Southwest heads huge Saturday card

Horse trainer Bob Baffert looks on prior to the Breeders' Cup horse races at Del Mar racetrack in Del Mar, Calif., Friday, Nov. 5, 2021. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Horse trainer Bob Baffert looks on prior to the Breeders' Cup horse races at Del Mar racetrack in Del Mar, Calif., Friday, Nov. 5, 2021. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

For sheer equine quality, the last February weekend of 2021 ranks with the greatest in Oaklawn's history, especially given the trouble required to get there.

Two winter storms brought Hot Springs racing and most other Arkansas activities to a standstill. The problems were especially acute at Oaklawn, which lost eight days of racing and about two weeks of training. The $750,000 Grade 3 Southwest, a Kentucky Derby prep race, was postponed twice.

Though horses ran over a sloppy track, the Feb. 27 and Feb. 28 cards brimmed with quality. Trainer Brad Cox' decision to run two of his star performers in such conditions worked out splendidly with Essential Quality taking the Southwest by 4 1/4 lengths in his 3-year-old debut and two-time champion racemare Monomoy Girl winning the Grade 3 $250,000 Bayakoa by 2 lengths the next day in her first local race. The Mike Stidham-trained Mystic Guide breezed by six lengths in the Grade 3 $600,000 Razorback Handicap on Southwest Saturday, an outcome enhanced by the 4-year-old's colt subsequent victory in the Dubai World Cup overseas.

Oaklawn offered $1.867 million in purses on Saturday and $889,000 on Sunday. Almost overlooked were victories by Kimari in the $200,000 Spring Fever -- trainer Wesley Ward's 5-year-old mare won Keeneland's Grade 1 Madison next time out -- and 6-year-old gelding Lone Rock in an allowance-optional claimer. Trained by Robertino Diodoro, Lone Rock went on to win two Grade 2 stakes and Oaklawn's $200,000 Tinsel in December.

Now, to do it again.

The mile-and-sixteenth Southwest anchors Saturday's card, which includes two other stakes. The race's first January running drew 12 3-year-olds including Bob Baffert-trained stakes winner Newgrange. Also on tap are the $200,000 Martha Washington, a one-mile Kentucky Oaks prep race for 3-year-old fillies, and the $150,000 King Cotton, a six-furlong rematch between record-holder Hollis and Nashville with defending race winner Boldor included.

With post time 12:02 p.m. for the first of 11 races, the Martha Washington is race 4 (1:32 p.m.), the Southwest race 9 (4:22 p.m.) and the King Cotton race 10 (4:55 p.m.). Saturday's simulcast racing includes the Grade 1 $3 million Pegasus World Cup from Gulfstream Park with Breeders' Cup winners Knicks Go and Life Is Good competing.

The Southwest is the weekend's only Kentucky Derby prep with 17 points (10-4-2-1) to the top four finishers. Oaklawn stakes winners Kavod (Advent) and Dash Attack (Smarty Jones) head the local delegation with five others from the one-mile Smarty Jones going. Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen entered first-time Oaklawn starters Costa Terra and Classic Moment while Cox counters with two-time winner Vivar for Hot Springs owner-breeder John Ed Anthony's Loblolly Stable. Osbourne, last-out second in Remington Park's Springboard Mile, represents trainer Ron Moquett.

Still, the focus likely will shift to Newgrange, a Violence colt who won the Sham Jan. 1 at Santa Anita with a mile in 1:38 1-5. With Churchill Downs ruling off Baffert through the 2023 Kentucky Derby, Newgrange did not collect 10 qualifying points for winning the Sham, a fate that has befallen probable juvenile champion Corniche and others in his barn. Oaklawn has proven a home away home for the California-based trainer, record seven-time winner of the Kentucky Derby with four victories in the Southwest and taking Oaklawn's Grade 2 Rebel last year with Concert Tour.

The Martha Washington features three meet winners in Hypersport (trainer Ingrid Mason), Como Square (Cox) and Secret Oath (Wayne Lukas). Como Square won on the same card (Dec. 19) that half-brother Caddo River, last year's Smarty Jones winner, was disqualified and placed second in an allowance race; both are produced by the Anthony-raced Pangburn with Como Square sired by Into Mischief. Hypersport won opening day (Dec. 3) and Secret Oath scored a victory New Year's Eve that evoked memories of her dam, two-time Oaklawn stakes winner Absinthe Minded.

The King Cotton marks Round 2 between 7-year-old Hollis and 5-year-old Nashville, Hollis winning by 4 1/2 lengths Dec. 10 in track-record time for 5 1/2 furlongs (1:02.17). John Ortiz trains Hollis, a Street Sense gelding and 2021 stakes winner at Sam Houston Race Park who breaks from the rail post under Ricardo Santana Jr. Nashville, the six-furlong record holder at Keeneland in a 2020 Breeders' Cup undercard stake, figures to be sharper in his second start in 13 months for Asmussen, who keeps Florent Geroux aboard.

Six-year-old Boldor and 7-year-old Seven Nation Army (Moquett) are rematched after finishing a length apart in last year's King Cotton. The late-running Boldor has been running lately in turf sprints, winning a Colonial Downs stake three races back. David Cohen gets the mount on Boldor while Ramon Vazquez rides Seven Nation Army, a four-time Oaklawn winner who finished second in a Jan. 14 local prep.


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