Underpressure should get stalking trip in rare start against open company

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Underpressure long has been one of the top Louisiana-breds in training, and on Thursday he will make a rare appearance in neighboring Arkansas for the featured eighth race at Oaklawn Park.

The allowance is for 4-year-olds and up and it has an optional claiming price of $75,000. The race will be run over a mile and a sixteenth. The purse is $108,000 and the field of six includes Grade 3 winner Plainsman and the Grade 3-placed My Sixth Sense.

Underpressure is an eight-time stakes winner who has earned more than $800,000. The 7-year-old’s latest victory came Feb. 10 in the $125,000 Louisiana Premier Championship, a mile and a sixteenth race at his home track of Delta Downs.

“It was the third Championship [race] he’s won in the state of Louisiana,” said Chris Richard, who trains Underpressure for his wife, Mallory. “Every time he goes to the gate, he gives you such a strong effort. He’s always got a chance to win. That’s how I feel with him.”

Richard said Underpressure will likely be freshened after Thursday and return to action in the fall in Louisiana.

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“He’s in at Oaklawn because an allowance race in Louisiana, at Delta, didn’t go,” Richard said. “This was an opportunity. Obviously, he’s going to be running in open company. It’s a stakes-type purse and it’s a six-horse field. I thought he deserved a shot.”

Underpressure has raced once since the Premier Championship, finishing a troubled fifth in the $75,000 Star Guitar on March 27 at Fair Grounds. Richard said the horse was squeezed back at the start, forced to check, and found himself trailing the field – well behind a slow opening quarter of 25 seconds.

“Overall, I thought he ran well,” Richard said. “He put forth a really strong effort. It’s one of those things that’s unfortunate. Bad racing luck.”

Underpressure could get an ideal setup Thursday, when he starts from post 5 under David Cabrera.

“He likes to kind of stalk,” said Richard. “I think there is some speed in the race. It looks like out of the six horses, four of them want to show some speed.

“I don’t anticipate being too far off it in a six-horse field. You can’t get too far out of it. Hopefully, we get a good clean break this time. I think he’ll be sitting in a stalking position and go from there.”

Plainsman is cutting back to two turns following a start at three turns in the $150,000 Temperence Hill over a mile and a half March 13 at Oaklawn. The runner-up from that race, Lone Rock, won an allowance Sunday at Oaklawn.

My Sixth Sense was a close fourth in a deep allowance at a mile March 23 at Oaklawn. He is a full brother to multiple Grade 1 winner Sweet Reason.