Sporting Chance back to work, eyes Oaklawn road to Derby

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas has a “sporting chance” to make a significant impact during the 3-year-old series at the Oaklawn Park meet, which opens Friday. The 82-year-old’s barn houses the most accomplished young runner on the grounds in Sporting Chance, winner of the Grade 1 Hopeful in September at Saratoga.

Lukas said that Sporting Chance, whom he trains for Robert Baker and William Mack, could launch his season in either the Grade 3, $500,000 Southwest Stakes on Feb. 19 at Oaklawn or the track’s Grade 2, $900,000 Rebel on March 17. Both offer points for the Kentucky Derby.

“We want to stay here,” Lukas said Wednesday. “Shipping is a possibility, but it wouldn’t be our first choice. We’d like to prep him right here out of his own stall on a track he’s training on every day.”

Sporting Chance had his first work since the Hopeful on Tuesday at Oaklawn, breezing three-eighths in 37 seconds. Gary Stevens, the Hall of Fame rider now based in Arkansas, was aboard for the move. The horse has been back galloping 60 days since having a small bone chip, or flake, removed from a knee, Lukas said.

“I’ve been giving him long gallops and building a great foundation on him, but you always wonder as a trainer on the first work back how much foundation you’ve got,” Lukas said. “Gary got off of him and said, ‘Man, he had three, four gears. He’s a lot fitter than you think.’ That really brightened our day.”

Lukas said the manner in which Sporting Chance continues to progress will determine whether he comes out in the Southwest or Rebel.

“We’re going to just play the work tab out and let him tell us,” he said. “Gary was so positive, and if that is true the next work or two, it could move us up a week or two. If not, we’ll drop back. The thing about it is really simply this: We don’t have to go out there and find out if he can run. That’s where you’re [usually] at with a 3-year-old. I know he can run.”

Stevens was impressed with Sporting Chance, who aside from the Hopeful won a maiden special weight at Saratoga in his second start July 22.

“He’s smooth as silk and has a great mind,” Stevens said. “The reason Wayne wanted me to get on him – he didn’t want any track records or anything – it was just breaking the ice [Tuesday]. He really enjoyed himself and he’s actually got an extremely high fitness level right now for a horse that’s just been galloping. He was wanting to do a lot more than what I let him do. You can just tell that he’s ultra-classy.”

Sporting Chance has yet to race around two turns, but Lukas is looking forward to that opportunity with the son of Tiznow.

“I don’t think that’s a problem,” he said. “He’s a Tiznow out of a Candy Ride mare. But more than pedigree, it’s efficiency of motion.”

Sporting Chance was a $575,000 yearling purchase at Keeneland September in 2016.