Talamo completes stakes sweep with Shedaresthedevil in Honeybee

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Jockey Joe Talamo completed a sweep of the two stakes run Saturday at Oaklawn Park when he guided Shedaresthedevil to a three-quarter length win over Alta’s Award in the Grade 3, $300,000 Honeybee.

One race earlier, Talamo won the $150,000 Hot Springs Stakes with Whitmore.

The Honeybee doled out Kentucky Oaks points to its first four finishers – Shedaresthedevil, Alta’s Award, Motu, and Queen Bridget – on a scale of 50-20-10-5.

Talamo, 30, is basing at Oaklawn for the first time this meet and ranked third in the standings through Saturday.

“I absolutely love it,” he said. “It's got kind of a Southern hospitality feel. The vibe is incredible with the fans here. We’ve had quite a few rainy days, and they still come out. They’re true racing fans.”

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Shedaresthedevil ($7.80) won before an estimated ontrack crowd of 22,000. She was content to track the pace in fourth, situated along the rail as Ring Leader took the field through an opening quarter in 23.73 seconds, a half-mile in 47.89 and six furlongs in 1:12.83. Shedaresthedevil found room between horses in the stretch and spurted to the lead, going on to cover 1 1/16 miles on a track rated fast in 1:44.38.

Brad Cox trains Shedaresthedevil, one of at least two top contenders the barn has for the Kentucky Oaks. He also trains champion British Idiom, who ranks fourth on the points leaderboard kept by Churchill Downs, just ahead of fifth-place Shedaresthedevil.

Shedaresthedevil races for the partnership of Flurry Racing Stables, Qatar Racing Limited, and Big Aut Farms. She was winning the first stakes race of her career, after running third in the Grade 2 Sorrento and second in the Anokia, both last year in Southern California. Shedaresthedevil was making her second start at the meet, coming into the race off a runner-up finish in a first-level allowance at 1 1/16 miles on Feb. 15.

Shedaresthedevil is a daughter of Daredevil. She has now won two of six starts and the first-place check of $180,000 on Saturday pushed her earnings to $297,648.

Alta’s Award finished three lengths clear of third-place finisher Motu, while it was another three-quarters of a length back to Queen Bridget in fourth.

Handle on the 10-race card from all sources was $5.4 million.