Secret Oath works for Coaching Club American Oaks

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Secret Oath, the Kentucky Oaks winner who finished fourth in the Preakness, worked five furlongs in 1:00.01 Friday morning over the Oklahoma training track, her final breeze before she runs in the Grade 1, $500,000 Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga on July 23.

With regular rider Luis Saez up, Secret Oath went in splits of 12.14 seconds, 23.39, 35.68, 47.87 and galloped out six furlongs in 1:14.10.

“I was really pleased with her, that was super,” said trainer D. Wayne Lukas. “I don’t think anybody will work any better than that.”

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Secret Oath is 3 for 3 against her own gender this year and 0 for 2 against males. She won the Martha Washington and Grade 3 Honeybee at Oaklawn and defeated Nest by two lengths in the Kentucky Oaks. Against males, Secret Oath finished third in the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby and was fourth, 6 1/4 lengths behind Early Voting in the Preakness.

When she returned to Churchill, Secret Oath got back on the work tab quickly, going a half-mile in 49.60 seconds on June 1. Friday’s work was her fifth since then.

With Secret Oath and Nest, the runner-up in the Belmont Stakes, pointing to the CCA Oaks, the field is likely to be small. Butterbean, winner of the Grade 3 Iowa Oaks on July 9, and Society, winner of the Monomoy Girl Stakes on June 18 at Churchill, are the two other probables as of Friday.