Youcan'ttakeme returns

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Trainer Grant Forster will shoot for his second win from four starters at the Oaklawn Park meet on Thursday with comebacker Youcan'ttakeme. Forster, the son of longtime Pacific Northwest horseman David Forster, is training on his own for the first time after having worked for his father.

A 3-year-old filly, Youcan'ttakeme is one of seven in a six-furlong conditioned allowance race worth $32,000.

Pk's Gal should be favored based on her last two starts, which she won by a combined 14 3/4 lengths. Others in the field include Onda Ray, who adds Lasix after a fourth-place finish in the $50,000 Martha Washington, and Impetuous Molly, a 10-length winner of the $25,000 Razorback Futurity last November.

Youcan'ttakeme is one of six horses the 28-year-old Forster has at Oaklawn. She will be making her first start since Dec. 7, when she raced close to a hot pace and finished fourth in the Great State Challenge Juvenile Fillies at Sam Houston Race Park, which was won by multiple stakes winner Elegant Designer.

"They went 44 [seconds] and change for the half-mile, and she still fought on and beat Hannah's Royalrock, who was fifth and who is a pretty nice filly here," Forster said.

Youcan'ttakeme won a maiden race in her debut, which came at Emerald Downs last August. From there, she was fourth against male rivals in that track's $100,000 Gottstein Futurity before traveling to Keeneland and winning a conditioned allowance race in October.

"She'd run pretty hard, so after [the Great State Challenge] we sent her to Ocala and gave her 40 days over there to freshen up for this year," Forster said.

Youcan'ttakeme has trained sharply for her comeback, and Sunday worked a bullet three furlongs in 35 seconds. She galloped out five furlongs in 59 seconds and change, Forster said. The drill suggests she should show speed when she breaks from the rail Thursday under jockey Greta Kuntzweiler.

Sunday, Forster plans to start 6-year-old Makors Mark, champion Washington-bred at 3 and 4, in the Grade 3, $100,000 Razorback Handicap. In his last start, Makors Mark finished fifth in the Grade 3 Essex Handicap won by Colorful Tour. It was his second race back since October 2002.

"I thought he ran a much improved race," Forster said. "He's a big, heavy horse, and when he was good at 3 and 4 his best races were kind of his third, fourth, and fifth starts of the year. He gets better with more racing."

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