Yorkiepoo Princess headed to Kentucky Oaks after all

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Yorkiepoo Princess bled while finishing eighth in the Grade 2 Gazelle Stakes last Saturday at Aqueduct, a problem trainer Eddie Barker said can be rectified, which is why he still plans on running the filly in the Grade 1, $1 million Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on May 5.

Barker said that owner Danny Chen paid the $1,500 late-nomination fee to make Yorkiepoo Princess eligible for the Oaks. Yorkiepoo Princess earned 50 qualifying points toward the Oaks for her victory in the listed Busher Stakes on Feb. 25.

Barker said he had planned to go to the Oaks had Yorkiepoo Princess finished first or second in the Gazelle. She was beaten 35 3/4 lengths under Irad Ortiz Jr., but Barker said a post-race endoscopic examination revealed that the filly bled. Miss Sky Warrior won the Gazelle by 13 lengths.

“If she didn’t bleed, she would have been second,” Barker said. “If she was second, I was going to the Oaks. Irad said he had plenty of horse going to the three-eighths pole.”

The day after the Gazelle, Yorkiepoo Princess was sent to the New Jersey Equine Clinic in Millstone, where she will spend some time in a hyperbaric chamber, which increases oxygen flow and promotes the healing of injured tissues. Barker said Dr. Jennifer Smith of the clinic told him, “The lungs will fully heal.”

Barker said he will work Yorkiepoo Princess once at Aqueduct, and provided there is no bleeding, he will continue on to the Oaks.

Yorkiepoo Princess, who has won 4 of 8 starts, including the Furlough and Ruthless stakes at six furlongs, has yet to run on the anti-bleeding medication Lasix. Barker said she will race on Lasix in the Oaks.