Streamline targets Pippin repeat

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Streamline was a useful horse on grass but has taken her game to another level since being moved to dirt, and on Saturday at Oaklawn Park, she will shoot for a repeat win in the $125,000 Pippin Stakes.

“It was a great ride last year, and hopefully we can get back on the ride this year and do even better,” said trainer Brian Williamson.

Streamline was a 15-1 outsider when she unleashed a stretch move to take last year’s Pippin by a neck. This year, she figures to go favored against five other fillies and mares in the 1 1/16-mile feature. Her rivals include Terra Promessa, the winner of last season’s Grade 3 Fantasy at Oaklawn, and Miss Mo Kelly, who fired a career race in winning last month’s $100,000 She’s All In at Remington Park.

The Pippin is the first local prep for the Grade 1, $600,000 Apple Blossom, a race in which Streamline ran second last year. She closed out 2016 with a runner-up finish in the Grade 2 Falls City at Churchill Downs in November. Those races were way up the ladder from the modest optional claimers Streamline won when she went 3 for 6 on turf in 2015.

“Her mother was a turf horse, won a turf stakes, and I was thinking all along she was a turf horse,” Williamson said. “She won first time running on turf. I finally ran her on the dirt at Hawthorne right before I came here the previous year, and she won by 15, won in a gallop.”

Since that allowance on Dec. 8, 2015, it’s been all dirt all the time for Streamline.

Pippin Stakes (Race 8)

KEY CONTENDERS

Streamline, by Straight Line

Last 3 Beyers: 80-78-96

◗ Streamline followed up last year’s win in the Pippin with a close second in the Grade 3 Bayakoa and a close third in the Grade 2 Azeri before she played runner-up to Forever Unbridled in the Apple Blossom.

“It was a pleasant surprise to see her run that good on the dirt [at Hawthorne], then come here and just do awesome – training and running so good,” Williamson said.

◗ Streamline, who races for her breeder, Nancy Vanier, and Cartwright Thoroughbreds, will break from the rail under Chris Landeros. She has more natural speed than a number of her rivals and figures to be prominent, perhaps tracking Terra Promessa and She Mabee Wild.

“What’s nice is that she has that tactical speed,” Williamson said. “She’s not a horse that needs the lead. She’s pretty good about anything.”

Ready to Confess, by More Than Ready

Last 3 Beyers: 81-88-85

◗ She moves into the ranks of older females after closing out her 3-year-old season with a third-place finish to Family Tree in the $300,000 Zia Park Oaks on Nov. 23.

◗ Joe Rocco Jr. has the mount for Pin Oak Stable and trainer Donnie Von Hemel.

Oaklawn will have 50-cent corned beef sandwiches on Saturday as part of a popular ontrack promotion held each opening weekend.