Fire At Will
Declaration of War – Flirt, by Kitten’s Joy
Bred in Kentucky by Troy Rankin ($97,000 purchase by Three Diamonds Farm at 2019 Keeneland September yearling sale
Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner Fire At Will is expected to make his 3-year-old debut on the main track in Saturday’s Grade 2 Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park in a bid to step onto the Kentucky Derby trail.
The John Battaglia Memorial Stakes already held an important place on Turfway Park’s winter calendar as a springboard to the track’s signature Kentucky Derby prep, the Jeff Ruby Steaks. This year, following Turfway’s acquisition by Churchill Downs, it has added importance with Derby qualifying points of its own, as Churchill has bolstered the prep series at its northern Kentucky track.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. -- Essential Quality, the 2020 male juvenile champion, will break from the rail when he launches his 3-year-old season in the seven-horse Southwest Stakes on Saturday at Oaklawn Park.
The Grade 3, $750,000 race was drawn Tuesday. It will go as the 10th race on an 11-race card that has a special first post of 12:15 p.m. Central. The program also includes the Grade 3, $600,000 Razorback Handicap and the $200,000 Spring Fever.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Keepmeinmind, the top 3-year-old based at Oaklawn Park, will bypass an intended start in the track’s Grade 3, $750,000 Southwest Stakes on Saturday and instead point to its Rebel Stakes, trainer Robertino Diodoro said Tuesday.
The Grade 2, $1 million Rebel will be run March 13 at Oaklawn. It awards its winner 50 points for the Kentucky Derby.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The field for the Grade 3, $750,000 Southwest Stakes rescheduled for Saturday at Oaklawn Park could be larger than initially anticipated as new nominees like Southern California-based Spielberg have committed to the points race for the Kentucky Derby.
“We’re going,” trainer Bob Baffert said Monday. “We’ll see what he does over there. He’s been training well.”
Run Classic scored a sharp second-start win Feb. 13 at Fair Grounds, going from a promising runner-up finish in his sprint debut Jan. 17 to a 3 1/2-length dirt-route maiden win that produced an 85 Beyer Speed Figure. His trainer, Bret Calhoun, saw enough in the recent performance to aim Run Classic for the Louisiana Derby.
“They only run 14, so I don’t know if we’ll get in, and it’s obviously a big jump in class, but we’ve been pretty high on this horse and we’re pointing that direction,” said Calhoun, who trains Run Classic for Tom Durant.
The trainer Brad Cox had not one, but two 2020 champions all dressed up and ready to go to their first race of 2021. Then winter hit Arkansas with a fury.
Instead of shipping from New Orleans, where they have been based all winter, to Oaklawn for the Feb. 15 Bayakoa Stakes and Southwest Stakes, Monomoy Girl and Essential Quality remained at Fair Grounds when those races were postponed because of the inclement weather.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Less than four weeks ago, Prime Factor was all the rage heading into the Grade 3 Holy Bull here. But after finishing a tiring third as the even-money favorite in his stakes debut, Prime Factor will take a back seat to both Holy Bull winner Greatest Honour and Breeders’ Cup hero Fire At Will when he gets a second chance on the Triple Crown trail in Saturday’s Grade 2 Fountain of Youth.
Kendrick Carmouche, the leading jockey at the Aqueduct meet, will be here Saturday to ride Fire At Will in the Fountain of Youth and at least two other mounts.
Trainer Mike Maker initially arranged for Luis Saez to ride Fire At Will, but Carmouche got the mount after Saez committed to Essential Quality in the Southwest at Oaklawn, which will be run Saturday following several weather-related cancellations from its original Feb. 15 date.
