The last January racing card of the Oaklawn Park season unfolded Sunday with picture-perfect weather encouraging outlooks after the previous day's morning showers.
Winning races in two states, Hot Springs thoroughbred owner Staton Flurry saw nothing but blue skies all weekend.
After a stakes victory in Texas Saturday night with a horse he claimed, Flurry visited the Oaklawn winner's circle Sunday with another ex-claimer and his first stakes winner at the track.
Oso Ready, claimed for $20,000 out of a Keeneland race last October, dropped in class for his second start of the year, a frontrunning triumph of 5 1/4 lengths with Fernando De La Cruz aboard. Sixth against $30,000 claimers Jan. 13 at Oaklawn, the 4-year-old More Than Ready gelding dropped in Sunday for $16,000 and was promptly claimed by trainer Genaro Garcia, whose Like a Haint ($9.80) won race 9 under C.J. McMahon. With six furlongs in 1:13.68 over a good-rated surface, Oso Ready paid $8.60, $4.80 and $3.20.
Two races later, two Rainbow Stakes winners dueled early before Five O One put away Weast Hill in the stretch and won his 4-year-old debut by 4 1/4 lengths. Ricardo Santana Jr. kept the mount on the Drosselmeyer gelding, the 2017 Rainbow winner in his second start and rested since placing third in an Oaklawn allowance April 12. Glacken's Ghost, a past Oaklawn winner for trainer Mac Robertson, got up for second over Weast Hill, an Oaklawn stakes winner in the 2015 Rainbow and 2016 Nodouble Breeders' and Arkansas Breeders' for Star City owner Starsky Weast.
Five O One, named for the Hot Springs area code, paid $3.40, $3 and $2.40, clocking six furlongs in 1:11.48. Flurry, whose family owns several parking lots around Oaklawn, paid $72,000 for the gelding at an April 2016 sale in Ocala, Fla. With three wins from four starts and earnings of $157,700, Five O One is a candidate for the March 3 running of the $100,000 Nodouble Breeders' at six furlongs.
Whereas Brad Cox trains both of Flurry's Oaklawn winners, Karl Broberg conditions Imma Bling, the owner's 11-length winner of Saturday night's $50,000 Spirit of Texas Stakes at Sam Houston Race Park. Quincy Hamilton rode Imma Bling, subsequent winner of Fair Grounds' Dec. 16 Bonapaw Stakes off a $25,000 Churchill Downs claim Nov. 24. In his 5-year-old season, the Texas-bred son of Too Much Bling has earned $207,797.
"Three wins in 16 hours. Thanks to the whole team and to Ricardo for a great ride," Flurry posted on his Facebook page after Five O One's triumph.
Since Oaklawn lacks a grass course, the Flurry-owned Mr. Misunderstood is unlikely to race locally. The 4-year-old son of 2011 Arkansas Derby winner Archarcharch has won five in a row (all stakes races, Churchill's Grade 3 Commonwealth Turf included) and is unbeaten on the grass.
Sports on 01/29/2018