Twenty to Park being prepared for Rainbow Stakes

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Twenty to Park is gearing up for next month’s $150,000 Rainbow Stakes at Oaklawn Park with an appearance in the ninth race on Friday.

He’s a chief contender in the entry-level allowance for 3-year-olds and up bred in Arkansas. The field of 10 for the six-furlong race includes Midnight Taxes, a 4-year-old half-brother to multiple Grade 2 winner Amalfi Coast.

Twenty to Park, who is 3, is cutting back to the one-turn distance of his memorable debut. He was a nine-length winner of a maiden special weight sprint for Arkansas-breds on Jan. 12. The performance established him as the early favorite for the Rainbow at six furlongs April 6.

“He ran to what we thought he could,” said Staton Flurry, who owns Twenty to Park. “We didn’t know he’d blow the doors off the competition like he did. We knew he’d been training really, really well. His last few works leading up to that race had been uber-impressive, but we never dreamed he’d win by as much as he did.”

Twenty to Park, who is trained by Matt Shirer and will be ridden by Francisco Arrieta, earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 85. He’s made one start since, finishing fourth in a first-level allowance route for Arkansas-breds on Feb. 25.

“That wasn’t really ideal,” Flurry said of the two turns. “It was kind of the hand we were dealt.”

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Flurry said a desired sprint race was not used and the decision was made to go two turns because there was concern the horse might not get another opportunity with Arkansas-breds ahead of the Rainbow.

“This race came up [as an extra] a couple days ago,” Flurry said.

Flurry, a 33-year-old native of Hot Springs, is the current leading owner at Oaklawn. He purchased Twenty to Park, a son of Speightster, from the gelding’s breeder, McDowell Farm.

“I bought him as a foal from Bill McDowell,” Flurry said. “He hadn’t even been weaned yet. Bill and I are close and I go down a time or two each year and look at his babies and if I see something I like, we try to come to a deal on them.”

Flurry has won 16 races from 46 starts at the Oaklawn meet. He’s built his stable up for the current season and has horses with seven trainers here – Steve Asmussen, Cipriano Contreras, Brad Cox, Jonas Gibson, Kevin Martin, Shirer, and Dan Ward.

“We wanted to be competitive for the owners’ title,” Flurry said. “We really started claiming back in August, September, claiming all over the country. We’ve been a little active in New Orleans lately, shopping. Since their meet’s coming over, we can move them up here. Just trying to get as many wins as possible right now.”

Aside from his quest for a first Oaklawn title, Flurry also has horses in Southern California with trainer Phil D’Amato.

“I love going out to Del Mar during the summer,” Flurry said. “The weather’s great out there. It’s just a great little spot. That’s kind of my main objective for the summer, get a few for Del Mar and spend quite a bit of the summer out there. When it’s 110, 115 heat index here in Arkansas in the summer and you get off the plane there and it’s 70 degrees, you can’t beat that.”

Right now at Oaklawn, it’s tough to beat Flurry.

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