Tinsel a softer spot to get Rattle N Roll back on track

There have been a handful of horses who have traveled to the Middle East for races after running at Oaklawn Park, and Rattle N Roll could follow the lead of Mystic Guide, Gun Runner, and Skelly based on how he performs Saturday in the $150,000 Tinsel Stakes.

The Tinsel, for 3-year-olds and up at 1 1/8 miles, drew a field of seven that includes Grade 3 winner Money Supply, 2025 Prince of Wales winner Runaway Again, and stakes winners Dimatic and Willy D’s.

Rattle N Roll is the undisputed class of the Tinsel as a Grade 1 winner of $3.5 million. His nine career stakes wins include the Group 3 Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Cup in January at King Abdulaziz Racecourse in Saudi Arabia. Rattle N Roll entered that race off a win in the Grade 2 Clark at Churchill Downs and comes into the Tinsel off a troubled fifth-place finish in this year’s Clark.

“We just want to get him back to the winner’s circle,” said trainer Kenny McPeek. “I think if he runs well here, we’ve got to figure out the next step. He may go to Saudi Arabia again. We’ll see. But we wanted to just get him back in a good spot. It looks like a really ideal spot for him, the distance.

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“He’s not run at Oaklawn, but I think he’ll like it there.”

McPeek has a division of horses at Oaklawn. He said Rattle N Roll would travel up from Fair Grounds for the race.

Gun Runner made his Oaklawn debut in 2017 and won the Razorback before going on to finish second in the Dubai World Cup. Mystic Guide made his Oaklawn debut in 2021 and won the Razorback before going on to take the Dubai World Cup. Skelly won the King Cotton at Oaklawn in Febraury 2024, finished second in the Riyadh Dirt Sprint in Saudi Arabia three weeks later, then returned to Oaklawn to win the Count Fleet that April.

Joel Rosario, who was aboard Rattle N Roll for his win in Saudi Arabia, has the mount in the Tinsel. The pair will break from post 7 for owners Sharaf Mohamad Alhariri and Lucky Seven Stables.

“He comes from off of it,” McPeek said of Rattle N Roll. “That’s always been his game.”

Rattle N Roll could get a decent setup behind such horses as Woodcourt, who set the pace last out in the Zia Park Distance Championship, and Willy D’s, who wired the field in the Michael Schaefer Memorial in July at Horseshoe Indianapolis.

“He’s a front-runner, so he’ll definitely be placed forward,” said Mike Maker, who trains Willy D’s for Paradise Farms Corp.

Willy D’s is cross-entered in Saturday night’s Jeffrey Hawk Memorial at Remington Park, but earlier this week Maker said they were leaning towards running the horse in the Tinsel.

Francisco Arrieta has the mount from post 4.

Money Supply enters off a runner-up finish in a second-level allowance at Churchill.

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