‘Oath’ No Secret, But Measuring Her Talent a Pleasant Conundrum

The Week in Review by T.D. Thornton

Secret Oath (Arrogate)'s big winning move despite trip trouble in Saturday's GIII Honeybee S. at Oaklawn Park launched the 3-year-old filly to the forefront of conversation just at the precise time the sport needs a little diversion from anything having to do with lawsuits, trainer banishments, and the GI Kentucky Derby.

There is no question that the D. Wayne Lukas trainee looms large atop the leaderboard for the GI Kentucky Oaks and that her 86-year-old conditioner isn't crazy for at least considering running her against males next time out in the GI Arkansas Derby.

But if you want to drill down for a more precise prognostication as to where Secret Oath truly ranks in the always-intriguing fillies vs. colts debate and if she might be good enough to run in the Derby instead of the Oaks, you're going to have to come up with a measuring stick that doesn't appear to be available at the moment.

Comparing her 7 1/4-length Honeybee romp against the performance of males in the GII Rebel S. three hours later on the same Oaklawn card is a non-starter. The Rebel rates as the “chaos race” of the season so far among Derby preps because the 4-5 favorite was a no-show in an otherwise so-so field, and the slowly-run race was won by an improbable one-eyed gelding who paid $152.80.

Likening Secret Oath to Althea, the champion filly for Lukas four decades ago who also raced at Oaklawn (and beat the boys in the Arkansas Derby) should also be a no-go, at least for the time being. Obviously, Althea is from a much different generation. But even then, she was such an anomaly that her past-performance block reads like that of a racehorse from an entirely different planet when you consider how often Lukas raced her and how early in her career she lined up in the starting gate against males.

We'll have to let the next few weeks be the chief determinant in how Secret Oath's story arc plays out, knowing that whichever path Lukas sends her down, her next start is going to have a “circle the date” aura surrounding it.

Secret Oath entered the Honeybee with a 3-for-5 record, having won a Dec. 31 allowance race and the Jan. 29 Martha Washington S., both at Oaklawn, by a combined 15 1/2 lengths. She got pounded to 3-10 favoritism Saturday and appeared content to be last away in the Honeybee, given her natural running style as a stalker/closer.

Jockey Luis Contreras allowed the Briland Farm homebred to creep closer down the backstretch through opening quarters of :23.15 and :23.92, a brisk pace that seemed to be working to Secret Oath's off-the-pace advantage. But by the far turn, Contreras's patience contributed to his filly getting pocketed behind the two caving speedsters while an advancing rival to the outside kept the favorite locked and blocked, forcing Contreras to snatch up the reins in a ride-the-brakes type of maneuver.

Five sixteenths out, Contreras realized he had no choice but to dive inside of the tiring leaders. And when Secret Oath saw a glimmer of daylight through that narrow gap, she kicked on like a pro at the head of the lane. Never seriously threatened through the stretch, she won while kept to task but never fully extended.

Secret Oath's final time of 1:44.74 for 1 1/16 miles translated to a Beyer Speed Figure of 92, one point shy of her career-best effort. It's worth noting she carried five pounds more than the second- and third-place fillies.

Lukas indicated post-race that Secret Oath is nominated to both the Arkansas and Kentucky Derbies. The GIII Fantasy S. on the Apr. 2 Arkansas Derby undercard would be the conservative against-fillies option if he opts not to take on the boys.

Advocates for running in the Arkansas Derby will point out that Secret Oath's clocking and speed number trumped what was to follow six races later in the companion stakes for 3-year-old males. Oaklawn's third race in its quartet of Kentucky Derby points-earning preps is usually a pretty intriguing affair. But this year it might go down as the aberrational “Rebel without a cause,” which is why it's best to hold off on any claims that Secret Oath would have crushed that field had she been entered in that spot instead.

Rain had moved into Hot Springs by the time the feature race arrived, and although the track was still listed as “fast” for the Rebel, it would soon require sealing and a downgrade to “sloppy” for the final race. The un-California-like conditions would be eventually cited as a possible excuse for trainer Bob Baffert's ship-in fave Newgrange (Violence), who appeared primed to pounce after a trouble-free stalking trip but instead retreated to sixth.

The 75-1 Un Ojo (Laoban) saved ground every step of the way, rallied briefly at the quarter pole, then appeared to regress. But Un Ojo re-awakened late with an out-of-nowhere spurt of energy to snatch victory from the 15-1 Ethereal Road (Quality Road), who had been ambitiously entered by Lukas off a 19-1 maiden win in career start number four. The final time was 1:45.69, nearly a full second slower than Secret Oath's clocking; the Beyer (84) was also eight points lower.

Ethereal Road gave up serious real estate while hooked four wide on both turns, yet led from the quarter pole until 50 yards from the wire. He certainly punched his ticket to the Arkansas Derby, leaving Lukas to ponder over the next month whether he wants both his top filly and top colt aiming for the same race.

In the meantime, expect those comparisons to Althea to percolate–even if they're still off the mark.

Althea broke her maiden on June 22, 1983 at Hollywood Park. She ran second 17 days later in the GII Landaluce S., then wheeled back two weeks after that, beating the boys by 10 lengths in the GII Hollywood Juvenile Championship. When the racing switched to Del Mar, Lukas continued the pattern of aiming Althea against both fillies and colts, and she responded by winning both the GII Del Mar Debutante (by 15 lengths) and the GII Del Mar Futurity, just 10 days apart.

After a mix of firsts and seconds against fillies at Santa Anita in the fall, Althea closed out her 2-year-old season by attempting the mixed-sex Grade I double of the Hollywood Starlet (first) and Juvenile (sixth). Althea started 1984 with Santa Anita stakes victories against fillies, then shipped to Oaklawn for the Fantasy, where she finished a fast second despite encountering significant trip trouble.

Back then, the Fantasy was run the week before the Arkansas Derby. Lukas spent most of that week saying he wouldn't enter Althea against the boys. He did anyway.

Althea toyed with the Arkansas Derby field, drawing off to win by seven lengths while equaling the track record at the time. Afterward, Lukas admitted he had planned all week to run his star filly in that spot, but that he had chosen not to tell anyone until the day the race was drawn.

Thirty-eight years later, on the day after Secret Oath's win, Lukas remained uncommitted to a plan beyond saying he'd take it one race at a time.

Sunday, Lukas at first told the Oaklawn notes team that “I don't know what we're going to do,” before later adding, “Right now, she would be in the Fantasy and Ethereal Road would be in the [Arkansas] Derby.”

But you never know. The man is entitled to change his mind.

The post ‘Oath’ No Secret, But Measuring Her Talent a Pleasant Conundrum appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

At 86, Lukas Eyes Kentucky Oaks Win With Secret Oath

Wayne Lukas has won the GI Kentucky Oaks four times, but should there be a fifth this year it would no doubt be among the most special accomplishments of this Hall of Famer's career.

He's no longer able to attack the race with an arsenal of well-bred, expensive and talented horses sent his way by some of the sport's biggest owners. Those days are long gone. Instead, the 86-year-old trainer will have to overcome the odds and an inherent bias in the sport against older trainers and try to win the Oaks with the best filly he has trained in some time, Secret Oath (Arrogate). Lukas is hoping she takes another step toward the Oaks with a win in Saturday's GIII Honeybee S. at Oaklawn Park, where she will likely be a solid favorite.

“I have been there already and have had that experience, but at 86 it's quite a nice feeling to know that there is maybe one more in the history books out there for me,” Lukas said.

It's not just Lukas. The sport has a way of turning its back on older trainers, no matter how successful they may have been at one point. Lukas has averaged 17 winners a year since 2018 and, prior to Secret Oath's win in the Martha Washington, his last stakes win came in the Apr. 4, 2017 GIII Commonwealth S. at Keeneland with Warrior's Club (Warrior's Reward).

“I don't want to be shuffled to the back burner,” he said. “I don't want the young guys who weren't around when we were having so much success… I don't want them to look over and say, 'That old man over there, he used to win races.'”

The dominant trainer in the sport in the eighties and for much of the nineties, Lukas was forced to reinvent himself about 20 years ago. Once having a 100-plus horses with barns spread out across the country, he's down to one division, which divides the year between Oaklawn and Churchill Downs. Lukas has 25 horses and no longer has the luxury of working for deep-pocketed owners who supply their trainers with an assembly line of talent. Typical of the type of owners Lukas has, Secret Oath, a homebred, is owned by Robert and Stacy Mitchell, and she is their only horse in training.

“We didn't start out with six fillies like this one,” Lukas said. “We started out with one. We're probably beating the odds that an old man like me with a one-horse stable could take this to the next level.”

Yet, Lukas has never shown any signs of bitterness nor has he allowed himself to feel sorry for himself. Rather, he's gone about his business the same as he always has since getting started with Thoroughbreds in 1977. That means showing up the barn early every morning and putting in a full day of work while trying to get the best out of every horse in his stable. He may have slowed down some, but just some. For someone his age, his energy level is remarkable.

“I love the competition,” he said. “I've always wanted to win the big ones. My energy level comes from a passion for the game. I'm getting a lot more speaking engagements where people want me to answer that question, what keeps me going? I don't think about it. It just comes natural. It's something I've been doing my entire life and as long as my health is good, which it is, why stop?”

His daily routine includes getting on a pony and supervising morning training from that vantage point. He's not about to stop doing that, but he admits it's no longer as easy as it used to be.

“I have a little more trouble getting on the pony and a little more trouble getting off him.” | Coady photo

“I have a little more trouble getting on the pony and a little more trouble getting off him,” Lukas said. “I don't just bounce off him. I call one of the assistants over and say that I'm getting off, catch me if I fall.”

He says that he is enjoying training a small stable, which has its advantages.

“I like the fact I can go out there and get on my horse every morning,” Lukas said. “I get on my saddle pony and I am able to deal one-on-one with every horse in the barn. Even if it were offered to me, I wouldn't want a stable in New York, one in California and one here. Those days beat me up. It doesn't have any appeal anymore.”

Secret Oath took a while to figure things out. She won one of her first three starts while posting modest Beyer figures and was drubbed when trying stakes company in the GII Golden Rod S. last fall at Churchill Downs, where she was fifth, beaten 11 1/4 lengths.

Everything changed in a Dec. 31 allowance at Oaklawn. Out of nowhere, she won by 8 1/4 lengths while earning a 93 Beyer figure. Lukas brought her back in the Jan. 29 Martha Washington S. and she turned in another huge effort, winning by 7 1/4 lengths.

“We thought from the very beginning that she would win races,” Lukas said. “You never know how far they are going to go. She gets over the ground so beautifully. She tipped her hand. We ran her in that allowance race with some good horses to see where we were at and that race was beautiful. You couldn't have scripted it any better than that. When she came back in the Martha Washington, we were looking for that same type of performance and actually we got a full duplication of that race. We are high on her and we're getting optimistic. We will go into the Honeybee full of hope. When she accelerates she does so so quickly she just breaks their heart.”

Lukas will also be represented in the $1-million GII Rebel S. Saturday at Oaklawn with Ethereal Road (Quality Road). He's coming off a maiden win where he broke slowly, was last of 12 and then closed with a rush to draw off to a four-length win. He'll be a longshot in the Rebel, but Lukas said he is high on his chances.

“Our little barn has some balance to it,” he said. “We might have a Kentucky Derby prospect, too.”

Thirty-two years after he last won a Kentucky Oaks in 1990 with Seaside Attraction, Lukas seems comfortable in his role as the sport's elder statesman. He said he finds it gratifying when younger trainers come to him seeking his advice, which he is happy to give.

“At this stage of my career, I think I owe it to the industry to do the best job that I can,” he said.

Should Secret Oath get to the Oaks, Lukas will be the story, the octogenarian trainer seeking one more coveted win. His glory days are well behind him, but it's not like he has forgotten how to train a good horse. He's been doing his very best to show that 86 is just a number. So is five, the record for most wins in the Kentucky Oaks, which is held by Woody Stephens. Lukas needs just one more win to tie him. Can he do it? Why not?

The post At 86, Lukas Eyes Kentucky Oaks Win With Secret Oath appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Local Prep Winner Will’s Secret Hasn’t Missed A Beat Ahead Of Saturday’s Honeybee

Oaklawn's road to the Kentucky Oaks continues Saturday with the $300,000 Honeybee Stakes (G3) at 1 1/16 miles.

The Honeybee is the ninth of 10 races, with probable post time 5:10 p.m. (Central). Racing begins at 1 p.m.

The Honeybee will offer 85 points (50-20-10-5, respectively) to the top four finishers toward starting eligibility for the Kentucky Oaks, the country's biggest race for 3-year-old fillies. Last year's Honeybee winner, Shedaresthedevil, captured the delayed Kentucky Oaks (COVID-19) for Eclipse Award-winning trainer Brad Cox and co-owner Staton Flurry of Hot Springs.

Cox has two entrants Saturday, including 5-2 program favorite Sun Path for breeder/owner Juddmonte Farms. Sun Path, a daughter of Munnings, will be making her first start since a disappointing fourth-place finish as the odds-on favorite in the $150,000 Silverbulletday Stakes Jan. 16 at Fair Grounds.

“Sun Path's been training extremely well,” Cox said. “I have really no excuse or reason for her dull performance last time. I was kind of taken aback by that. She came out of it well. She's breezed tremendous at the Fair Grounds.”

Prior to the Silverbulletday, Sun Path had broken her maiden by three lengths Nov. 8 at Churchill Downs and won a first-level allowance race by 12 ¾ lengths in her two-turn debut Dec. 18 at Fair Grounds.

Cox's other entrant is Coach, who finished a troubled second as the odds-on favorite in Oaklawn's first Kentucky Oaks points race, the $200,000 Martha Washington Stakes Jan. 30. Coach was squeezed early and beaten 5 ¼ lengths by Will's Secret in the 1-mile race run over a muddy surface. Coach had won her first three career starts before completing her 2-year-old campaign with a third-place finish behind stablemate Travel Column in the $200,000 Golden Rod Stakes (G2) Nov. 28 at Churchill Downs.

Coach breezed a half-mile in :48.60 last Sunday morning, but Cox noted the daughter of Commissioner had her work/gallop schedule significantly impacted after Oaklawn lost 11 days of training last month because of severe winter weather.

“Coach has obviously missed some training,” Cox said. “We'll kind of see how things go.”

Conversely, powerful Martha Washington winner Will's Secret hasn't missed a beat, said Fair Grounds-based Dallas Stewart, who trains the daughter of champion Will Take Charge for breeder/owner Willis Horton of Marshall, Ark. After winning the Martha Washington, Will's Secret recorded three half-mile works last month at Fair Grounds.

“She's doing good,” Stewart said. “She's a nice, honest filly and easy to train – just an easy keeper. Nice filly.”

Will's Secret is bidding for her third consecutive victory. After finishing third, beaten 2 1/4 lengths by the highly regarded Clairiere, Oct. 25 at Churchill Downs, Will's Secret broke her maiden by 2 ¾ lengths in a 1 1/16-mile off-the-turf event Dec. 20 at Fair Grounds under Jon Court. She displayed push-button acceleration in the Martha Washington, romping from just off the pace under Court.

“Actually, I thought it might be a little short for her,” Stewart said of the Martha Washington. “She proved me wrong. She stepped up to the plate nicely.”

The projected eight-horse Honeybee field from the rail out: Tabor Hall, David Cohen to ride, 117 pounds, 10-1 on the morning line; Will's Secret, Jon Court, 122, 7-2; Willful Woman, Ricardo Santana Jr., 117, 6-1; Sun Path, Joe Talamo, 117, 5-2; Pauline's Pearl, Francisco Arrieta, 117, 8-1; Absolute Anna, Ramon Vazquez, 117, 15-1; Oliviaofthedesert, David Cabrera, 119, 7-2; and Coach, Florent Geroux, 119, 4-1.

The Honeybee is the final major local prep for the $600,000 Fantasy Stakes (G3) April 3. The Fantasy is Oaklawn's third and final Kentucky Oaks points race. Last year's Fantasy winner, Swiss Skydiver, was named the country's champion 3-year-old filly after finishing second in the Kentucky Oaks and beating males, including eventual Horse of the Year Authentic, in the Preakness, the final leg of the revamped Triple Crown. Swiss Skydiver's trainer, Kenny McPeek, is represented by Oliviaofthedesert and Tabor Hall, both based this winter in Florida.

Oliviaofthedesert closed her 2020 campaign victories in a Nov. 28 allowance race at Churchill Downs and the $60,000 Trapeze Stakes Dec. 18 at Remington Park. Owner Susan Moulton purchased the daughter of Bernardini for $320,000 at the 2019 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. Moulton's Fire Coral finished fifth behind Swiss Skydiver in the Fantasy.

“She seems to be getting better,” McPeek said of Oliviaofthedesert. “Just been real pleased with everything. She got a little break between races. She's been training down here in Florida for two months.”

Tabor Hall broke her maiden by 1 ½ front-running lengths Jan. 24 at Gulfstream Park in her last start.

“I'm glad to have David back up on (Oliviaofthedesert),” McPeek said, referring to Cabrera. “He did a marvelous job on Olivia (in the Trapeze). David Cohen's won the Travers for me, so I know I can trust his work. Tactically, I haven't dug too deep on it.”

Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen, who has won the Honeybee a record five times, is represented by Fair Grounds shipper Pauline's Pearl and Willful Woman, who broke her maiden Jan. 24 at Oaklawn for prominent Arkansas owners Alex and JoAnn Lieblong.

Willfull Woman's half-sister, the Asmussen-trained Ever So Clever, finished fifth in the 2017 Honeybee before winning the Fantasy.

The post Local Prep Winner Will’s Secret Hasn’t Missed A Beat Ahead Of Saturday’s Honeybee appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Sun Path Seeks Redemption in Honeybee

'TDN Rising Star' Sun Path (Munnings) looks to rebound from an off-the-board finish as the favorite in the Silverbulletday S. last time out in Saturday's GIII Honeybee S. at Oaklawn. Graduating at second asking at Churchill Downs Nov. 8, the chestnut dominated by 12 3/4 lengths next out in a two-turn allowance at Fair Grounds Dec. 18. The Juddmonte homebred was heavily favored next out in that venue's Silverbulletday Jan. 16, but tired to fourth.

Will's Secret (Will Take Charge) took some time to come around, but may be hitting her best stride at the right time. Graduating at fourth asking in off-the-turf event going a route of ground at Fair Grounds Dec. 20, the dark bay romped by 5 1/4 lengths in a muddy renewal of Oaklawn's Martha Washington S. Jan.30.

Ken McPeek saddles an intriguing contender in Oliviaofthedesert (Bernardini). Third to the re-opposing Coach (Commissioner) in the Rags to Riches S. at Churchill Oct. 25, the gray captured an optional claimer at Churchill Nov. 28 and came from off the pace to take the Trapeze S. at Remington Dec. 18.

The post Sun Path Seeks Redemption in Honeybee appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Verified by MonsterInsights