Oaklawn Barn Notes: Fires Turns to Old Friend for Help with Gray Attempt

By Jennifer Hoyt —-

Coady Photography

After Gray Attempt became tougher to handle in the morning following his victory in the $125,000 Smarty Jones Stakes Jan. 25 at Oaklawn, trainer Jinks Fires of Hot Springs turned to an old friend for help.

Enter trainer John Henry Prather, 66, who has regularly galloped Gray Attempt the last few weeks in preparation for Monday’s $500,000 Southwest Stakes (G3) for 3-year-olds.

Fires, 78, said he’s been friends with Prather since the early 1970s when both worked as exercise riders for the late Doug Davis, Oaklawn’s leading trainer in 1969, 1970 and 1975. Chel-c Bailey had been Gray Attempt’s regular exercise rider and worked the colt before his 3-year-old debut in the Smarty Jones, Oaklawn’s first of four major preps for the Kentucky Derby.

“He was starting to get really tough,” said Fires, who has used Prather as an exercise rider in the past. “John, he’s an old hand. We were just trying to get him relaxed. Chel-c has done a great job on him so far. I was just trying to get him relaxed, and John has a tendency to be able to do that. He’s been a gallop boy for a lot of years. That’s what older guys with good hands do.”

Fires normally takes Gray Attempt to the track after the break to renovate the racing surface, when there is less traffic. Gray Attempt was a front-running winner of the Smarty Jones – his first start around two turns – and will try to carry his speed 1 1/16 miles in the Southwest.

“He’s a very a good horse,” Prather said. “Since I’ve been getting on him, he’s settled down quite a bit.”

Gray Attempt is just one chapter in a busy morning for Prather, a longtime Hot Springs resident who also gallops and breezes his eight-horse Oaklawn string. Prather has saddled 90 career winners, according to Equibase, racing’s official data gathering organization, including Silverado Road Feb. 7.
“We get my horses out and then I come over here and get him first thing after the break,” Prather said of Gray Attempt.

Fires said he has so much confidence in Prather’s hands that he wouldn’t have hesitated to use him on Gray Attempt – even if Prather had a horse in the Southwest.

“He would still come over, and I wouldn’t be afraid to put him on him, either,” Fires said “He’s honest. He would do the best he could do.”

Sticking With the Plan

Nanoosh has never lost in three starts for trainer Robertino Diodoro, but colt’s biggest test yet comes in Monday’s $500,000 Razorback Handicap (G3) for older horses at 1 1/16 miles.

Bred and co-owned by Zayat Stables LLC, Nanoosh will be making his first start since winning the $250,000 Zia Park Derby Nov. 21 at Zia Park. Diodoro said Justin Zayat, his family’s racing and stallion manager, then targeted the Razorback for the colt’s 4-year-old debut.

“He said, ‘It’s up to you, but I wouldn’t be opposed to giving him a little bit of a break now and keeping him fresh and having him ready for the Razorback,’ ” Diodoro said. “He’s the one that originally came up with the plan and we’ve stuck to it and hopefully it’s going to pay off.”

A son of the Zayat-raced Paynter, Nanoosh began his racing career with Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas before being transferred to Diodoro last summer. Nanoosh won an allowance race on the turf Sept. 7 at Canterbury Park and an allowance race Oct. 28 at Turf Paradise before capturing the Zia Park Derby in his stakes debut.

Diodoro said Nanoosh was among the first horses he received from the Zayats, best known for campaigning 2015 Arkansas Derby, Rebel and Triple Crown winner American Pharoah.

“We thought he was a nice horse,” Diodoro said. “Justin’s the one that kept telling me this horse is better than what he shows on paper. He needs to grow into himself, mature. He really has, actually. He’s just got better and better with his races, and the way he looks and his training. Even just being here at Oaklawn, since the Zia Park Derby, I think this horse has trained way better than he ever has. What I like, he’s been on a weekly work schedule and every work has been strong, if not stronger, every time. There hasn’t been one flat work.”

Nanoosh (12-1 on the morning line) has a 4-0-0 record from seven lifetime starts and earnings of $217,696.

I am the Warrior

Owner Stephanie Clark won Oaklawn’s Rainbow Miss Stakes in 1997 with Northern Silver. Clark will try to land a much bigger prize Monday with another homebred, M G Warrior, who will make his stakes debut in the $500,000 Razorback Handicap (G3) for older horses at 1 1/16 miles.

Trained by Dallas Stewart, M G Warrior has won four his last five starts, including a three-quarter length allowance score Jan. 26 at Oaklawn under a patented ground-saving ride from Corey Lanerie.

“We’re finally giving it a try and moving him up,” Clark said. “I thought he ran a fabulous race this last race there. In fact, if I would have been there, I would have probably gotten sick. He was so close to the rail. It looked like he was going to run into the infield. I think I saw his hair literally brush the rail.”

Clark’s husband, Dave, once owned Iron Horse Farm in Perryville, Ark., renowned equine air transporter H.E. “Tex” Forwarding Co. and was president of the Arkansas Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Horsemen’s Association. He died in 2015.

Stephanie Clark lives in Kentucky and said she won’t be able to attend Monday’s race.

“I know a lot of people down there and miss them,” Clark said. “In 13 years of coming to every race meet almost every day, I miss everybody down there and love them. If the racing gods can shine on us, that would be wonderful”

M G Warrior is 5-1 on the morning line for the Razorback.

Finish Lines

A triple Saturday vaulted David Cohen into the lead in the jockey standings with 16 victories, one more than six-time defending champion Ricardo Santana Jr., who rode Saturday at Fair Grounds. Two of Cohen’s winners came for leading owner M and M Racing (Mike and Mickala Sisk) – favored King of the Court ($3.80) in the second race for trainer Norman McKnight and favored Giant Influence ($5) in the third race for trainer Robertino Diodoro. M and M has 12 victories, five more than runner-up and four-time Oaklawn leading owner Danny Caldwell. Cohen also won the ninth race on workout star Hidden Ruler ($6.80), a 3-year-old Gemologist colt who was making his career debut for trainer Dallas Stewart. Hidden Ruler was saddled by Stewart’s Oaklawn assistant, Beau Chapman, whose father, James, saddled Heartwood to win the $100,000 King Cotton Stakes for older sprinters a week earlier. Hidden Ruler’s dam, Hidden Value, broke her maiden at the 2010 Oaklawn meeting for Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas. … Raintree Starlet ($13.40) became the fourth two-time winner at the meet in Saturday’s $100,000 Dixie Belle Stakes for 3-year-old filly sprinters and gave Alex Canchari a double on the card. Canchari won the first race on Red Again ($5.20), the meet’s third two-time winner. … Triple Crown nominee Intrepid Heart is scheduled to make his career debut in Monday’s third race, a $93,000 maiden special weights event at a mile for trainer Todd Pletcher and owners Robert and Lawana Low. The Lows purchased the gray son of Tapit for $750,000 at the OBS April sale of 2-year-olds in training. A half-brother to Commissioner, runner-up in the Belmont Stakes and sixth in the Arkansas Derby in 2014, Intrepid Heart was among four south Florida-based horses for Pletcher that arrived Wednesday. Pletcher and the Lows campaigned Magnum Moon, who set a single-season Oaklawn record for earnings ($1,140,000) after winning last year’s $900,000 Rebel Stakes (G2) and $1 million Arkansas Derby (G1) for 3-year-olds. … Multiple stakes winner Cosmic Burst returned to trainer Donnie K. Von Hemel Saturday after a winter freshening. Cosmic Burst won the $200,000 Honeybee Stakes (G3) for 3-year-old fillies last year at Oaklawn and the hope, Von Hemel said Sunday morning, is to run her at the end of the meeting. … Owner Alex Lieblong said Saturday afternoon that he has privately purchased Bye Bye J, runner-up in the $150,000 Forward Gal Stakes (G3) Feb. 2 at Gulfstream Park, and the 3-year-old Arkansas-bred filly is now at Oaklawn with trainer Ron Moquett of Hot Springs. Lieblong is chairman of the Arkansas Racing Commission. … Oaklawn surpassed $2 million in claims Saturday, the 13th day of the scheduled 57-day meeting. Overall, 135 claims have totaled $2,032,000 There were 13 claims Saturday, including Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen winning a 15-way shake, or blind draw, to take Tonedaddy out of the first race for $8,000.