us make that decision, whether we continue to stretch him out or keep him around a mile,” Lynch said.

Lynch said the manner in which Oscar Performance finishes the race would be a factor in that decision.

Complicating matters is that Lynch already has a talented mile turf runner in Heart to Heart, winner of the Grade 1 Maker’s 46 Mile, who is being pointed to the Grade 1 Fourstardave at Saratoga on Aug. 11.

Oscar Performance drew post 3 and will be the 124-pound highweight under Jose Ortiz. He will concede 2 to 8 pounds to a field that includes Force the Pass, Vulcan’s Forge, defending Poker winner Ballagh Rocks, Made You Look, Black Tide, Voodoo Song, and Fire Away.