Oaks News

Heiligbrodt Racing Stable’s Appealing Zophie, no disappointment as the favorite in last month’s Grade III Silverbulletday Stakes, has been installed as the 5-2 morning line choice among eight 3-year-old fillies for the 41st running of the $400,000 Grade II Fair Grounds Oaks Saturday at Fair Grounds Race Course.

The Fair Grounds Oaks is one of five stakes races on Louisiana Derby Day presented by Budweiser and the penultimate event prior to the $600,000 Grade II Louisiana Derby.

In the two most recent renewals of the mile and a sixteenth Oaks, the filly equivalent of the Louisiana Derby, the winning filly has gone on to win the Kentucky Oaks eight weeks later at Churchill Downs – Summerly in 2005 and Ashado in 2004. Additionally, though the Fair Grounds Oaks was not contested last year, the Kentucky Oaks winner, Lemons Forever, raced at the Fair Grounds meet at Louisiana Downs in 2005-06.

Appealing Zophie, a precocious daughter of Successful Appeal, led throughout when scoring a 4 1/4-length win the Silverbulletday Feb. 10. In her final start as a 2-year-old, she was runner-up in the $300,000 Delta Princess Stakes after finishing fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies when handicapped by the extreme outside post. Conditioned by six-time Fair Grounds trainer champion Steve Asmussen, she will break from post No. 7 on Saturday and will be ridden by John Velazquez, who was aboard for her Silverbulletday victory.

J. Paul Reddam’s Mistical Plan, winner of Santa Anita’s Sunshine Millions Oaks Jan. 27 in her last start, is the second choice in the Oaks at 3-1. Mistical Plan has made just one start outside of California – a second-place finish in the Grade III Pocahontas at Churchill Downs in October. Corey Nakatani will ride for trainer Doug O’Neill.

Starlight Stable and D.J. Lucarelli’s Octave is the third choice at 4-1, Trained by Todd Pletcher, Eclipse Award winning conditioner for the last three seasons, Octave will be making her sophomore debut Saturday after finishing second by a 1 1/2 lengths in the BC Juvenile Fillies. Before that she had finished second in the Grade I Matron at Belmont and captured Saratoga’s Grade II Adirondack Breeders’ Cup Aug. 16. Regular rider Garrett Gomez gets the call on Octave, who breaks from post No. 4.

The second and third-place finishers behind Appealing Zophie in the Silverbulletday, Total and Get Ready Bertie, return for the Fair Grounds Oaks. Total won the Letellier Memorial here by 6 3/4 lengths on New Year’s Day, and Get Ready Bertie was the two-length winner of the Tiffany Lass here Jan. 13.

Total, trained by Al Stall Jr., will be handled once again by Jesse Campbell. Get Ready Bertie, from the barn of Steve Flint, gets the riding services of last year’s Eclipse Award winning jockey Edgar Prado for the first time Saturday.

Completing the Oaks field is Dawn After Dawn, fourth in the Silverbulletday; Whatdreamsrmadeof, a first-level allowance winner here Feb. 10, and Le Chateau, a 10 1/2-length maiden winner at Fair Grounds on Feb. 8.

First post Saturday is 12:35 p.m. CST. The Oaks is the eighth race, with approximate post at 4:08 p.m.

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