Sugar Shock seeks return to form in Panthers Stakes

ALTOONA, Iowa – Local starlet Sugar Shock, victorious in Oaklawn Park’s Grade 3 Fantasy on April 5, aims to get her excellent 3-year-old campaign back on track in Saturday evening’s $75,000 Panthers Stakes.

Last seen setting the pace in Untapable’s resounding Kentucky Oaks triumph on May 2, Sugar Shock has been freshened where she first went into trainer Doug Anderson’s barn as a juvenile last year. She shows a pair of easy half-mile drills in May, most recently on Sunday, when she went in 49.58 seconds. Jockey Channing Hill, who enjoyed a great four-race run with the Candy Ride filly at Oaklawn, will be reunited with Sugar Shock, who drew the rail.

The opposition, made up of seven fillies trying to prove their mettle in advance of the Grade 3 Iowa Oaks on June 28, is headed by the Chip Woolley-trained Let Her Dance and the Hawthorne speedster Phaniebdancing. Let Her Dance showed an affinity for the local surface when dismissing six rivals by 3 1/2 lengths in the $75,000 Goldfinch, a six-furlong sprint April 26. Ridden by Shane Laviolette, Let Her Dance can be rated and will try to stay a mile in the Panthers.

Phaniebdancing, trained by Terrel Gore for RNB Racing, the connections that enjoyed great success here with Shadowbdancing, enters off a Hawthorne optional-claiming win by two lengths April 27 and is ready to have her class tested.

Dream S’more, who rides a three-race win streak for trainer Eric Reed, makes the trip from central Kentucky and has shown the ability to close ground, a potentially useful tool in this speed-laden event. David Mello, who has a meet-leading 39 wins here, takes the call.

Locally based fillies Dream Spinner, Pink Flash, Be My Honeycomb, and Perplexity all have shown ability and will aim for an upset.

Rise Up in Prairie Mile

Saturday’s co-featured $75,000 Prairie Mile, which drew 10 3-year-old colts and geldings, is an above-par renewal filled with several proven runners targeting the Grade 3, $250,000 Iowa Derby on May 28.

Rise Up, a multiple stakes winner trained by Tom Amoss, is the 5-2 morning-line favorite and ships in from Churchill Downs. Victorious in last year’s Grade 3 Delta Downs Jackpot, Rise Up crushed his opposition last out April 19 when taking Charles Town’s Robert Hilton Memorial by 10 3/4 lengths.

Trainer Steve Asmussen, who sends a pair of Winchell Thoroughbreds-owned colts up from Louisville, Ky., hopes to get the highly regarded and regally bred Gold Hawk’s season back on a winning thread. Gold Hawk, out of 2000 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner Caressing, fell off the Kentucky Derby trail when highly tried at Fair Grounds and has had a break since finishing eighth in the March 29 Louisiana Derby. Wizardly, a deep closer who dusted Oaklawn maidens by 7 1/2 lengths on April 12, joins his stablemate.

Knock Em Flat, conditioned by Donnie K. Von Hemel, has good tactical speed and will try to resume the progress he made at Oaklawn earlier this year. After running second, just a neck behind Bourbonize, in the listed Northern Spur on the April 12 Arkansas Derby undercard, Knock Em Flat dueled and faded when sixth over Churchill’s turf course May 11.

The local contingent includes Smack Smack and Russellin, who both have proven their ability around two turns and over this track. Smack Smack, who won a pair of stakes here last season for Von Hemel’s father, Don, has never run a bad race and will look forward to the one-mile trek after a fourth-place finish against older company in a May 11 optional-claiming sprint.

Russellin, 2 for 2 in Oaklawn route races this year, also will relish the added distance after chasing Cool Cowboy home when second in the May 2 Golden Circle over six furlongs.

Rounding out the deep group is the intriguing ThistleDown visitor Tairneach, the improving Arlington-based Stormy Pacific, the proven stakes commodity Lotsa Mischief, and Jessica’s Star, an impressive 1 1/4-length winner over seven furlongs on the Kentucky Derby undercard.