Oaks Updates

BALANCE - Knowing that the daughter of Thunder Gulch is quite curious, trainer David Hofmans continued his get-acquainted-with-Churchill Downs program with the two-time Grade I winner.

With exercise rider Erin Buttigieg up, Balance galloped once around the track.

"She wanted to check the infield out," Hofmans said with a smile. "(Tuesday) she'll do a little more serious gallop, probably go a little farther."

Buttigieg took Balance up the chute to start the morning's exercise before heading out for the gallop.

Hofmans flew in from Southern California Sunday evening to supervise Balance's preparation for the Oaks. He also has a Derby candidate, Sacred Light, who is 22nd on the graded stakes earnings list of Derby hopefuls. The Derby field is limited to 20 starters.

Balance will be one of the favorites for the Oaks. She shipped in from Southern California Saturday night and her first look at the track during a jog Sunday morning. Hofmans said it is important for Balance to become acclimated to new locations.

"She needs to check her surroundings out and make sure she knows where all the creatures live," he said.

BUSHFIRE - Ron and Ricki Rashinski's (Homewrecker Stable) filly Bushfire turned in her final workout on Saturday at Keeneland, a four-furlong breeze in 47.40, and shipped to Churchill Downs on Sunday evening. The daughter of Louis Quatorze galloped Monday morning under exercise rider Desi Farrell for trainer Eddie Kenneally. She will gallop up to the Kentucky Oaks on Friday, with trips to the paddock during the week for schooling.

Kenneally, a 39-year-old Irishman, picked out Bushfire for the Rashinskis at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Yearling Sale. "First of all, I liked the stallion, Louis Quatorze, who was not the most popular stallion at the time, but I also liked the individual," said Kenneally. "She is a well-balanced filly, a big filly and - for the price - she was a serious bargain." Kenneally said $37,000 was paid for Bushfire, who did not meet her reserve at the sale.

That is a modest investment for a filly who has already won a Grade I race, the Ashland Stakes in her last start, defeating the highly regarded California-based Balance, who also will run in the Oaks.

"I have a great sense of satisfaction," said Kenneally of the accomplishment. "She has established value and this is great for the owners."

Kenneally has been training for the Rashinskis for about 10 years and, although they have some horses with other trainers, Kenneally was their first trainer.

Interestingly, Bushfire is the only Oaks contender to have had two previous races over the Churchill Downs racetrack. Her first two career starts were here last fall, including her first victory, going a mile and a sixteenth in a maiden special weight event.

She spent the winter in Florida, stabled at the Palm Meadows training center and shipped to Tampa Bay Downs to win the Florida Oaks prior to her victory in the Ashland.

DIPLOMAT LADY - The Forestry filly was the last horse out on the track Monday morning as she breezed a half-mile in 51.20 (21st of 24 works at the distance) over the muddy strip under jockey Alex Solis.

Bonnie Paasch, wife of trainer Chris Paasch, was on hand to supervise the drill. It came a lot later than expected because Solis, who will ride the filly in the Oaks, was delayed getting to Churchill Downs after his plane landed in Cincinnati. When he arrived at the track, he first worked Kentucky Derby starter Brother Derek, and then hopped off the colt to ride the filly.

Diplomat Lady did not step onto the track until 9:50 a.m. and was all alone as she broke off from the half-mile pole for her final serious Oaks drill.

"I would prefer to see her go in 49 and change," Bonnie Paasch said. "But the track was so deep and cut up that I told Alex to take care of her. She looked like she went smoothly all the way and came back fine, not blowing a bit."

Diplomat Lady, who shipped from California to win the Beaumont Stakes at Keeneland last out, had worked a bullet half in 46.80 at Hollywood Park before that race.

"There were two horses in front of her that day," Paasch said, "and she got competitive. Today she went out much later than she usually does and she was all alone, so she just went along easy."

Solis was aboard for the work because Friday will be the first time he rides the filly, that has had five jockeys in her eight career starts.

Trainer Paasch was due at Churchill Downs late Monday afternoon.

Diplomat Lady, owned by Charles Cono LLC, became a Grade I winner last December when she took the Hollywood Starlet for her first win around two turns. A $400,000 sales purchase last year, she is second only to Balance on the Oaks list of graded stakes earnings, with a total of $460,600.

ERMINE - Oxbow Racing's Ermine jogged at Churchill Downs on Monday morning for trainer Ronny Werner, having turned in her last serious workout here on Thursday, breezing five furlongs in 1:01.20. She will gallop the rest of the week in preparation for the Oaks.

"It's a big step, but I think she's up to the task," said Werner. "She has actually won three in a row now and the extra distance should help her, really. She has come home well every race."

Werner discounts her 2006 debut in which she had a comfortable lead within the sixteenth pole, but ducked sharply and dropped her rider.

"It seemed like the instant he (jockey Francisco Torres) stuck her (hit her with the whip), she ducked. But she may have been spooked by a cameraman or it was a combination of both. It has never been a problem (ducking) with her…she's a machine, a dream to train. She doesn't make mistakes. She's always had horses to run down and I think in that race, it was the first time she was on the lead all by herself."

After the ducking incident, Ermine came back to break her maiden as the favorite and later win the Honeybee Stakes, all at Oaklawn Park. Werner knew after that race that the Kentucky Oaks was the goal.

"She is a lighter-made filly, she's thin, and it's a little hard keeping weight on her," said Werner. "What I'm getting at is skipping the Fantasy (Fantasy Stakes at Oaklawn). I wanted to have enough time to have her at her best and three weeks between races would have been hard."

"I believe in this filly. She's never hooked these kind before, but I think she's up for the task and she deserves a shot."

EX CAELIS - Circle C Group Stables' Ex Caelis jogged once around the main Churchill Downs oval early Monday morning under exercise rider Jesse Cirillo.

Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas was not at the barn Monday morning, having been sidelined for the day by a pulled muscle in his leg that was incurred Sunday. He is expected back at Barn 44 on Tuesday.

Apprentice Julien Leparoux, who will lose his bug Sept. 25, has the Oaks mount on Ex Caelis.

Laparoux will be attempting to become the first apprentice Fabio Arguello Jr. rode Luv Me Luv Me Not to victory in the 1992 Oaks to win the Grade I classic.

Prior to Arguello's triumph, the last apprentice to win the Oaks was Bill Boland in 1950 on Ari's Mona, the day before he rode Middleground to Derby glory and become one of six riders to complete an Oaks-Derby double in the same year.

ITTY BITTY PRETTY - The California-based Itty Bitty Pretty galloped 1-1/2 miles under exercise rider Luis Rodriguez Monday morning.

As she was being walked following her morning exercise, trainer Paul McGee assessed the daughter of El Corredor's conformation.

"For as small as she is, she has a long stride," McGee said. "She's got some length to her. She just doesn't stand tall."

McGee, who has been supervising the filly's training for California-based Doug O'Neill, said Itty Bitty Pretty would be at no disadvantage in Friday's Kentucky Oaks due to her size.

"I don't mind a small filly," said McGee. "There have been a lot of good small fillies, but I can't say there have been a lot of good small colts."

LEMONS FOREVER - Bourbonette Stakes third-place finisher Lemons Forever breezed five furlongs at Churchill Downs on Saturday in 1:00.40, her last workout before the Kentucky Oaks this Friday. The daughter of Lemon Drop Kid jogged Monday morning.

Trainer Dallas Stewart is also a co-owner of Lemons Forever with his friends Will, Terry and Leon Horton, all brothers. Stewart selected the filly from the Taylor Made consignment at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale, where they paid $140,000 for her.

Lemons Forever has not raced since the Bourbonette at Turfway Park on March 25 and "that is by design," said Stewart Monday morning. "Coming out of that race, I knew we would point her for the Oaks and she'd be competitive going the mile and an eighth. We stretched her out before and then took some time and waited to space her races out and be patient, all to get her to the first Friday in May.

"It would be great to win it," beamed Stewart, "especially being a part owner. I don't know when the last time that's happened."

A former assistant to Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas, Stewart went out on his own in 1997 and maintains a stable of 34 at Churchill Downs, as well as another 20 head at Keeneland.

MISS NORMAN - The daughter of Artax had a second easy day Monday, just walking under the shedrow with owner Greg Norman and trainer Karin Long looking on.

"We gave her two days off after her work Saturday (seven furlongs in 1:29.80)," said Norman. "She'll go back to the track tomorrow to jog with a pony. She's doing just great."

Jockey Tony Farina was in from California for the workout, and will return Friday to ride Miss Norman for the second time. Farina's first experience was a thriller as the filly bolted while leading in the Fantasy Stakes, and still got second while racing far wide.

Miss Norman was second in the Matron at Belmont last year at 53-1, and was even-money when she broke her maiden at Del Mar last summer in her lone victory.

PRESS CAMP - Trainer William E. Morey reported from his home base at Bay Meadows that Press Camp would not be coming to Kentucky for Friday's Oaks.

"The filly has not been right the last two days and she has got to be 100 percent," Morey said. "I think she will be fine, but the timing is bad. If the race were next week, we might be all right."

The Comic Strip filly is owned by the partnership of Peters Stables LLC, Rancho San Miguel and Matthew Shaver.

"I had a knot in my stomach when I called the owners. It's a tough game," said Morey, 32. "I had been cautiously optimistic since her work Thursday (a mile in 1:44.60), but starting Sunday afternoon, I got worried and just don't want to take a chance where running might really knock her out for a while."

QUIET KIM - The daughter of Kentucky Derby winner Real Quiet jogged two miles around the muddy oval Monday morning under exercise rider Gerardo Morales.

Morales said trainer Bob Hess is due in either Monday night or Tuesday morning. Hess has yet to name a rider for Quiet Kim.

Chris Houchins' filly had her final Oaks drill here last Friday when she breezed six furlongs in 1:12.80 under Morales.

Quiet Kim was second in the Santa Anita Oaks in March, and finished sixth in the Fantasy Stakes last out. She broke her maiden in February at Santa Anita.

RED CHERRIES SPIN - Trainer Bernie Flint welcomed news that the recent defections of Ready to Please and Press Camp would allow Naveed Chowhan's Red Cherries Spin to compete in the 132nd running of the Kentucky Oaks. Chowhan claimed the daughter of With Approval from a race at Keeneland on April 15.

The filly is not nominated to the Kentucky Oaks, so Chowhan will have to pay a fee of $25,000 to make her a supplemental entry to the $500,000-added race for 3-year-old fillies. Flint said that Corey Nakatini would ride Red Cherries Spin in the Oaks.

Red Cherries Spin has won three of her four career races, but two of those wins came in claiming races and the filly has never raced beyond six furlongs.

"I think she's bred to go long," said Flint. "That's why we took her, because I think she can get the distance. I know damn good and well it's going to be a tough race -- it's never going to be an easy race at that distance."

Flint is also encouraged by the performances of former claiming horses in the Kentucky Derby and other big races as reason for optimism as Red Cherries Spin prepares to make her stakes debut in the 1 1/8-mile Oaks.

"A lot of these horses that are running in the Derby and other places -- Lawyer Ron in the Derby, Charismatic in the Derby, and Brass Hat in the Dubai World Cup -- have all run for a tag," he said. "A lot of good horses have done it before and she's never been tried going long, so maybe we can get it out of her. We've won 3,000 races, so maybe I can get one more."

Flint scored career victory number 3,000 earlier this year at Oaklawn Park. Chowhan and Flint will be competing in their second consecutive renewal of the Kentucky Oaks. The duo finished sixth last year with Runway Model.

Red Cherries Spin galloped two miles over a "muddy" track on Monday. Exercise rider Georgia Jackson was in the saddle.

TOP NOTCH LADY - Trainer Mark Casse sent Top Notch Lady to the track Monday for a 1-1/2-mile gallop in preparation for Friday's Kentucky Oaks.

The strapping 3-year-old filly stands 17-1 hands.

"She's the biggest horse in my barn," Casse said. "But she's a tremendous moving filly. She doesn't move like a big horse. She's light on her feet."

The daughter of Sultry Song will be seeking her fourth straight victory after scoring in her 2006 debut with an off-the-pace triumph in the Grade III Bourbonette Stakes at Turfway Park.

WAIT A WHILE - Arindel Farm's Wait a While merely walked the shedrow Monday morning as she moved toward her date in Friday's $500,000 Kentucky Oaks.

Trainer Todd Pletcher made it an easy day for his gray daughter of Maria's Mon, after having worked her Saturday (five furlongs in 1:03.40) and jogging her Sunday.

The nation's current leading rider for purses won, Garrett Gomez, has the call on Wait A While in the nine-furlong Oaks.

WONDER LADY ANNE L/LAST ROMANCE - Trainer Rick Dutrow's fillies had an easy Monday morning at muddy Churchill Downs.

"The track was bad, so they just jogged," said Dutrow's assistant Michele Nevin, who rode both horses.

Dutrow is due to arrive this week and finalize training plans. Nevin said she was not sure what the schedule will call for on Tuesday.

"If the track is good they will gallop or breeze," she said, "depending upon what the boss wants to do."

Last Romance won the Wayward Lass Stakes at Aqueduct in her last start. She races for the partnership of Sanford J. Goldfarb, Michael Dubb and Bunch of Characters Stable.

Wonder Lady L is owned by IEAH Stable and Joseph Plumeri. She was second in the Bonnie Miss at Gulfstream in her last start.

« Back To Oaks Updates