Oaklawn Barn Notes: Update on Rebel and Azeri contenders

By Jennifer Hoyt —-

Sporting Chance; Coady Photography

Sporting Chance Ready for Competitive Rebel

Before Sporting Chance made his 3-year-old debut in the $500,000 Southwest Stakes (G3) Feb. 19, the colt’s trainer, Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas, asked an observer to handicap the 1 1/16-mile race, the second of Oaklawn’s four major preps for the Kentucky Derby.

After hearing the response, Lukas, a towering figure atop his pony during training hours, gave his betting strategy.

“Box six (horses),” Lukas said, clearly expecting an unexpected result. My Boy Jack, much more accomplished on turf, delivered just that, riding a sloppy track and golden rail to a 4 ½-length upset victory at odds of nearly 9-1.

Before training hours Thursday morning, Lukas was asked to handicap Saturday’s $900,000 Rebel Stakes (G2) since Sporting Chance, who finished third in the Southwest, was among 11 horses entered Wednesday for the 1 1/16-mile race that will award 85 points to the top four finishers (50-20-10-5) toward starting eligibility for the Kentucky Derby.

“I think you can narrow it down a little bit here without my handicapping, which is terrible,” Lukas said. “It’s a nice prep, it really is. Very competitive.”

Sporting Chance was beaten seven lengths in the Southwest, his two-turn debut and first start since winning the $350,000 Hopeful Stakes (G1) Sept. 4 at Saratoga. Lukas said Sporting Chance had a small knee chip removed shortly after the race, a procedure that sidelined the son of 2000 Horse of the Year Tiznow the remainder of 2017.

Lukas said he believes Sporting Chance will be much fitter for the Rebel after running in the Southwest and recording three subsequent works, including a stamina-building mile move in 1:41.40 March 5.

“I feel real good where we’re headed,” Lukas said. “So far, we haven’t had to adjust any place. We’ve actually done everything I would like to do. Whether I’ve got him where I want … you’ve got always keep in mind it’s March. It’s very easy to peak early with a 3-year-old.”

Sporting Chance is scheduled to break from post 7 under Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez, who will be riding the colt for the first time. Sporting Chance races for Lukas’ longtime clients, Robert Baker and William Mack.

Lukas, Oaklawn’s leading trainer in 1987 and 2011, will be the special guest for “Dawn at Oaklawn,” a question-and-answer session hosted each Saturday by paddock analyst Nancy Holthus.

The free program, which includes barn tours and complimentary pastries and coffee, is 7:30 a.m.-9:30 a.m. (Central). Lukas will be interviewed around 8:30 a.m. on the apron at the south end of the grandstand.

Million-Dollar Baby Curlin’s Honor Set for Stakes Debut in Rebel

John Oxley and Breeze Easy’s undefeated Curlin’s Honor will make his first start in stakes company and first beyond six furlongs in Saturday’s $900,000 Rebel Stakes (G2) for three-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles.

The son of 2007 Rebel and Arkansas Derby (G2) winner and Hall of Famer Curlin was scheduled to ship on Thursday from Fair Grounds where he won an allowance race on Feb. 25. In his only other start, Curlin’s Honor won a Keeneland maiden race on Oct. 7.

“There are not a whole lot of (allowance race) options for (three-year-olds) that have won two races so you have to go in a stakes,” trainer Mark Casse said Wednesday from the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. auction in Florida. “Timing wise and distance wise, the Rebel is the best choice. And you never give up hope that this could be ‘the one.’ If he is to have any shot at the Kentucky Derby (G1), he needs to run in this spot.”

Curlin’s Honor will be ridden for the first time by Florent Geroux, the nation’s leading jockey in purse earnings this year.

“We’ve had a lot of luck with Florent and we are extremely happy to have him,” Casse said.

The trainer first became interested in Curlin’s Honor at the 2017 Fasig-Tipton July yearling sale in Lexington, Ky. He was the underbidder when the colt sold for $475,000.

“Mr. Oxley was out of the country that day so I was flying solo,” Casse said. “Had I been able to get in touch with him, we might have bid a little more.”

Casse watched Curlin’s Honor train throughout that winter in Florida and liked what he was seeing. When the chestnut resurfaced at the Fasig-Tipton sale of two-year-olds in Timonium, Maryland in May, Oxley and Breeze Easy were the winning bidders at $1.5-million, a record for that auction.

Casse said the team opted to point to an autumn debut to allow Curlin’s Honor to overcome sore shins and to mature further. He noted that offspring of Curlin often require extra time to develop. Curlin himself did not make his first start until he was three and won the Rebel in just his second career race.

A Higher Power?

The promising Higher Power is scheduled to resurface in Saturday’s $900,000 Rebel Stakes (G2) for 3-year-olds for owner/breeder Josephine Abercrombie (Pin Oak Stable) and trainer Donnie K. Von Hemel.

The 1 1/16-mile Rebel will mark the stakes debut for the lightly raced Higher Power, a half-brother to millionaire and 2012 Oaklawn Handicap winner Alternation. The colt (2 for 3 in his career) is unbeaten in two starts around two turns after winning a 1-mile first-level allowance/optional claimer Jan. 13 in his 3-year-old debut.

Higher Power had been under consideration for the $500,000 Southwest Stakes (G3) Feb. 19 before missing several days of training with a minor illness, Von Hemel said.
Von Hemel said the scenario leading up to the Rebel is similar to last fall, when Higher Power broke his maiden going a mile Nov. 8 at Remington Park, but it was too quick to run back in a first-level allowance race.

Von Hemel then opted to skip the $400,000 Springboard Mile Stakes Dec. 17 at Remington Park and point for the Oaklawn meeting.

“We didn’t want to come out of a maiden race into there,” Von Hemel said Thursday morning. “We had to basically train from that race up to his race here, with a lot of missed days in January (weather). We missed about a week of training when he was sick, but that was a little further back in time. Really the last five weeks leading into this race, we’ve had to dodge a few rainstorms, but we’ve gotten in the work we wanted to get into him. I feel like we’re ready to go.”

Higher Power, a son of Medaglia d’Oro, will be reunited with jockey Richard Eramia for the Rebel and is scheduled to break from post 5.

Alternation, who was campaigned by Pin Oak and Von Hemel, won two allowance races at the 2011 Oaklawn meet before he was scheduled to make his fifth career start in the Rebel. Alternation, however, became fractious in the gate and was scratched. The son of Distorted Humor ran fifth in the $1 million Arkansas Derby (G1) in his next start

Cox confident Rebel is right direction for High North

After a pair gutsy performances in his last two starts, Shortleaf Stable’s High North will be trying for his initial stakes victory in Saturday’s $900,000 Rebel Stakes (G2) for three-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles.

The colt is exiting a fifth-place effort in the Risen Star Stakes (G2) on Feb. 17 at Fair Grounds. In his previous start, he was fourth in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes (G2) on Nov. 25.

“In the Kentucky Jockey Club, he had a lot of trouble and he showed a lot of fight to be fourth,” said Brad Cox, Oaklawn’s second leading trainer through March 14. “It was a good effort and something we could build on. We gave him a little freshening and then tried him in the Risen Star. He had a really good trip but came up maybe just a little bit short and was not quite where he needed to be regarding fitness.”

High North has been with Cox’s Fair Grounds division and arrived at Oaklawn Park on Tuesday. He breezed a half mile in :48.60 March 11 and the same distance in :4840 a week earlier.

“He had two great works at Fair Grounds and I am expecting him to move forward off the Risen Star,” the trainer said.

The colt will be ridden for the first time by Hall of Famer Gary Stevens.

“Gary is a good rider and will put him in a good spot, but it is up to the horse,” Cox said.

Shortleaf Stable is owned by Hot Springs resident John Ed Anthony who has won the Rebel numerous times when campaigning under his Loblolly Stable banner. His notable Rebel winners include subsequent Arkansas Derby winners Temperence Hill, Pine Bluff and Demons Begone. Anthony purchased High North for $230,000 at the 2016 Keeneland September yearling sale in Lexington, Ky.

The Iron Lady

Saturday’s $350,000 Azeri (G2) will mark Streamline’s 11th consecutive start in Oaklawn’s two-turn series of stakes races for older fillies and mares.

Never worse than third in any of those first 10 races, Streamline can become a millionaire with a repeat victory in the Azeri, the final major local prep for the $700,000 Apple Blossom Handicap (G1) April 13.

Quite a ride, trainer Brian Williamson said Thursday morning.

“I remember her coming in as a 2-year-old and something happened to her,” Williamson said. “She must have hurt something in her back, but then the next year she was fine. She was like outworking everything.”

Streamline raced for a claiming tag and made her first seven career starts on a synthetic surface or turf before Williamson decided to try on her dirt in a December 2015 allowance race at Hawthorne. The 1 1/16-mile race, which was restricted to Illinois-breds, was Streamline’s audition to follow Williamson to Arkansas for the 2016 Oaklawn meeting.

Streamline’s dam, Love Handles, was “more of a turf horse,” Williamson said, but her then-3-year-old daughter was a 15 ¾-length winner of that dirt debut.

“We were thinking Streamline was going to be more of a turf horse,” Williamson said. “That was thing of whether I’d bring her down here or not. She won by like 15 or something and the rest is history.”

In her 4-year-old debut, Streamline won the $100,000 Pippin Stakes, Oaklawn’s first of four two-turn stakes races for older fillies and mares She added a victory in last year’s Azeri and in the $150,000 Bayakoa Stakes (G3) Feb. 17 in her last start.

Overall, Streamline has an 8-3-9 record from 21 starts and earnings of $793,166. The 6-year-old daughter of Straight Line has a 3-2-5 record from 10 starts at Oaklawn, bankrolling $635,000.

“She’s been a fun horse to have,” Williamson said. “Great personality.”

Williamson said 2018 will “probably” be Streamline’s last year to race before she’s retired to become a broodmare.

Streamline races for her breeder, Nancy Vanier, and Cartwright Thoroughbreds V LLC. Williamson is Vanier’s son-in-law.