Rampellini: Oaklawn Park horses to watch for week of Feb. 23

Shotgun Kowboy
Trainer: C.R. Trout
Last race: Feb. 20, 8th
Finish: 1st by 3 3/4
Beyer: 95
Grade 3 winner might be sitting on his best season ever at 5. He’s won both of his starts at the meet – one off a layoff of more than five months. His latest score came in an optional $80,000 claiming route in which he defeated a field that included Grade 3 winners Carve and Suddenbreakingnews as well as stakes winners like Rocket Time.

Senior Investment
Trainer: Ken McPeek
Last race: Feb. 18, 4th
Finish: 1st by 3
Beyer: 78
He seems like a promising 3-year-old. He’s finished first in three straight two-turn races at two different tracks. In his most recent start, he displayed a strong closing kick to capture an optional $75,000 claimer over 1 1/16 miles. His dam, Plaid, a multiple stakes winner and earner of $568,217, is a past winner of the Pippin Stakes at Oaklawn.

Hard Scramble
Trainer: Steve Asmussen
Last race: Feb. 20, 6th
Finish: 4th by 7 1/2
Beyer: 58
He ran a credible fourth in his first start at 3, and that start was a useful one, as he dueled to the later stages in his two-turn debut. In his only other start, he hooked a quality group at Churchill Downs in November that included Silver Dust and Dilettante, who were fourth and fifth last Monday in the Grade 3 Southwest. Hard Scramble is from the female family of Leave a Legacy, a multiple stakes winner and earner of $537,540.

Vested Creek
Trainer: Ernie Witt II
Last race: Feb. 20, 1st
Finish: 3rd by 12 1/4
Beyer: 50
He caught a winner who simply blitzed the field on a surface kind to speed, pulling away by 11 lengths in a $25,000 maiden-claiming sprint for 3-year-olds and up bred in Arkansas. This one is a consistent sort who will be making his third start off a layoff next time.