Sky Promise closes from far back, then holds off Campaign to win Temperence Hill

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - The running style Sky Promise had been employing in recent times was one of the reasons trainer Robertino Diodoro decided to point the Canadian champion to the inaugural $125,000 Temperence Hill at Oaklawn Park.

The move paid dividends on Friday, when Sky Promise won by a neck over Campaign in the 1 1/2- race run before an empty grandstand. There were no ontrack spectators admitted to the races Friday, with the policy to be the same here Saturday and Sunday as Oaklawn and tracks around the country attempt to navigate the coronavirus pandemic. A decision on spectators for Thursday’s card could be made Monday or Tuesday, according to an official with Oaklawn.

The Rebel, a Kentucky Derby points race Saturday, will run be run as scheduled at Oaklawn.

Sky Promise, who won the Sovereign Award as Canada’s champion 3-year-old of 2018, came into the Temperence Hill off a runner-up finish in a local optional claimer at a mile and a sixteenth, closing from 16 lengths back to miss by a half-length.

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“When you run this far you have to have a horse who can relax,” Diodoro said after the Temperence Hill. “The last half-dozen starts, he’s just been further out of it and relaxing and I think that’s a big part of running this far.”

Sky Promise ($14.40) trailed early as Tone Broke took the lead and set fractions of 25.45 seconds for the opening quarter, 50.19 for the half-mile, 1:15.01 for six furlongs, and 1:40.38 for a mile, pushed along by Changi and Remembering Rita. Sky Promise unleashed a determined bid on the final turn under Orlando Mojica, split horses into the stretch, moved past new leader Remembering Rita, then just held off a charging Campaign.

“That was awesome,” said Diodoro. “Great ride by Orlando. That was very exciting.”

Sky Promise covered the distance on a sloppy, sealed track in 2:33.

“He’s one of those horses, when they come this far out of it, need little pace to run at,” Diodoro said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a mile or mile and half.

“I think the whole race changed the first 10 jumps out of the gate when the two horses outbroke Remembering Rita. That was the game changer for us. I really thought when the Form came out that Remembering Rita was going to gallop around on the front end. That’s what I was really scared of. So, again, the old saying, it’s run on dirt, not paper.”

Remembering Rita finished third, 1 ¾ lengths behind Campaign.

Sky Promise is a 5-year-old son of Sky Mesa who races for the partnership of Rick Wiest, Clayton Wiest, R 6 Stable and Norman Tremblay. He was winning his fifth career stakes race in the Temperence Hill and has now won 7 of 28 starts for earnings of $455,899.

Diodoro said Sky Promise could point for the $115,000 Champions Day Marathon, a mile and a half race April 28 at Churchill Downs.

Sky Promise secured his Sovereign Award for sweeping the three major races for 3-year-olds in Western Canada, including the Grade 3 Canadian Derby.

Handle on the nine-race program from all sources Friday was $4 million.