Taxed may target Apple Blossom as next start

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Taxed could move back to both graded stakes company and two turns for her next start after a powerful 4-year-old debut Saturday at Oaklawn Park.

The winner of last year’s Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan was making her first start since September in a second-level allowance sprint. She let the speed go and closed like a freight train under jockey Cristian Torres. Taxed won by 3 1/2 lengths while covering six furlongs on a fast track in 1:10.53.

“She ran to the way she’s been training,” trainer Randy Morse said.

He said the next stop could be the Grade 1, $1.25 million Apple Blossom Handicap, a 1 1/16-mile race for fillies and mares here April 13. Taxed, with the permission of the stewards, did some additional prep work towards that goal after the wire Saturday.

“The Apple Blossom has been on our radar from the get-go, but we’re kind of behind,” Morse said, referring to training time missed to inclement weather. “I had the rider gallop her out a mile [Saturday]. The clocker had her seven-eighths in 1:23. The jock said she didn’t take a long breath.”

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The action Saturday put Taxed in a better position, fitness-wise, to be considered for a race like the Apple Blossom.

“It’s a mile and a sixteenth,” Morse said. “If it was a mile and an eighth, it would be completely out of the question.”

Morse said in addition to seeing how Taxed continues to progress, he will take into consideration what horses are shipping in for the race and the field size of the Apple Blossom.

Taxed went over $500,000 in earnings Saturday for owner Richard Bahde.

“She’s pretty special,” Morse said.

Asternia to Eight Belles?

Taxed’s stablemates, Asternia and Blue Squall, ran a few races later Saturday and finished a respective one-two in the $200,000 Purple Martin.

Asternia was a 51/4-length winner of the race for 3-year-old fillies. She covered six furlongs in 1:10.51.

“She’s been working fantastic,” Morse said. “She ran to her works.

“She’s actually kind of growing up, not letting everything bother her.”

Blue Squall has run second in back-to-back stakes now, having come into the Purple Martin off a close second in the Dixie Belle at Oaklawn. Earlier in the meet, she won her maiden over next-out Grade 3 Honeybee winner Lemon Muffin.

“They’re two nice fillies,” Morse said. “We’ll probably consider the Eight Belles with one, maybe both of them. I don’t know.”

Morse added he thought Blue Squall is a filly that might appreciate stretching out, perhaps testing the waters at two turns.

The Grade 2, $600,000 Eight Belles is a seven-furlong race for 3-year-old fillies May 3 at Churchill Downs.

Mott trainee impressive

Trainer Riley Mott sent out a notable maiden special weight winner on March 9 at Oaklawn in Native Land, who bounded home by 6 1/4 lengths. He closed from last in the 1 1/8-mile race and earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 80.

“I was very impressed with the way he finished up,” Mott said. “He kind of hinted that he could run in his first two starts. He was a good third and a good second and he was impressive with the turn of foot that he showed the other day breaking his maiden.

“You don’t often see a dirt horse with that turn of foot, making up that amount of ground in that amount of time.”

Native Land made his debut in January at Oaklawn and was third in a one-mile maiden race won by Common Defense, who has since run second in the Grade 2, $1.25 million Rebel and is entered back in the Louisiana Derby.

Native Land is a son of Mastery and is nominated to the Triple Crown. He races for Cheyenne Stable, one of the first owners to send Mott horses when the son of Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott went out on his own. Plans are to be determined for Native Land, said Riley Mott.

“You hate to throw him to the wolves,” he said. “We’re leaning towards probably an allowance race with him, if one was available and made sense. You always hope down the line to be stakes quality.”

Native Land is out of a mare by Broken Vow.

*** Arkansas Derby candidate Time for Truth worked six furlongs in 1:13 on a track rated muddy Saturday. He is coming off a two-turn allowance win at Oaklawn.

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