Zero Sugar goes for three straight in Lake Hamilton

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – There will be a changing of the guards Friday in the $200,000 Lake Hamilton at Oaklawn Park.

“Whoever wins this race will be the first not named Skelly,” quipped Staton Flurry, co-owner of leading contender Zero Sugar.

Skelly won the first three runnings of the six-furlong Lake Hamilton for 4-year-olds and up. But with one of Oaklawn’s most prolific sprinters now retired, the race’s fourth renewal is highly competitive. There are six stakes winners in the nine-horse field, and they include $1.9 million earner Tejano Twist and multiple Grade 3 winner Booth.

The Lake Hamilton will share a card with the $150,000 Bachelor for 3-year-olds at six furlongs. The stakes double highlights a 12-race card that serves as the meet’s penultimate program.

Zero Sugar, who is stakes-placed at two turns, has developed into one of the meet’s quickest sprinters for trainer Cipriano Contreras. He enters the Lake Hamilton off back-to-back allowance wins, his first on March 1 when he covered six furlongs in a blazing 1:08.76. Zero Sugar won again March 19, while covering the same distance in a brisk 1:09.42.

“He’s run a 98 and 96 Beyer his last two races,” Flurry said. “Hopefully, he can continue that kind of form going into stakes competition. If he does, I think he’ll be very, very competitive.”

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Flurry’s co-owners in Zero Sugar are Little River Racing and Corey Smith, and the group has made shares available in the horse through MorningLine.io.

“It’s just to kind of get a feel of the market, and the value that he may have,” Flurry said. “That’s kind of a new concept that’s out there, and we said, ‘Let’s give it a go and see how his price fluctuates.’ ”

Zero Sugar will break from post 5 under regular rider Manny Esquivel.

“Hopefully, we’ll be sitting right off of it, a length or two or three,” Flurry said.

Tejano Twist figures to be making his case through the lane under David Cabrera. The notorious closer has won stakes at ages 2, 3, 4, 6, and now 7. He captured the Grade 3 Whitmore two starts ago at Oaklawn.

Booth, who is nearing $1 million in earnings, won last year’s Whitmore and Grade 3 Count Fleet at Oaklawn.

Bachelor Stakes

Oscar’s Hope is one of five stakes winners in the field of nine for the Bachelor. He has won stakes at one and two turns and in his last start was edged by a head in the $400,000 Lafayette on April 3 at Keeneland.

“We want to keep him sprinting,” trainer Kinnon LaRose said. “He ran seven-eighths at Keeneland last time out and he ran well, just got nailed at the wire. But we want to keep him sprinting. He had a good work for us the other day at Churchill.”

Lane Luzzi has the mount on Oscar’s Hope from post 8.

“We’re lucky that he’s tactical,” LaRose said. “He’s got good speed out of the gate but doesn’t necessarily have to be on the lead. He normally puts himself in a good position – in that first flight would be ideal for him.”

Michael McLoughlin owns Oscar’s Hope, who like Zero Sugar is a son of Twirling Candy.

◗ The retiring trainer Jinks Fires will have his final starter in the second race with House Trick.

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