When Andie Biancone saddles Diamond Oops in Kentucky Downs $1 million G3 FanDuel Turf Sprint on Saturday it will be yet another episode in the ongoing multi-generational, two-family affair.
Diamond Oops, the 6-year-old son of Lookin At Lucky, is a member of the third of four generations of his family trained by Biancone's father, Patrick. Andie has joined the family business, is an assistant trainer and the exercise rider for the multiple graded-stakes winning millionaire gelding.
After Diamond Oops ran third as the 8-5 favorite in the six-furlong G3 Smile Stakes on dirt on July 3 at Gulfstream Park, his connections decided that it was time to try something new and began preparing for a September trip to Kentucky Downs.
“Initially, the plan for this year was to really focus on six furlongs on the dirt, because that's really his niche. That's really where we feel like he does his best,” she said. “But last race, we ran him and he just ran like a pretty flat third. We think it's because he's bored. This horse runs his best when he's doing something different. He loves to run six furlongs on the dirt, a mile on the turf, five furlongs on the turf. He loves the change. He's so intelligent and he really appreciates doing things differently. I think that's why he loves Kentucky Downs so much. It's because it's not a race track. It's so big, so different. And he's just so happy.”
During training hours Wednesday, Diamond Oops showed Biancone, 24, just how pleased he is to be at the sprawling track in rural southern Kentucky very close to the border with Tennessee.
“It's like he's at Disneyland here,” she said. “It's just kind of blowing his mind a little bit. The space. The grass. Everything. He's so excited. He's also just so well right now. My dad really has him in his best form.
“He came out of the barn, heard some gravel move and then he just reared straight up and bashed me in the face with his head. I'm a little concussed, but it's a long way from my heart. It's okay. I can survive. He definitely felt sorry afterwards. He was giving me the baby eyes like 'Mom, I'm so sorry.' I was like, 'Hmm. OK. You can make it up to me on Saturday.' I'm like, 'Save it, save it for the race. Please keep yourself composed for 48 hours.”
The horse and human connections go back more than 20 years when Patrick Biancone was training Diamond Oops' grandsire, the multiple graded-stakes winner Whywhywhy and his second dam Patriotic Diva, owned by Kin Hui. After Patriotic Diva retired, Hui bred her to Whywhywhy and that mating produced the 2007 filly Patriotic Viva, who became the dam of Diamond Oops. Patrick Biancone also trained other foals dropped by Patriotic Viva. This summer, the 2-year-old Diamond Wow, a daughter of Diamond Oops' sister, Patriotic Diamond, broke her maiden at Gulfstream Park.
“It's been really cool. They're just such a classy family,” Andie Biancone said.
Bred by Hui, Diamond Oops is co-owned by Hui's Diamond 100 Racing Club, Amy Dunne, D P Racing and Patrick Biancone Racing. He wasn't supposed to end up in Biancone's care.
“We named him Oops, because he was so ugly and we got stuck with him, kind of,” Andie Biancone said. “We tried to, sell him as a weanling and he was a no-bid at the sale. It's so funny because when he won the Phoenix (in 2020), Keeneland posted like a little video of him in the ring, I always wondered what he looked like as a baby. And they posted this video of him in the ring. I was like, 'Oh my gosh, a mule.' He really looked like a donkey. It's so funny how much he's grown into himself. He's obviously gorgeous now.”
Diamond Oops won a pair of stakes as a 2-year-old, but was limited to a single start as a 3-year-old by what was feared to be a career-ending leg injury. After a 10-month layoff, Diamond Oops returned to competition and won the Smile in his third start. He was second in a pair of G1 stakes, the A.G. Vanderbilt on dirt and the Shadwell Turf Mile, and was eighth in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile and completed his season with a victory in the G3 Mr. Prospector.
Last year, he captured G2 stakes on turf and dirt and was sixth in the Breeders' Cup Sprint.
Noting that Diamond Oops wasn't at his best later in the season in the Breeders' Cup, his connections gave him a couple of months off during the winter and plotted a conservative schedule for 2021. The Turf Sprint at Kentucky Downs was a reworking of the plan and will be his sixth career start on grass. A victory will earn him a guaranteed, fees-paid berth in the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint through the “Win and You're In” program.
Based on his history and the way he feels under her in the morning, Andie Biancone expects him to run well Saturday.
“He's gutsy,” she said. “When he ran the Shadwell Turf Mile, I thought that was pretty bold to run him two turns, but he finished a really game second. That's just him. He loves a challenge. He's not afraid. He doesn't back down and he literally thinks he's like the only horse in the world. It's just that cocky attitude of his.”
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