Secret Oath works five furlongs for Arkansas Derby
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – It’s starting to feel like Racing Festival of the South time at Oaklawn.
Temperatures are warming, tent structures are in place in the infield, and top 3-year-olds like Secret Oath are putting in their final works for the Arkansas Derby.
Secret Oath, who will be taking on colts for the first time in the Grade 1, $1.25 million race next Saturday, was the first worker on a clear Friday morning with temperatures in the 40s. She breezed five furlongs by herself in 1:01.
Oaklawn clockers had Secret Oath’s opening quarter in 24.20 seconds, three-eighths in 37.60, and her final quarter in 23.40. They caught her galloping out six furlongs in 1:15. The track was fast.
The Arkansas Derby will anchor a card of five stakes on what is the first day of the festival. This meet, Oaklawn is spreading the major stakes that make up the annual series over the month of April. The Grade 3, $500,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap is on April 16. The Grade 1, $1 million Apple Blossom Handicap; Grade 2, $1 million Oaklawn Handicap; and $150,000 Oaklawn Stakes for 3-year-olds will be run April 23.
“It is really a wonderful time for the racing fans here in Arkansas, to see that many good horses,” said D. Wayne Lukas, who trains Secret Oath. “It draws the good horses here and also draws shippers from all parts of the country. It’s really the signature of the whole meet.”
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The Arkansas Derby had a potential field of nine to 10 starters as of Friday morning. The draw for the 1 1/8-mile race, which awards Kentucky Derby points on a scale of 100-40-20-10, will take place Sunday. There will be a ceremonial draw of the Arkansas Derby and Grade 3, $600,000 Fantasy, scheduled to start at 12:30 p.m. Central, Oaklawn racing secretary Pat Pope said. Pope plans to card 12 or 13 races total, with first post at noon Central.
Bart Lang, the track’s stakes coordinator, on Friday had the following probables for the Arkansas Derby: Barber Road, Ben Diesel, Call Me Jamal, Chasing Time, Cyberknife, Doppelganger, Secret Oath, Un Ojo, and We the People. Possibles include Fenwick, Kavod, and The Skipper Too.
Secret Oath is a multiple stakes winner at the Oaklawn meet with some strong Beyer Speed Figures, and she has already secured enough points to hold her place in the starting gate for the Kentucky Oaks. Lukas said she is targeting the richer Arkansas Derby over the final local Oaks prep, the Fantasy, in large part because of this year’s earlier date for the Arkansas Derby. The start in the race also will give Secret Oath a start at the 1 1/8-mile distance of the Kentucky Oaks, for which she remains a candidate, Lukas said.
“That’s a little [bonus] to the deal,” he said. “The real thing is that it’s five weeks. If it had been the old system of three weeks with her makeup, I don’t know if we’d do this. Five weeks gives me the opportunity to let her recover in every way and shape from the [Arkansas] Derby itself.”
Secret Oath will tote 117 pounds as a filly facing colts, who will carry 122; nonwinners of a stakes will receive a three-pound break in the weights. Luis Contreras has the mount for Briland Farm.
Lang had a working list of eight probables for the Fantasy at 1 1/16 miles: Beguine, Bubble Rock, Dream Lith, Heartyconstitution, I Feel the Need, Magic Circle, Under the Stars, and Yuugiri. Possibles include Candy Raid, Interstatedaydream, and Sandstone.
The other stakes next Saturday are the Grade 3, $400,000 Oaklawn Mile, the Temperence Hill, and the Carousel. The early forecast is for a high of 67 degrees and a small chance of a few showers, according to AccuWeather.