It's hard to fault Wet Paint (f, 3, Blame–Sky Painter, by Street Cry {Ire}), who can win on wet or dry, has improved with each start, looks to like a distance, is unbeaten on dirt, and has been unstoppable in Oaklawn Park's 3-year-old filly series, with her latest conquest Saturday's GIII Fantasy S. in Hot Springs. The late-running Godolphin homebred won her third straight as she marches to the GI Kentucky Oaks as the current points leader with 170. The Fantasy divvied up points on the Road to the Kentucky Oaks with a scale of 100-40-30-20-10, also giving Taxed (Collected) and Olivia Twist (Mshawish), who chased Wet Paint home in second and third, respectively, a potential spot in the Oaks gate May 5.
Winning trainer Brad Cox won the Oaks in 2018 with Monomoy Girl (Tapizar) and again in 2020 with Shedaresthedevil (Daredevil).
The 3-5 heavy favorite in the Fantasy, Wet Paint trailed far back–at least a dozen lengths–early as 5-1 Grand Love (Gun Runner) led with her ears pricked through :22.98 and :47.08 fractions. Roused entering the turn, Wet Paint swept around the field with ease and loomed menacingly as Grand Love was swamped in mid-stretch. Under minimal encouragement, Wet Paint flew by at least five wide as Taxed and Olivia Twist picked up the leftovers to her inside. Wrapped up on at the end, Wet Paint won far easier than the 2 1/2-length margin would suggest. She was Cox's second Fantasy winner following Sassy Sienna (Midshipman) in 2018 and Godolphin's first.
“I guess when you break and they kind of get away from you a bit you're always a little concerned,” said Cox. “But they were strung out a little bit. I saw the half in 47 and thought she was going to be able to close into it, and she finished up well. When Flavien [Prat] asked her to pick it up at the half-mile, you could tell he was riding her with a lot of confidence. At the three-eighths pole, she ranged up and was just cruising along. Very happy with how she finished up and galloped out. She ran great, won going away.”
Wet Paint has never been beaten on dirt. She broke her maiden at second asking at Horseshoe Indianapolis last October and captured both the Jan. 28 Martha Washington S. and the Feb. 25 GIII Honeybee S. at Oaklawn this year, the latter two with twin 83 Beyer Speed Figures. Her only career losses came on debut on the Kentucky Downs grass and a December start in an optional allowance on Turfway's synthetic surface. All three of her previous main track starts were in the slop or on a wet-fast track, making the Fantasy, contested on a dry and fast track, an important test. She passed.
Cox said Wet Paint would likely ship to Churchill Downs this week to prepare for the Oaks.
Pedigree Notes:
Claiborne's Blame, the most established sire son of Claiborne's late Arch, has 45 black-type winners, including 21 graded winners. Wet Paint isn't the first of Blame's progeny to star as a sophomore at Oaklawn–his son, Nadal, won a division of the GI Arkansas Derby and GII Rebel S. in 2020 and now stands in Japan. Wet Paint is Blame's first stakes winner out of a Street Cry (Ire) mare, the latter having 135 black-type winners out of his daughters. The late Street Cry stood at Darley, the flagship U.S. farm of Godolphin.
Wet Paint is out of Sky Painter, second in Belmont's GIII Miss Grillo S. in 2013 and, like her daughter, a homebred for Godolphin. The Fantasy winner's fourth dam is Nastique (Naskra), a four-time Grade I winner and a multiple stakes producer. Sky Painter has a yearling filly by Darley stallion Medaglia d'Oro and was bred back to Not This Time for this spring.
Saturday, Oaklawn Park
FANTASY S.-GIII, $600,000, Oaklawn, 4-1, 3yo, f, 1 1/16m, 1:44.08, ft.
1–WET PAINT, 122, f, 3, by Blame
1st Dam: Sky Painter (GSP, $169,755), by Street Cry (Ire)
2nd Dam: Skylighter, by Sky Mesa
3rd Dam: Painted Lady, by Broad Brush
O/B-Godolphin (KY); T-Brad H. Cox; J-Flavien Prat. $354,900.
Lifetime Record: 6-4-1-0, $689,000. Werk Nick
Rating: F. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Click
for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Taxed, 119, f, 3, Collected–Yankee Union, by Yankee
Gentleman. 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE. ($27,000 Ylg '21
KEESEP; $105,000 2yo '22 OBSMAR). O-Richard Bahde;
B-Brereton C. Jones (KY); T-Randy L. Morse. $109,200.
3–Olivia Twist, 122, f, 3, Mshawish–Twinkling, by War Chant.
1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE. ($20,000 Ylg '21 KEESEP; $230,000
2yo '22 OBSOPN). O-Brad King, Randy Andrews, G. Chris
Coleman, Jim Cone, Suzanne Kirby and Lee Lewis; B-Brushy
Hill, LLC (KY); T-Todd W. Fincher. $54,600.
Margins: 2HF, HF, 2 1/4. Odds: 0.60, 33.10, 50.00.
Also Ran: Condensation, Grand Love, Pate, Towhead,
Take Charge Briana, Royal Spa, She's Lookin Lucky.
Click for the Equibase.com chart and the TJCIS.com PPs.
VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.
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