Promise Me Silver on fence for Honeybee

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Trainer Bret Calhoun said the undefeated Promise Me Silver is scheduled to be entered in the Grade 3, $150,000 Honeybee at Oaklawn, but her status for Saturday’s race will depend on the weather. Temperatures are forecast to dip into the teens overnight Thursday and Friday, according to The Weather Channel.

Calhoun’s concern is the weather pattern. Temperatures are forecast to rise to as high as 52 degrees Saturday, leading to a freeze-thaw situation that could make for an unpredictable surface. He said he would not want a deep track for Promise Me Silver.

“I’ll probably enter her,” Calhoun said Tuesday. “I’m far from being certain I’m going to run.”

Entries were to be taken Wednesday.

Calhoun has Promise Me Silver, who has won all six of her starts, stabled at the Evangeline Training Center near Lafayette, La. If she were to pass on the Honeybee, he said she could just await the $100,000 Instant Racing at Oaklawn on April 11 or the Grade 2, $250,000 Beaumont at Keeneland on April 12.

Promise Me Silver has won five stakes in her last five starts, including the $100,000 Dixie Belle at Oaklawn in January. She races for her breeders, Robert and Myrna Luttrell.

Super Saks to Honeybee

Super Saks emerged from an impressive Monday work at Oaklawn in good order and is targeting the Honeybee, said trainer Lukas. Super Saks breezed five furlongs in a bullet 59.80 seconds on a good track. She worked by herself in the first set. Terry Thompson was aboard and has the mount in the Honeybee, said trainer D. Wayne Lukas.

Super Saks was an 11-length winner of a maiden special weight race at Oaklawn in her last start Jan. 30. She covered six furlongs in 1:10.31 and earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 90. Super Saks races for Robert Baker and William Mack. Prior to the maiden score, she was third in the Dixie Belle at Oaklawn.

◗ Ricardo Santana Jr., the leading rider at Oaklawn, has appealed a three-day suspension that was to have started Thursday and was granted a stay, state steward Stan Bowker told Arkansas Racing Commission officials during a meeting Saturday. Santana was cited for a riding infraction in the third race Feb. 22 that resulted in the disqualification of his mount, Huggins and Kissin, from second to ninth.

◗ Zee Bros, the winner of the $350,000 De Francis Memorial Dash at Laurel in November, is being pointed for the $100,000 Hot Springs Stakes at Oaklawn on Saturday, said Lukas.