Sporting Chance sharp in work for Southwest

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Sporting Chance, the most accomplished young horse on the grounds at Oaklawn as the winner of last year’s Grade 1 Hopeful at Saratoga, put in a sharp final work Monday for his 3-year-old debut. He is being pointed for the Grade 3, $500,000 Southwest on Feb. 19.

Oaklawn opened for training at 9 a.m. – a late start after freezing temperatures overnight – and Sporting Chance was one of the first workers. The track was muddy and sealed. He went five furlongs in 1:00.40, reaching out nicely through the stretch. Oaklawn clocker Ronnie Morse had the horse’s final quarter in 23.80 seconds.

“He’s as far along as I can get him,” said trainer D. Wayne Lukas. “I may get a surprise coming off that six month layoff – going a mile and a sixteenth is tough – but he’s a quality horse and I think that I’ve got him moving in the right direction. I think it’s probably time to step up and see where we’re at.”

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Luis Saez, who has ridden Sporting Chance in his last two starts – both wins – has the mount. The pair won the Hopeful by a neck after Saez was nearly unseated when Sporting Chance reacted to a left-handed stick nearing the wire in the seven-furlong race on Sept. 4.

“Luis hit him left-handed, low, and . . . instead of hitting him in the flank, I think he caught him a little on the belly, and he’d never been hit before,” Lukas said. “We never hit him in the morning and we never hit him in a race. So, I think it startled him, and the reason I say that is because he had that one stride and then he rebroke again and went to running again and galloped out strong.”

Sporting Chance is a son of Tiznow who races for Robert Baker and William Mack.

Lukas also had 3-year-old Bravazo out for a work Monday at Oaklawn, going a half-mile in 47.80 seconds. Oaklawn head clocker Jim Hamilton had the horse galloping out five furlongs in 1:00.80. Bravazo, a neck winner of a first-level allowance here on Jan. 13, is entered in the Grade 2, $400,000 Risen Star on Saturday at Fair Grounds.