LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Hard to believe, but the main event on Oaks Day at Churchill Downs risks being upstaged.
Before the queen for the day is crowned in the 144th Kentucky Oaks, the host track will make history, it affirms, when last year's Oaks and Kentucky Derby winners return to race under its famed twin spires a year later.
Always Dreaming, trainer Todd Pletcher's second Derby winner, heads the field in the Grade 2 $400,000 Alysheba, a mile-and-sixteenth dirt race honoring the 1987 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner trained by the late Jack Van Berg.
Abel Tasman, whose Oaks victory in the slop last May registered strongly with Eclipse Award voters when named champion 3-year-old filly, makes her 4-year-old debut in the Grade 1 $350,000 La Troienne, also at a mile and sixteenth on the main track. Mike Smith keeps the mount on Abel Tasman, returning from a six-month layoff for Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, while John Velazquez stays aboard Always Dreaming.
The La Troienne, carded as race 6, goes at 12:17 p.m. Central and the Alysheba, race 8, at 1:53 p.m.
Under allowance conditions, Always Dreaming gets in with 118 pounds, 2 less than high-weighted Good Samaritan, upset winner against the Derby and Preakness winners (Cloud Computing) in Saratoga's Grade 2 Jim Dandy last summer. Travers winner West Coast, trained by Baffert, went on to be named champion 3-year-old male.
The Alysheba field includes Oaklawn Park stakes winners Hawaakom (2018 Grade 3 Razorback Handicap) and Hoppertunity (2014 Grade 2 Rebel), plus 2017 Oaklawn winner and Kentucky Derby starter Hence.
Three Oaklawn stakes winners this year go in the La Troienne: Farrell (Pippin), Streamline (Grade 3 Bayakoa) and Martini Glass (Grade 2 Azeri). Farrell and Martini Glass each carries 120, 2 pounds more than the others.
The most recent Derby winner to return the following year on Derby weekend was Go for Gin, third in the 1995 Grade 3 Churchill Downs Handicap. Abel Tasman is the first such Oaks winner to return since Plum Pretty placed second in the 2012 La Troienne.
- Louisville native Brad Cox scored his first Grade 1 victory as a trainer with Monomoy Girl in the April 7 Ashland Stakes at Keeneland. His goal now is to win a Grade 1 race at his home track.
Besides Monomoy Girl, Cox has Sassy Sienna and Kelly's Humor in Oaks 144 today. Sassy Sienna won Oaklawn's Grade 3 Fantasy by surprise April 13 after romping in an early-season race in Hot Springs. The Cox threesome will race as separate betting interests.
"They're all moving great," Cox said Wednesday. "They're all doing great. ... I couldn't be happier with all three of them."
These are the first Oaks starters for Cox, whose horses last year won three stakes -- Grade 2 Eight Belles, Grade 2 American Turf and Grade 3 Turf Sprint -- and an allowance race on Derby week.
"The Derby and Oaks are always something to look forward to," Cox said. "It's fun. You just want to to competitive. We had a great weekend last year, so we hope we can repeat that. We have 11 entered Friday and three on Saturday, so it will be busy."
- Cox scratched grass star Mr. Misunderstood, owned by Staton Flurry of Hot Springs, from a Churchill Downs race Thursday. The 4-year-old is being pointed, Flurry said, to a grass race on the Downs' Stephen Foster undercard June 16. Cox also trains unbeaten Exclamation Point, whom co-owner Flurry said is targeting the Sir Barton Stakes on the Preakness undercard May 19 at Pimlico.
Sports on 05/04/2018