Sweet Opportunity brings classy company lines to Friday feature

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Sweet Opportunity brings some of the best credentials into Friday’s eighth race at Oaklawn Park as a stakes-placed runner who was second last out to Kentucky Oaks hopeful Pangburn.

Sweet Opportunity is part of a nine-horse field for the first-level optional $62,500 claimer for 3-year-old fillies at a mile. Starlet O’Hara, the only other stakes-placed runner in the field, and the promising Calypso Run also are entered.

KEY CONTENDERS

Sweet Opportunity (Last 3 Beyers: 76-58-69)

◗ She enters off a first-level allowance Feb. 20 at Oaklawn in which she set the pace to the late stages of the 1 1/16-mile race.

“I thought she ran a very nice race last time,” said trainer Donnie Von Hemel. “Pangburn got the better of us at the end there, but she was in control of the race to the very end, and I thought she ran a nice race.”

◗ Pangburn has since run third in the Grade 3, $150,000 Honeybee at Oaklawn and is to run next in either the Ashland or Fantasy stakes, according to trainer Ken McPeek.

◗ Sweet Opportunity has made one stakes start, running third in the $100,000 Trapeze at Remington Park in December. The race came at the one-mile distance that she cuts back to Friday.

◗ Sweet Opportunity will break from post 5 under Luis Quinonez, and Von Hemel said the filly is versatile in that she can be with the pace or settle off the leaders.

“She rates herself,” said Von Hemel.

◗ Sweet Opportunity is a daughter of Distorted Humor who races for Wayne Sanders and Larry Hirsch.

Starlet O’Hara (Last 3 Beyers: 58-60-32)

◗ She was stakes-placed at Santa Anita in October, when she was third in the $75,000 Anoakia.

◗ Starlet O’Hara moves to two turns for the first time after splitting the field in a first-level allowance sprint at Oaklawn on Feb. 7. The race was her first out since October.

Nicely bred filly debuts

The card also has a maiden special weight race for 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/16 miles that drew the first-time starter Treasure Box, who is a half-sister to multiple Grade 1 winner On Fire Baby and Grade 2 winner High Heels.

On Fire Baby won the Apple Blossom at Oaklawn, and High Heels accounted for the Fantasy. Treasure Box is a daughter of Lemon Drop Kid. Gary Hartlage trains Treasure Box for her breeder, Anita Cauley, the same connections as On Fire Baby and High Heels.