Trapeze winner Perfect Wife eyes Martha Washington Stakes

Perfect Wife is one of several 2-year-olds who have trainer Ken McPeek looking forward to next season. She was a five-length winner of the $100,000 Trapeze on Sunday night at Remington Park and now has her sights set on the first major stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Oaklawn.

McPeek said Monday that Perfect Wife is a candidate for the $125,000 Martha Washington at one mile Feb. 11. It’s the first stakes in Oaklawn’s route series for 3-year-old fillies that culminates with the Grade 3, $400,000 Fantasy.

Perfect Wife made the pace in the Trapeze and increased her advantage in the stretch while covering the mile in 1:38.37. Her time for the distance was the fastest of four stakes run at the trip Sunday night at Remington, two of them for 3-year-olds. McPeek said Perfect Wife has since shipped back to Oaklawn. She earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 80.

“She’s a pretty special filly, got a big future,” McPeek said.

Perfect Wife was making her first start at two turns and her first in stakes company after winning her debut, then finishing a troubled fourth in a first-level allowance at Churchill Downs.

“The last time we ran her short, she got bottled up in traffic, couldn’t get out,” McPeek said. “Going two turns, she has the speed to dictate her position. She went 47 and change [for the half-mile] and kept going. Between her and Daddys Lil Darling, we’ve got a pretty early shot at the Kentucky Oaks. But it’s early.”

McPeek said Daddys Lil Darling, the winner of the Grade 2 Pocahontas at Churchill who closed out her 2-year-old season with a runner-up finish in the track’s Grade 2 Golden Rod on Nov. 26, is being freshened in Kentucky.

“I haven’t put her back in training yet, probably after the first of the year,” he said. “She could go to New Orleans or Payson Park.”

McPeek’s group of 2-year-olds includes Pat On the Back, a winner of two New York-bred stakes this year, including the $250,000 Sleepy Hollow in October at Belmont, and Brockton George, who overcame post 12 to win a maiden special weight at a mile on turf Nov. 26 at Churchill.

McPeek said both would be made eligible for two upcoming 3-year-old stakes, the $150,000 Smarty Jones on Jan. 16 at Oaklawn and the Grade 3, $200,000 Lecomte on Jan. 21 at Fair Grounds. McPeek has divisions at both Oaklawn and Fair Grounds.

Clark nears milestone

Jockey Kerwin Clark is nearing a milestone of 3,000 Thoroughbred wins in North America, according to Equibase. He is one win from the feat, and his next scheduled mount is in Wednesday night’s seventh race at Delta Downs aboard the capable Louisiana Flyboy.