Call it a light snack if you wish, but two past champion trainers at Oaklawn sated the fans' desire for an appetizer before a Camp David summit of sprint horses.
Edge to Edge and Gun Pilot, although they will not meet again in short order, livened the script for Saturday's Grade 3 $500,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap. Chris Hartman bettered Steve Asmussen for a change in the inaugural $175,000 Eclipse Stakes Sunday, one day before Mother Nature stages a show for which the track infield will be open.
Gun Pilot, the 8-5 favorite among 10 sprinters without a stakes victory this year or last, could not track down Edge to Edge, whose fourth Oaklawn victory represented his biggest locally. Peggy Thompson races the 6-year-old winner, beaten a neck Feb. 19 and third in two Oaklawn stakes last year.
They did not dally, the winner's time 1:09.54 with a one-length margin.
The Eclipse offered class relief for the Competitive Edge stallion in that he did not have to face Skelly, losing twice each of the last two seasons to the Asmussen-trained dynamo. Skelly, fresh off a second-place finish in Dubai, his first defeat in more than a year, defends the Count Fleet title, winning the King Cotton over the track Feb. 3.
Although Asmussen also dispatches last-out stakes winner Jaxon Traveler among three starters, Hartman need not quake entering Tejano Twist, an Oaklawn stakes winner this season and last. The Count Fleet and Grade 1 $1.25 million Apple Blossom Handicap on Saturday represent the first Oaklawn stakes since the solar eclipse.
Tactical speed has long been a hole card for Edge to Edge, allowing Rafael Bejarano to position him second behind meet winner Tapatio Leo, a need-the-lead type trained by Peter Miller. A half-mile in 45.35 seconds cooked several in the field, including former Hartman runner Kavod, Oaklawn's inaugural Matron winner in December 2021, now with Mike Maker.
"That was the plan, to sit outside the 6 horse (Leo) and wait until the top of the lane and let him rip," Hartman said. Bejarano, he said, "rode him perfectly. He's a very nice horse in his own right."
Cristian Torres could not catch the leader on Gun Pilot, a Three Chimneys Farm homebred by Gun Runner. A two-time Oaklawn winner himself, the 4-year-old came off back-to-back 2024 victories, the last on March 10 at Oaklawn by 3 1/2 lengths.
"I knew the 6 was the speed," Bejarano said. "He went to the lead really comfortable, so I just tried to follow him, tried to get him to relax. My horse, he's getting into the bit, but I didn't let him go until we came to the stretch. Turning for home, I waited a couple of jumps more and was flying at the end."
Edge to Edge, at 116 with a 7-pound weight break from the favorite, paid $12.20, $5.20 and $3.60. The exacta paid $19.60 and the trifecta with Tapatio Leo returned $60.20. Chasing Time ran fourth, past Gazebo winner Sir Wellington seventh and Kavod eighth with Morello, a stablemate of the runner-up and superfecta finisher, ninth.
Oaklawn's last four weeks of racing resume Friday. Saturday's card offers 11 races. The meeting ends Sunday, May 5.