Oaks News

Photo By: Reed Palmer

Longshot Miss Norman leads the Oaks field around the first turn in front of a 108,065 patrons - the second largest ever Oaks day crowd - on an ideal Friday afternoon at Churchill Downs.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (May 5, 2006) - Lemons Forever, with Mark Guidry aboard, rallied from last on the backstretch and caught Ermine in the final sixteenth to post the 1 ½ length victory in Friday's 132nd running of the $755,900 Kentucky Oaks.

Lemons Forever's upset was the largest in the race's storied history and marked just the sixth winner with odds of at least 20-1. The previous longest shot was Lemco in 1903, who was sent off at odds of 40-1.

Owned by Leon, Willis and Terry Horton and trained Dallas Stewart, Lemons Forever earned her third win in six starts and paid $96.20, $37.00 and $18.20. The final time over the "fast" track of 1:50.07 was the seventh fastest since the race was moved to 1 1/8 miles in 1982.

Ermine returned mutuels of $11.20 and $7.80 for her second place effort. Bushfire, who finished third, was disqualified and placed sixth for interfering with Red Cherries Spin. As a result, Wait a While was placed third and paid $6.40.

The win vaulted Lemons Forever career earnings to $483,929 and marked her first victory in stakes company.

The attendance for Friday's Oaks card was 108,065, the second highest attendance during the race's history. Only to last year's attendance of 111,243 eclipsed Friday's mark.

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