Oaks Blogs

There was that note out of Keeneland about the works Sunday morning. Seems the filly Rags to Riches, your very likely favorite for the Kentucky Oaks, worked six furlongs. In company. With a colt. Hmmmm.

Now you don’t see that one very often, not here in America. And it just wasn’t any colt, either. It was a handy hide named Circular Quay, one of the serious runners preparing for the Kentucky Derby.

Same trainer and (for the most part) same owner, so that’s a big part of how that happened. Similar racing circumstances, too, which add to the mix. The filly, a daughter of super sire A.P. Indy (you’re welcome Lennyfromlexington), hasn’t run since March 11 and is training up to her nine-furlong tilt at Churchill. The colt, by former Derby winner Thunder Gulch, hasn’t run since March 10 and is training up to his chance of a lifetime over 10 panels.

The tandem went the six furlongs in 1:13 2/5, which is a nice move for the distance at most any track. (That is unless you were at Santa Anita this morning and had Bob Baffert calling the shots on radio control for your filly – say Tough Tiz’s Sis – getting ready for the Oaks. Then you’d have gone the six in 1:10 3/5.)

And the fact that “Rags” and “Circular” both need the work – and that in addition both are closers by style and therefore probably more in need of a little ‘push’ – all makes more sense still. And in the end if both run huge on their days in Louisville, then all will be right with the world.

But let me tell you a little sidebar that parallels this situation – the sidebar coming by way of my West Coast blogging pal, Daniel G. Smith.

Dan has been going back to Kentucky to work the Derby since 1971 (if you knew that was Canonero II’s year, you get silver star bonus points) and he’ll be back there again this go-round doing a gig for NBC. When Sunday’s filly-colt work was mentioned to him, a light went off for him concerning a racing legend and a colt and a filly working together.

It was 1986 (and if you knew that was Ferdinand’s year, you are now eligible to be upgraded to gold star points) and the “Bald Eagle,” one Charles Whittingham, came to Louisville with a colt named Ferdinand and some old jock they said was over the hill named Shoemaker. But what a lot of folks probably don’t remember, is that the Hall of Fame trainer also brought a dandy little filly named Hidden Light with him with designs on the Kentucky Oaks.

Hidden Light, a bay by Majestic Light out of the top class racemare and broodmare Tallahto, had just won the Santa Anita Oaks and would go off the second favorite in the Kentucky Oaks behind a filly named Tiffany Lass. And Whittingham, knowing that Ferdinand and Hidden Light ran in the same silks (those of Mrs. H. B. Keck), decided it might aid them both to spar a little out on the racetrack. So he had them ding-dong it in company ahead of their races, then gave Shoe a leg up on both when it came up race day.

You know how it worked out with Ferdinand, with the wily Shoe turning in one of the best rides of his illustrious career. Ah, but in the case of Hidden Light, it wasn’t near as good. She showed speed into the stretch, then backed up and finished seventh. Tiffany Lass proved to be the winner.

So what does all this mean – this set of circumstances from 21 years ago that show a parallel to something happening right here and now?

My guess is nothing – absolutely nothing. But then, you never know.