Quick drills for No Parole, Serengeti Empress

A pair of Tom Amoss-trained Oaklawn Park-bound stakes runners, 4-year-old filly Serengeti Empress and 3-year-old colt No Parole, turned in major works this past weekend at Fair Grounds for their upcoming starts.

Serengeti Empress worked five furlongs in 59.60, the fastest of 40 works at the distance Saturday morning. Serengeti Empress typically is a strong work horse and this drill was no exception.

“She worked very well and came out of it in good shape, too,” Amoss said Sunday morning.

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Serengeti Empress won the 2019 Kentucky Oaks and ended her 3-year-old campaign with a solid third-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. She set the pace and was run down by Lady Apple, another Fair Grounds-based filly targeting Oaklawn stakes, in the Houston Ladies Classic on Jan. 26.

Amoss and owner Joel Politi had lined up Jose Ortiz to ride Serengeti Empress in the March 14 Azeri Stakes, but Ortiz is out with an injury and a replacement rider still is being arranged. Amoss said more might be known on that front early this week.

No Parole was the only horse to work six furlongs on Sunday morning and absolutely blitzed an in-company drill, clocking 1:11.20, as fast as you will ever see a horse work at Fair Grounds. No Parole went off alongside an undisclosed workmate, relaxed decently during the early and middle portions of the drill, and came home very strong.

“He noticeably quickened, got the last eighth in a really fast time, and same with his gallop-out,” said Amoss.

No Parole has started his career with three wins, capturing maiden and first-level dirt-sprint allowance races at Fair Grounds by double-digit lengths and most recently winning the one-mile Premier Prince over one mile at Delta Downs by 6 1/2 lengths. All three starts came in races restricted to Louisiana-breds, and races over Delta’s bull-ring oval finish through a homestretch only about a furlong long. No Parole will race over a truer route in the 1 1/16-mile Rebel Stakes on March 14 while stepping up considerably in class.

“The race at Delta was more like a breeze and it wasn’t going to carry him over to this next race,” Amoss said. “This was the work designed to get him to [the Rebel] sharp and ready. He’ll have something easier next week.”