Oaklawn Park just had one Wayne Lukas weekend. It might not be the last one this March.
A week after Lukas brought the 4-year-old filly Secret Oath back from a four-month layoff to sharply win the Azeri Stakes, Lukas brings 5-year-old horse Last Samuarai back from a four-week layoff in the Grade 3, $500,000 Essex Handicap.
This much is certain: Whitmore, at his peak, would easily have won the race that bears his name.
Beyond that, the Grade 3, $200,000 Whitmore Stakes Saturday at Oaklawn is about as clear as mud.
The six-furlong contest drew 10 entrants, and it feels like the winner could come from about from anywhere in the past performances.
Positionally, the winner seems likely to come from somewhere off the pace. There are just too many committed front-runners entered for the tempo to be anything less than fast.
Both rich stakes races Saturday at Oaklawn Park have deep, competitive fields. I really wanted to get involved, but when you find yourself during a final pass through a race strongly considering switching to a different horse than the intended target, you start to realize you have no strong single opinion.
Two weeks ago, Howgreatisnate entered Aqueduct’s Grade 3 Gotham as an unbeaten gelding with potential. He created a stir, but for the wrong reasons, as he unseated jockey J.D. Acosta at the start, then continued riderless through the bulky field.
Assael Espinoza, the leading rider at Golden Gate Fields this winter, had a choice of top mounts for Saturday’s $75,000 McCann’s Mojave Stakes at the Northern California track.
Espinoza won an allowance race last March on Jimmy Blue Jeans, and an optional claimer in January on American Farmer, the two leading contenders in a field of five.
Espinoza is riding Jimmy Blue Jeans, hoping the 5-year-old gelding’s stamina and recent company will work in his favor in the McCann’s Mojave, which is run at 1 1/8 miles for California-breds.
Since late 2022, the $100,000 China Doll Stakes at Santa Anita on Saturday has been a goal for the two-time stakes winner Comanche Country.
At least the first goal.
Trainer Phil D’Amato and the partnership that owns Comanche Country – Little Red Feather Racing, Sterling Stables, and Marsha Naify – expect the Irish-bred filly can develop into a contender for more lucrative graded stakes for 3-year-old fillies this spring and summer.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Downtown Mischief has wreaked havoc on the competition in her first two starts and will look to do so again when she makes her stakes debut in Saturday’s $100,000 Cicada Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Aqueduct.
While the Cicada is run at the same six-furlong distance at which Downtown Mischief won her first two starts, the New York-bred daughter of Into Mischief will be facing open company for the first time in this six-horse field.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Sprinters of the very fast kind will be in the spotlight Saturday at Gulfstream Park when the Hutcheson and Silks Run are run as co-features of a 12-race card.
Both $100,000 races figure to have a strong favorite. Super Chow is sure to be odds-on versus six other 3-year-olds in the six-furlong Hutcheson, while Big Invasion should be in the even-money range against 11 older turf sprinters in the Silks Run.
Songbird’s first foal to race starts in a maiden route. King Ottoman makes his first start since a second-place Oklahoma Derby finish. Iowa Oaks winner Butterbean runs for the first time since July in the nominally featured eighth race. And a strong Friday card at Oaklawn Park ends with a blockbuster second-level sprint allowance.
The nightcap, race 9, carded for six furlongs, drew an overflow field of 14. The race is open to $50,000 claimers or horses that haven’t won $23,000 twice other than maiden, claiming, starter-allowance, or statebred-restricted races.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Linda Rice would like to see Mommasgottarun do just that, albeit with a bit more consistency. Thus, Rice will add blinkers to the 4-year-old filly’s equipment when she starts in a second-level/optional $62,500 claimer that serves as the feature on Friday’s eight-race card at Aqueduct.
In both starts since being claimed by Rice for $50,000 on Dec. 31, Mommasgottarun sat up close, dropped back to last on the far turn, and came running in the stretch to cross the wire second.
