Quality gets the edge over quantity in today's 40th running of the $125,000 Martha Washington Stakes at Oaklawn Park.
Six 3-year-old fillies with 11 combined victories go one mile in the first of three local preps for the Grade 1 $1 million Kentucky Oaks May 4. The Martha Washington offers 17 points (10-4-2-1) to the top four finishers for a possible start in the first-Friday-in-May feature at Churchill Downs, 2017 Oaks winner Abel Tasman going on to the division championship.
Cosmic Burst, one of two stakes winners in the Martha Washington, is the 9-5 program favorite in her 3-year-old debut. The bay filly scored three straight victories at a mile or over late in her 2-year-old season, taking the $100,000 Trapeze Stakes by 5 1/4 lengths Dec. 17 at Remington Park in Oklahoma City. Richard Eramia stays aboard, Cosmic Burst drawing post five.
"We're happy to get the year started," said trainer Donnie Von Hemel. "I guess as a trainer there's always a question in your mind, especially with the time we've missed in January (weather) and all. Are you ready to go? But I think she is."
From the first crop of Violence, Cosmic Burst sold as a yearling for $25,000 at Keeneland in Lexington, Ky., in September 2016. The Pennsylvania-bred filly has earned $134,580 for owners Norma Lee Stockseth and Todd Dunn.
"The yearlings looked so good that I just didn't want to leave Keeneland without having one," said Von Hemel. "We got outbid on several. Sometimes, you just get lucky. We got one at a very reasonable price and it turns out she can run."
Tyfosha, a 4 1/4-length Oaklawn winner in her seasonal debut Jan. 21, goes two turns for the first time. Purchased for $410,000 as a 2-year-old at the March 2017 Ocala (Fla.) Breeders' Sale, the Virginia-bred daughter of Flatter came east with trainer Doug O'Neill after three straight seconds in California. Alex Canchari keeps the mount, Tyfosha 2-1 second choice in the program and breaking from outside post six.
Sassy Sienna, a debut winner last July at Indiana Grand, launched her 3-year-old season with promise in a 9 1/2-length Oaklawn mile victory Jan. 15. Brad Cox trains the Midshipman filly, a $65,000 Keeneland yearling purchase and hopeful of avenging a fifth-place finish to Cosmic Burst at Remington. To that end, Sassy Sienna breezed five furlongs in 1:00.20 Sunday, second-fastest of 34 times recorded at the distance. Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens stays in the saddle.
"I was there for her breeze ... and it was fantastic," Cox said. "She breezed as good as a racehorse could breeze. That's a positive, but we do know with her that, honestly, she's never worked bad. It's going to be (a positive) if she's good enough to compete."
Completing the field are Secret Passion, an Iowa stakes winner for trainer Scott Gelner and third in Oaklawn's six-furlong Dixie Belle Jan. 20, Edwin Maldonado riding; Red Ruby, a second-out Churchill maiden winner for Kellyn Gorder and keeping New Orleans-based Robby Albarado aboard in her 3-year-old debut; and the David Vance-trained Grats Road, soundly beaten by Cosmic Burst in November at Churchill and by Sassy Sienna Jan. 15.
Dixie Belle winner Amy's Challenge, unbeaten in three starts for trainer Mac Robertson, did not enter the Martha Washington. Thus ended a two-year streak that the sprint-stake winner (Marquee Miss in 2016 and Chanel's Legacy in 2017) stretched out successfully. Carded as race 8, the Martha Washington is set for 4:38 p.m.
Newcomers
Friday's nine winners included three first-time starters, two trained by Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen. Race 4 winner South Beach ($5.60) made, at 4, his long-awaited debut after selling in Florida for $1.8 million as a 2-year-old in March 2016. Woodford Racing owns the gray or roan colt, a three-length winner with a stretch kick for Ricardo Santana Jr.
Santana, Oaklawn's five-time defending jockey champion, also won aboard newcomers Perfect Dream ($90.40) in the sixth and Tenfold $13.20) in the seventh. Hot Springs horseman John Henry Prather Jr. is trainer and co-owner of 3-year-old gelding Perfect Dream, a bay gelding by Tale of Ekati. Tenfold, by two-time Horse of the Year Curlin, looked especially sharp in a frontrunning triumph of 5 3/4 lengths on a tiring, fast-rated surface, getting a mile and sixteenth in 1:44.93.
Sports on 02/10/2018