Filly Is No ‘Secret’ In Arkansas Derby

Having proven heads and shoulders above the local 3-year-old filly contingent, Briland Farm homebred Secret Oath (Arrogate) takes on the boys in Saturday's $1.25-million GI Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park. The chestnut figures a warm favorite to become the first of her gender to win the race since her Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas saddled Althea (Alydar) to score by seven lengths in the 1984 renewal, with future GI Belmont S. runner-up Pine Circle (Cox's Ridge) and GI Preakness S. hero Gate Dancer (Sovereign Dancer) noses apart in second and third.

A maiden winner and fifth to GIII Fantasy S. hopeful Dream Lith (Medaglia d'Oro) in last year's GII Golden Rod S., Secret Oath has been nothing short of sensational in annexing three starts at this meet by a combined 23 lengths. A handy allowance winner on New Year's Eve, the chestnut pummeled her rivals by 7 1/4 lengths in the Jan. 29 Martha Washington S. and again in the GIII Honeybee S. Feb. 26, with eyecatching bursts on each occasion.

Her trainer, whose success with fillies like Althea, Derby winner Winning Colors and Serena's Song is well-documented–has been impressed with Secret Oath's development.

“She's got a running style and the efficiency of motion is good,” Lukas said. “She places herself in the race. I would say the thing that's probably the biggest concern would be a traffic problem. She's very rangy and tall. I don't know about starting and stopping. In the Honeybee, they shut her down, then just 'Boom!' She amazed me that when she dove into the rail [turning for home], she just [took off)].”

Now, to be fair to Althea, who has contributed mightily to the American Stud Book down the years, Secret Oath faces competition not nearly as deep as Althea did 38 years ago. The progressive We the People (Constitution) kicked clear to graduate by nearly six lengths on his one-mile debut Feb. 12 and doubled up with a five-length allowance tally Mar. 12, good for 'TDN Rising Star' honors. Those wishing to take a contrarian view will note that the bay colt tracked a very slow pace on the latter occasion and won off like a 2-5 chance should.

Doppelganger (Into Mischief) makes his first start for trainer Tim Yakteen Saturday and has form through Forbidden Kingdom (American Pharoah), to whom he was a disappointing fourth in the seven-furlong GII San Vicente S. Jan. 29 at Santa Anita before chasing home that rival to finish a distant second in the GII San Vicente S. Mar. 5. The blinkers come off this afternoon.

Un Ojo (Laoban) outran longshot odds to be second to the promising Early Voting (Gun Runner) in the Feb. 5 GIII Withers S. at Aqueduct and looked beaten in this track's GII Rebel S. before surging home on perhaps the best part of the strip to post a half-length success, with Barber Road (Race Day) third.

Cyberknife (Gun Runner) bounced back from a below-par sixth in the GIII Lecomte S. in January with a sound three-length allowance score at the Fair Grounds Feb. 19 and is bound to go off at a price shorter than his 8-1 morning line.

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Secret Oath Confirmed for Arkansas Derby

Briland Farm's Secret Oath (Arrogate), who soundly defeated fillies to win the Feb. 26 GIII Honeybee S., will take on the boys in the Apr. 2 $1.25-million GI Arkansas Derby, trainer D. Wayne Lukas confirmed Sunday.

“We don't make these decisions, meaning the owners and myself, we don't make these decisions easily,” Lukas said. “We consider all the things. First of all, you want to absolutely think that you are as good as any of the other 3-year-olds that might show up and you don't really know who is going to show up. And then second, you consider that she's here at home. If you're going to step out of the box, that's probably a good spot to do it. She's been successful on this racetrack. The third thing is a $1.25 million is probably the most attractive purse she'll ever run for. I was thinking the other day that it will be hard to imagine she's going to run for a bigger one, expect in the Breeders' Cup. So, we factored that in.”

Owner Robert Mitchell added, “Wayne and I talked about it before the Honeybee. We wanted to see what her performance looked like in the Honeybee and we wanted to see what the Rebel looked like and then we wanted to see kind of how she did in her first workout after the Honeybee. We feel like we ought to give her a chance to run against the boys and see how that goes. That's kind of how we thought about it.”

Secret Oath worked four furlongs in :48.40 (2/22) Mar. 8 at Oaklawn.

Following the Arkansas Derby, the plan for Secret Oath would still likely be a start back against her own sex in the GI Kentucky Oaks May 6 at Churchill Downs.

“I've got the Oaks, anyhow,” Lukas said. “That's where I'm going. We have no plan to run in the Derby now. That's not chiseled in stone, either, but that's the way the Mitchells feel. They don't want to run in a 20-horse field. They feel like the Oaks is every bit as prestigious.”

With Secret Oath heading for the Arkansas Derby, stablemate Ethereal Road (Quality Road), second in the Feb. 26 GII Rebel S., will be rerouted to the Apr. 9 GI Toyota Blue Grass S.

In other news from the sophomore division at Oaklawn Park, We The People (Constitution), tabbed a 'TDN Rising Star' following his allowance win in Arkansas Saturday, will now be aimed at a Kentucky Derby prep race, according to trainer Rodolphe Brisset.

“That was the whole plan, be able to gain some seasoning, some experience,” Brisset said. “He broke maybe a step slower than last time and then he didn't make the lead. But Flo [Geroux] got him into the race pretty good and let him do his thing. He didn't use the whip, got him to work through the wire and even an extra sixteenth. Now, we're going to see how he came out of it this morning and the next couple of days we'll have to make some plans, I guess.”

Among the possible targets for We The People are the Arkansas Derby and Blue Grass, but Brisset didn't rule out the Apr. 9 GI Santa Anita Derby or GII Wood Memorial.

All four 1 1/8-mile races will offer 170 points (100-40-20-10) to their top four finishers toward starting eligibility for the May 7 Kentucky Derby. We the People likely would need a top two finish to secure a spot in the Kentucky Derby, which is limited to 20 starters.

“Oaklawn's right in the middle, so we can go left or we can go right,” Brisset said. “But I think we're going to let the horse tell us. Three weeks to the Arkansas Derby can be a little tricky, but after that we've got five weeks for the big one if he does run 1-2. The four weeks, four weeks is not a bad thing, either, for the Blue Grass. Now, we have to ship him back home. He knows the track there.”

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Taking Stock: Deceased Arrogate and Laoban Strike at Oaklawn

Neither Arrogate, by Unbridled's Song, nor Laoban, a son of Uncle Mo, is still with us, but a first-crop daughter of the former and a second-crop son of the latter won graded Classic preps at Oaklawn over the weekend, underscoring the sire potential each had. Arrogate was seven when he was euthanized in 2020 and Laoban was eight when he was put down almost a year later.

Arrogate's Secret Oath won the Glll Honeybee S. Saturday by 7 1/2 lengths for trainer D. Wayne Lukas, and she has the look of a special filly. She showed explosive acceleration when asked and covered 1 1/16 miles in 1:44.74, earning a 92 Beyer figure and 50 qualifying points for the Gl Kentucky Oaks. She's now a winner of four of six starts, the last three in a row, and it's possible she may take on colts next in the Gl Arkansas Derby to earn points for the Gl Kentucky Derby. Lukas has trained a slew of top-class fillies during his decorated career and hasn't been shy to take on colts with the best of them. He won the Arkansas Derby in 1984 with Althea, a filly, and he also trained Winning Colors, who won the Kentucky Derby in 1988 after beating colts in the Gl Santa Anita Derby.

Secret Oath won the Honeybee in the manner of the odds-on favorite she was, returning $2.60. In contrast, Laoban's Un Ojo, a one-eyed New York-bred gelding, was all out to win the Gll Rebel S. by a half-length at 75-1 from the Lukas-trained Ethereal Road (Quality Road), a 16-1 shot, triggering some massive payouts. Saddled by Ricky Courville, Un Ojo covered 1 1/16 miles in 1:45.69, a slower time than Secret Oath registered in the Honeybee, and he earned an 84 Beyer for his second win in six starts. Nevertheless, Un Ojo picked up 50 qualifying points for the Churchill Classic and earned $600,000 from the $1-million Rebel purse, while Lukas's runner-up took home a check of $200,000 and 25 qualifying points.

In contrast, Secret Oath earned $180,000 for winning the Honeybee and zilch Derby points, which is amusing because she'd likely have won the Rebel based on her Beyer and final time. And Lukas was probably aware beforehand that his filly was better than stablemate Ethereal Road at this point in time, which is another case to make for her testing colts in the Arkansas Derby.

Secret Oath

Secret Oath is one of two black-type winners for her sire, who was a late-developing colt at his best at 1 1/4 miles. Trained by Bob Baffert, Arrogate won seven of 11 starts, earned a North American record of $17.4 million, and is remembered for a remarkable four-race win streak that encompassed the Gl Travers S., Gl Breeders' Cup Classic, Gl Pegasus World Cup Invitational, and the G1 Dubai World Cup. Despite not winning his first stakes race until the Travers in late August of his sophomore season, he won an Eclipse Award as champion 3-year-old colt.

Arrogate entered stud at his owner's Juddmonte in 2018 for a $75,000 fee–highest of all new recruits in North America, with Gun Runner next at $70,000–and was considered Unbridled's Song's last and best hope for getting a top-level stallion son. So far, Secret Oath aside, Arrogate hasn't met expectations, but it's early yet for the type of horse he was, and he'll have three crops to prove his worth, with the Lukas filly leading the way at the moment.

Another young Unbridled's Song son, Lane's End's Liam's Map has exceeded expectations and has quickly become a high-level stallion with four Grade l winners so far, and at this point it looks like he may end up as his sire's best son at stud. It's instructive here to compare his pedigree to those of both Arrogate and Secret Oath.

First, both Arrogate and Liam's Map are bred on a similar cross, as each is from a Forty Niner-line mare.

Second, Liam's Map and Secret Oath share some notable ancestors in their respective backgrounds. I wrote about Liam's Map's pedigree here last October–“Flying Unbridled's Song Flag”–but the short takeaway linking the two is this: both have a lot of Tartan's Aspidistra, the dam of champions Dr. Fager and Ta Wee, in their genetic makeup.

Note that Unbridled, the sire of Unbridled's Song, was 4×4 to Aspidistra–his fourth dam. Liam's Map's second dam Yada Yada was closely inbred 2×3 to Ta Wee, giving Liam's Map four repetitions of Aspidistra, his sixth dam, 6x6x5x6. The other cross to the Tartan foundation mare comes through Great Above, a son of Ta Wee.

Secret Oath, like Liam's Map, also gets Aspidistra twice through Unbridled. But she also gets another two doses through her broodmare sire Quiet American, who was 3×2 to Dr. Fager, and one through Great Above, just like Liam's Map. She is, therefore, 7x7x6x5x5 to Aspidistra, for a total of five crosses.

In fact, the imprimatur of John Nerud and Tartan is all over the pedigree of Secret Oath. Another great foundation mare for Nerud/Tartan was Cequillo, the third dam of Fappiano and his son Quiet American. Because Secret Oath is inbred 4×3 to Fappiano and is from a Quiet American mare, she has Cequillo 7x6x5.

Secret Oath is owned by Briland Farm and was bred by Briland in partnership with Robert Mitchell and Stacy Mitchell. Secret Oath's dam, the Quiet American mare Absinthe Minded, also bred by the same connections and raced by Briland with Lukas, was a multiple Grade l-placed stakes winner of $607,747, but there isn't much black type in the pedigree under the next few dams. The third and fourth dams, Rockford Peach, by Great Above; and Strawberry Skyline, by Hatchet Man, respectively, were bred in New York by Michael Mulholland.

Un Ojo

Un Ojo was bred in New York by Southern Equine Stables and is raced by Cypress Creek Equine. In partnership, Southern Equine raced Laoban, whose only win from nine starts came in the Gll Jim Dandy S. at Saratoga. The son of Uncle Mo retired to Sequel Stallions in New York with earnings of $526,250 and initially stood for $7,500, but he was a hit with his first 2-year-olds–ending up second on the 2020 first-crop list behind Uncle Mo's Nyquist–and was moved to WinStar in Kentucky for the 2021 season at a $25,000 fee.

Along with Nyquist and Outwork, Laoban was part of a trio of Uncle Mo freshmen to make an immediate impact in 2020. He's the sire of 10 black-type winners, with his first crop containing Grade l winner Simply Ravishing and Grade ll winner and multiple Grade l-placed Keepmeinmind, a surefire sign that Laoban was moving his mares way up.

Un Ojo is a well-bred gelding compared to some others by his sire, who covered mares for $5,000 in his last season in New York. Un Ojo's dam is the A.P. Indy mare Risk a Chance, a New York-bred stakes-placed winner for owner/breeders Chester and Mary Broman. Risk a Chance was out of the Broman-bred Seeking the Gold mare Seeking the Ante, a Grade ll winner of almost $400,000, who in turn was produced by multiple Grade l winner Antespend, an Elmendorf-bred daughter of Spend a Buck raced by the Bromans late in her career after Elmendorf's Jack Kent Cooke passed away. Antespend also produced the Bromans' homebred Gl Florida Derby winner Friends Lake.

The Bromans bred Risk a Chance's first three living foals (she was not pregnant in 2016 and aborted in 2017) without stakes success. Her first foal by Desert Party was unplaced, the second, by Freud, was a winner who earned almost $120,000 racing exclusively at Finger Lakes, and her third was a Quality Road colt, now four, who is unraced after bringing $550,000 as a yearling at Saratoga. They sold Risk a Chance in foal to Laoban for $40,000 at the Fasig-Tipton New York Saratoga Fall Mixed sale in 2018, and Southern Equine was the lucky buyer.

That fortuitous purchase made Southern Equine the breeder of Un Ojo, who now has a ticket to the Kentucky Derby.

Sid Fernando is president and CEO of Werk Thoroughbred Consultants, Inc., originator of the Werk Nick Rating and eNicks.

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Secret Oath Stings Rivals in Honeybee

Briland Farm homebred Secret Oath (Arrogate) laid down yet another marker on her march toward the GI Longines Kentucky Oaks, streaking clear of her foes for a fluent 7 1/2-length romp in Saturday's GIII Honeybee S. at Oaklawn Park.

Prohibitively favored, with GII Golden Rod S. runner-up Yuugiri (Shackleford) the only other one the bettors wanted, Secret Oath had to be re-balanced after breaking a bit inward at the start and was a joint-last into the clubhouse turn as Optionality (Gun Runner) and Yuugiri matched motors up front. A fraction keen and racing with her mouth open as they reached the backstretch, the chalk settled better approaching the three-eighths pole, but was hemmed in for several strides as Ice Orchid (Super Saver)rolled up three wide to enter the fray. With Optionality beginning to retreat at the fence, Luis Contreras grabbed hold of Secret Oath, guided her around her weakening foe, shot through an opening at the inside left by Yuugiri and widened under a left-handed stick to crush.

“I got a great break and good position,” Contreras reported. “I just sat right behind and at [the three-eighths pole], she tried to pull me again. I just waited and waited. My thinking was to go outside, but I had another horse right there, so I stayed a little longer. When I saw the rail open and asked her to go, she made a tremendous move.”

For his part, Lukas was not ruling out swinging for the fences over the coming weeks.

“She's nominated here [GI Arkansas Derby] and the [GI] Kentucky Derby,” he said. “You know what's really good here? The thing that I'm most happy about is that [Oaklawn] has changed [the date of the Arkansas Derby] from [three] weeks in front of the Kentucky Derby to five. Boy, if you're training a good filly, that's another little caveat that I like. I like it if I have a colt. I like that five-week break. But if you have a filly, you'd have to say, 'Wow!' You're going to get a little extra time.”

A 5 1/2-length maiden winner at second asking while trying two turns for the first time at Churchill on Halloween, Secret Oath was only fifth in the Nov. 27 Golden Rod, but atoned in no uncertain terms with an 8 1/4-length allowance romp going the short-stretch mile at this venue Dec. 31. Sent off at 1-2 in the Jan. 29 Martha Washington S., she had better than seven lengths on Optionality on the wire and was similarly dominant Saturday.

Pedigree Notes:

The first graded winner for the late Arrogate, Secret Oath is one of three winners from four to the races for her dam–also trained by Hall of Famer Wayne Lukas–to a half-dozen victories from 35 career starts. Five of Absinthe Minded's career tallies came over this track, including the 2011 and 2012 runnings of the Bayakoa S., the 2012 Pippin S. and top-three finishes in the GI Apple Blossom H. Secret Oath has an unnamed 2-year-old half-sister by Medaglia d'Oro and Absinthe Minded is expecting a foal by Unbridled's Song's son Liam's Map this season.

Saturday, Oaklawn
HONEYBEE S.-GIII, $300,000, Oaklawn, 2-26, 3yo, f, 1 1/16m, 1:44.74, ft.
1–SECRET OATH, 122, f, 3, by Arrogate
1st Dam: Absinthe Minded (MSW & MGISP, $607,747), by Quiet American
2nd Dam: Rockford Peach, by Great Above
3rd Dam: Strawberry Skyline, by Hatchet Man
1ST GRADED STAKES WIN. O/B-Briland Farm and Robert &
Stacy Mitchell (KY); T-D. Wayne Lukas; J-Luis Contreras.
$180,000. Lifetime Record: 6-4-0-1, $465,167. Werk Nick
Rating: D. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Ice Orchid, 117, f, 3, Super Saver–Singlet, by Real Quiet.
1ST BLACK-TYPE, 1ST GRADED BLACK-TYPE. O/B-Shortleaf
Stable (KY); T-John Alexander Ortiz. $60,000.
3–Yuugiri, 117, f, 3, Shackleford–Yuzuru, by Medaglia d'Oro.
O/B-Sekie & Tsunebumi Yoshihara (KY); T-Rodolphe Brisset.
$30,000.
Margins: 7HF, 1 3/4, 7HF. Odds: 0.30, 13.90, 3.60.
Also Ran: Free Like a Girl, Red Queen, Optionality. Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

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