Skelly will make one more local start in Lake Hamilton

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Skelly has some unfinished business this meet at Oaklawn Park.

The winner of the Grade 3, $500,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap for the second year in a row last Saturday could make one more local appearance, according to his trainer, Steve Asmussen.

“I’m probably going to run him back in the Lake Hamilton,” Asmussen said Tuesday. “I want to keep him at three-quarters of a mile and we know he loves Oaklawn.”

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The $200,000 Lake Hamilton is May 4.

Skelly won the race last year, in one of his four stakes victories at Oaklawn. Overall, he is 7 for 9 in Arkansas, with local earnings of $994,663. For his career, he is 9 for 14 with earnings of $1.4 million for Red Lane Thoroughbreds.

Skelly ran the opening half-mile of Saturday’s race in 43.88 seconds before going on to cover six furlongs in 1:08.82. The track was rated fast on an afternoon featuring some winds.

“It was just to his liking by watching the outcome,” Asmussen said of the surface. “Skelly-fast is how it was.”

Skelly earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 103 to go with the 105 he earned here in February for his win in the King Cotton. They are the two highest Beyers of the current meet.

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