Well-traveled Cosmic Burst returns for Remington Oaks

The Grade 3, $200,000 Remington Park Oaks on Sunday is something of a homecoming for Cosmic Burst. She won the meet’s richest race for 2-year-old fillies, the Trapeze, last year and is now back in Oklahoma after racing in Arkansas, Iowa, and Illinois.

Since her last local start, some things have changed. The Remington Oaks is now a graded race, one year after champion Champagne Room captured the 1 1/16-mile race. It again has drawn a quality field that includes She’s a Julie, who enters off a runner-up finish in the Grade 1 Alabama at Saratoga, and the Todd Pletcher-trained Alberobello.

The field of 10 also includes Stronger Than Ever, winner of the Silverbulletday at Fair Grounds; Testing One Two, a four-time stakes winner; Luminoso, second last out in an allowance at Del Mar; and Rose of Malibu, a half-sister to Grade 1 winner Shotgun Gulch.

The Remington Park Oaks is one of 10 stakes on a $1.3 million card that also features the Grade 3, $400,000 Oklahoma Derby. The meet’s lone graded races will be part of a 50-cent late pick four on races 9-12 that has a minimum guaranteed pool of $100,000.

Remington Park Oaks (Race 10)

Cosmic Burst, by Violence
Last 3 Beyers: 79-85-75

◗ She was a 5 3/4-length winner of the $100,000 Trapeze, then made her way to Oaklawn Park, where in March she won the Grade 3 Honeybee. Cosmic Burst was also third in that track’s Martha Washington and fourth in its Grade 3 Fantasy.

“She really showed some class winning the Honeybee,” said trainer Donnie Von Hemel. “I’m of the opinion that she really didn’t care for the Oaklawn surface.

“One of her strengths is her consistency.”

◗ Cosmic Burst went on to finish second in the Grade 3 Iowa Oaks at Prairie Meadows, won by She’s a Julie. Cosmic Burst enters off a seventh-place finish in the Grade 3 Pucker Up on Aug. 11 at Arlington, her first race on turf.

“We were kind of looking for a race that fit the bill timing-wise and to answer the question as far as the turf,” Von Hemel said. “It was her first time on turf, and maybe the mile and an eighth, those might have been a couple of things against her. It didn’t quite turn out the way we hoped.”

◗ Richard Eramia has the mount for Norma Lee Stockseth and Todd Dunn.

Alberobello, by Bernardini
Last 3 Beyers: 87-72-81

◗ She enters off a 5 3/4-length romp in a first-level allowance July 26 at Saratoga.

“I think that was kind of the breakthrough race we were hoping for from her,” said Pletcher. “She’s always trained with promise. She’s a beautiful filly and seems to be on the improve.”

◗ Alberobello had been entered in the Grade 3 Charles Town Oaks, but was scratched from that sprint race run around two turns and rerouted to the Remington Oaks.

“Picking between the two, we felt like she improved when we got her stretched out,” Pletcher said. “We felt like the seven-eighths at Charles Town might be a little sharp for her.”

◗ Jose Ortiz has the mount from post 9.