2024.04.24 Oaklawn Racing Updates

Wednesday, April 24, 2024

Compiled by Robert Yates

For Immediate Release

Trainer Greg Compton can add to his best Oaklawn meeting to date in Saturday’s $200,000 Dig A Diamond Stakes for older fillies and mares at one mile.

Compton is scheduled to start I’m the Boss of Me in the Dig A Diamond, which goes as race 10 on an 11-race card that begins at 12:30 p.m. (Central). Probable post time for the Dig A Diamond is 5:38 p.m.

A North Little Rock, Ark., native, Compton has 11 victories this season at Oaklawn, bettering his previous best (10), set at the 2022-2023 meeting. Compton now bids for his first career Oaklawn stakes victory with I’m the Boss of Me, a 6-year-old daughter of Midshipman he owns with Danny Brown and his fiancée, Charis Brenneman.

The consistent I’m the Boss of Me – first, second or third in 19 of 28 lifetime starts – is seeking her first stakes victory. She has three third-place finishes in stakes company and was second in the $150,000 American Beauty Stakes for older female sprinters in January 2023 at Oaklawn. Compton claimed I’m the Boss of Me for $50,000 out of a Dec. 31, 2021, victory at Oaklawn. A two-time Oaklawn allowance winner, I’m the Boss of Me hasn’t raced around two turns since February 2022.

“I hope she can get over the hump,” Compton. “I mean, it’s at a mile. She hasn’t done that in quite a while. But when I claimed her, her best race to date, from a numbers perspective, was at a mile. She’s just developed into such a good sprinter. That (Dig A Diamond) is the only thing left (here), so we decided to go there.”

I’m the Boss of Me exits a closing second in a starter-allowance sprint April 4 at Oaklawn.

The nine-horse Dig A Diamond field from the rail out: Wildwood Bye, Luis Fuentes to ride, 122 pounds, 20-1 on the morning line; I’m the Boss of Me, Francisco Arrieta, 115, 10-1; Hoosier Philly, Rafael Bejarano, 115, 2-1; Bow Draw, Gabriel Saez, 122, 30-1; Absinthe, Keith Asmussen, 115, 15-1; Olivia Twist, Cristian Torres, 115, 5-1; Stellar Lily, Ricardo Santana Jr., 122, 12-1; Crypto Mo, Axel Concepcion, 115, 5-2; and Bluelightspecial, Emmanuel Esquivel, 122, 7-2.

Compton notched his 11th meet victory Sunday with Auto Glide ($8.40). Compton had matched his single-season Oaklawn high for victories when heavily favored Polterer ($3.60) captured a one-mile starter allowance for older horses Saturday.

Compton said Polterer, a three-time winner at the meeting, is a candidate for the $125,000 Trail’s End starter-allowance marathon May 5. The 1 ¾-mile Trail’s End is traditionally the final race of the Oaklawn meeting. Polterer ran fourth in the 2023 Trail’s End.

Compton, who worked under three-time Oaklawn training champion Bobby Barnett before going out on his own, has 193 career victories, the first coming March 25, 2007, at Turfway Park. Compton has 60 career victories at Oaklawn, the first coming Feb. 28, 2009.

Compton makes Oaklawn and Delaware Park his year-round circuit.

Ladies Man

Trainer Kenny McPeek won his sixth stakes race of the 2023-2024 Oaklawn meeting with Winnable, who edged favored Neom Beach by a head in last Saturday’s $200,000 Valley of the Vapors for 3-year-old fillies at 1 mile.

Five of McPeek’s stakes victories have been in races for females. McPeek also won the $150,000 Mistletoe Dec. 9 with Butterbean; $200,000 Year’s End Dec. 31 with Ice Cold; $250,000 Martha Washington Feb. 3 with Band of Gold’ and $750,000 G2-Fantasy March 30 with Thorpedo Anna.

Winnable, a homebred for Stoneleigh Farm (Joseph B. Murphy II), was making her dirt debut after launching her career with two starts at Turfway Park, which has a synthetic surface.

“The interesting thing is I trained the second dam (Dawn Raid), the first dam (Mischievousmaximus) and now her,” McPeek said. “Pretty cool stuff.”

Dawn Raid is also the dam of 2016 Preakness winner Exaggerator.

Winnable ($6.60) earned a preliminary Beyer Speed Figure of 77 for her Valley of the Vapors victory. By 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify, Winnable broke her maiden Feb. 21 before finishing second in the $300,000 Bourbonette Oaks at 1 1/16 miles March 23. Bourbonette Oaks winner Everland is pointing for the $1.5 million G1-Kentucky Oaks (G1) May 3 at Churchill Downs.

McPeek said Winnable will be considered for the $300,000 G2-Black Eyed Susan Stakes May 17 at Pimlico.

“I think that’s a good, logical next spot,” McPeek said.

Thorpedo Anna is among the favorites for the Kentucky Oaks, while McPeek’s only male stakes winner to date this season at Oaklawn, Mystik Dan, is headed to the Kentucky Derby. Mystik Dan won the $800,000 G3-Southwest Stakes (G3) at 1 1/16 miles Feb. 3. The Southwest was Oaklawn’s second Kentucky Derby points race.

Finish Lines

Skippylongstocking received a preliminary Beyer Speed Figure of 107, a career high, for his two-length victory in last Saturday’s $1.25 million G2-Oaklawn Handicap. Skippylongstocking covered 1 1/8 miles over a fast track in a meet-best 1:49. … Trainer Ron Moquett of Hot Springs saddled two winners last Sunday at Oaklawn, pushing his career North American Thoroughbred total to 989, according to Equibase. Moquett won the seventh race with Radical Right ($25.20) and the ninth race with Strato ($10.40).