Post positions will be drawn today for Monday's stakes tripleheader at Oaklawn Park.
Oaklawn's only five-day race weekend of the season will conclude with the Presidents' Day program on Monday that features the first graded events of the meeting.
A list of 10 probables was released Thursday morning by Oaklawn's racing office for the Grade 3 $500,000 Southwest Stakes, the track's second of four major preps for the Kentucky Derby. The probables were Bankit, Boldor, Cutting Humor, Gray Attempt, Jersey Agenda, Long Range Toddy, Olympic Runner, Six Shooter, Sueno and Super Steed.
Six probables ran in Oaklawn's first Kentucky Derby points prep, the $150,000 Smarty Jones Stakes on Jan. 25. Gray Attempt, who is trained by Jinks Fires of Hot Springs, was a front-running neck winner of the 1-mile race.
It was the colt's first start around two turns and his third consecutive victory. Probables that also ran in the Smarty Jones were Long Range Toddy, second; Boldor, third; Six Shooter, fourth; Bankit, sixth; and Super Steed, seventh.
Bankit was the Smarty Jones favorite and is trained by Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, along with Boldor, Long Range Toddy and Jersey Agenda, a powerful allowance winner on Jan. 26 at Oaklawn in his last start.
Trainer Paul Holthus, of Hot Springs, said Six Shooter will be adding blinkers for the 1 1/16-mile Southwest.
Olympic Runner was a front-running 5 3/4-length off-the-turf maiden winner on Jan. 26 at Gulfstream Park in Florida for trainer Mark Casse. Sueno exits a runner-up finish in the Grade 3 $100,000 Sham Stakes on Jan. 5 at Santa Anita Park in California for trainer Keith Desormeaux, who won last year's Southwest with My Boy Jack.
Like the Smarty Jones, the Southwest offers 17 points (10-4-2-1) to the top four finishers toward starting eligibility for the Kentucky Derby.
Expected to be entered in the Grade 3 $500,000 Razorback Handicap at 1 1/16 miles for older horses are All Out Blitz, Coal Front, Copper Bullet, Lone Rock, M G Warrior, Nanoosh, Nun the Less, Rocking the Boat, Secret Passage, Sonneteer, Souper Tapit and Tiz He the One.
Sonneteer won the $125,000 Fifth Season Stakes last year at Oaklawn for Desormeaux. Coal Front is a multiple graded stakes winner for trainer Todd Pletcher and Copper Bullet is a Grade 2 winner for Asmussen.
Nanoosh won the $250,000 Zia Park Derby on Nov. 21 in New Mexico in his last start for trainer Robertino Diodoro. All Out Blitz was fourth in the Zia Park Derby, while Rocking the Boat finished third in last year's Razorback.
Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas said Warrior's Club is unlikely to run in the Razorback despite being nominated for the 1 1/16 event. He said the $150,000 Hot Springs Stakes and an allowance race are under consideration for Warrior's Club's 2019 debut.
Co-owner and trainer James Chapman said Heartwood will also be considered for the Hot Springs Stakes and the Grade 3 $200,000 Tom Fool Handicap at Aqueduct Racetrack in New York for his next start. Both 6-furlong races are March 9. The Kentucky-based Heartwood earned a preliminary Beyer Speed Figure of 94 for his half-length victory in Saturday's $100,000 King Cotton Stakes for older sprinters.
The Grade 3 $200,000 Bayakoa Stakes for older fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles completes Monday's stakes tripleheader. Probables for the Bayakoa include Auspicious Babe, Moonlit Garden, Remedy, Rose of Malibu, She's a Julie and Sydney Freeman.
A Breeders' Cup winner was among seven horses that arrived early Wednesday afternoon following a flight originating earlier in the day in south Florida.
Several arrivals, including four for trainer Pletcher, are ticketed for Monday's Southwest and Razorback stakes. Pletcher's four horses housed in the Royal Glint barn are Coal Front, Cutting Humor, Off Topic and Intrepid Heart, an unraced 3-year-old son of Tapit.
Owned by Robert and Lawana Low, of Springfield, Mo., Intrepid Heart was purchased for $750,000 at the Ocala Breeders' Sales April sale of 2-year-olds in training. Intrepid Heart is a half-brother to Commissioner, runner-up in Belmont Stakes and sixth in the Arkansas Derby in 2014.
Joining Casse's Oaklawn division were Shamrock Rose, winner of the Grade 1 $1 million Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint on Nov. 3 at Churchill Downs, and Olympic Runner.
The seventh arrival was Rocking the Boat for trainer Dale Romans.
Several Southern California-based horses for Monday's special Presidents Day program were scheduled to arrive Thursday afternoon following another H.E. "Tex" Sutton flight.
Lukas said Saturday maiden special weights winner Market King is a candidate for the Grade 2 $1 million Rebel Stakesfor 3-year-olds on March 16.
Allen Milligan, Oaklawn's leading trainer in 2009, had 999 career victories through Tuesday, according to Equibase, racing's official data gathering organization. Milligan has Pop Culture entered in today's second race.
Sports on 02/15/2019