Tempt Fate back at favorite track after taking working vacation

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Tempt Fate outran the winter storm last week in Arkansas.

Now, he’ll try to outrun the competition at Oaklawn Park.

Tempt Fate starts in Sunday’s fourth race, a conditioned allowance for 3-year-olds and up bred in Arkansas. He faces eight others, including fellow stakes winners K J’s Nobility, Blame J D, and J.E.’s Handmedown.

Tempt Fate is based at Oaklawn, but left for Louisiana for a brief time earlier this month ahead of a winter storm that shut down racing and training in Arkansas.

“We shipped him out to Delta to work him because the track was frozen for four days,” said Carl Deville, who trains Tempt Fate for Jerry Caroom.

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Tempt Fate breezed Feb. 5 at Delta Downs, going a half-mile in 48.60 seconds. The move was the second fastest of 42 drills at the distance that morning at Delta.

Tempt Fate, who is a leading candidate for 2021 Arkansas-bred of the year, is making his first start since Dec. 12. He finished second by three-quarters of a length in an allowance, but had his number put up following the disqualification of Bandit Point, who also returns Sunday.

“He ran a good race,” Deville said. “He got caught right at the wire, but he tried.

“He likes the surface. He likes this track.”

Tempt Fate, who is 5, has now landed in the winner’s circle the last five times he has raced at Oaklawn. His victories include last year’s Nodouble and Arkansas Breeders’ Championship, which are goals again this meet, Deville said.

For Caroom, Tempt Fate’s accomplishments over the Oaklawn strip are nearing those of his 2019 Arkansas-bred of the year, Hoonani Road.

“He’s five in a row right now,” Caroom said of Tempt Fate’s record at Oaklawn. “Hoonani Road is really the target for me, personally, at Oaklawn. Hoonani Road won seven in a row at Oaklawn. They’re both really special horses.”

Caroom noted the strength of Tempt Fate’s division this year at Oaklawn.

“There’s some really tough competition at the 4-year-old level,” Caroom said.

Those rivals include 4-year-olds Gar Hole, who is coming off an allowance win for which he earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 85, and Blame J D, winner of last year’s $150,000 Rainbow Stakes for 3-year-olds at Oaklawn.

Florent Geroux has the mount on Tempt Fate from post 3.

“I’d like just a good, clean trip with him,” Deville said. “He’s a fast horse, can get where he wants to get. I’ll leave it up to his jock – he wins enough races to know what to do!”

Also on the card, Gar Hole’s half-sister Turnstone makes her first start since September in a two-other-than allowance for fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles. The chief contenders are Willful Woman and Sun Path.