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Arrieta Sweeps Final Four Races At Oaklawn Friday

Jockey Francisco Arrieta recorded his biggest career day at Oaklawn in Hot Springs, Ark., after sweeping the final four races on Friday's nine-race opening-day program, including the inaugural $150,000 Advent Stakes for 2-year-old sprinters aboard Kavod ($8.40) for trainer Chris Hartman.

Arrieta, 33, recorded a riding triple, his previous single-day Oaklawn best, on closing day of the 2021 meeting, May 1.

“Unbelievable,” Arrieta said following the Advent, Oaklawn's first stake for 2-year-olds since 1973.

Arrieta also won the sixth race aboard favored Botswana ($5.40) for trainer Bentley Combs, seventh race aboard favored Hypersport ($4.40) for trainer Ingrid Mason and the ninth race aboard Jets a Ginnin ($12) for trainer Scott Becker. The four-bagger pushed Arrieta's purse earnings this year to more than $5 million, a career high.

A native of Venezuela, Arrieta began riding in the United States in 2012 and had ridden extensively the past few years in New Mexico, Arizona, and Minnesota before hiring agent Jay Fedor and changing circuits. Arrieta relocated to Oaklawn for the first time for the 2021 meeting and made a huge splash in the rider standings, finishing third in victories (50) and purse earnings ($3,100,250). Arrieta recorded his first career Oaklawn stakes victory in last April's $200,000 Bachelor for 3-year-old sprinters aboard Jaxon Traveler for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen. Arrieta was based in Kentucky for the first time following last season's Oaklawn meet.

“I felt like it was a good move coming here,” Arrieta said. “I've been growing here. I was jumping around. It's my second year here, so I feel like I'm home now. A lot of people know me already. I've been riding for the same people in Kentucky and they're coming back, so now they know me and trust me. Hopefully, it will be better than last year.”

Arrieta was leading rider in 2019 at Canterbury Park in Shakopee, Minn., and won 250 races overall that year to rank eighth nationally.

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Trainer Ingrid Mason Gears Up For Oaklawn Meet

Trainer Ingrid Mason said she plans to run Hypersport, runner-up in her Oct. 21 career debut at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky., in a maiden special weights sprint for 2-year-old fillies opening day at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark.

Oaklawn's 66-day live meeting begins Dec. 3, which marks its earliest season opening in history and allows 2-year-old races to be carded for the first time since 1975. Oaklawn normally opens in January. Oaklawn's opening-day feature is the $150,000 Advent Stakes for 2-year-olds at 6 furlongs.

Hypersport, a forward factor from the start at odds of 31-1, was beaten a length in her 6 ½-furlong career debut after being bumped leaving the gate. Hypersport tuned up for her local debut by working five furlongs in 1:00.80 Tuesday morning at Oaklawn under Francisco Arrieta, the filly's second published breeze this month in Hot Springs.

“That's the star of my barn, Hypersport,” Mason said. “I have high hopes for her. She's a pretty nice filly. She reminds me of Sarah Sis.”

Sarah Sis bankrolled $912,667 in a 22-race career for Mason, highlighted by victories in the $150,000 Grade 3 Honeybee Stakes in 2015 at Oaklawn, $200,000 G3 Iowa Oaks in 2015 at Prairie Meadows in Altoona, Iowa, $250,000 G2 Raven Run Stakes in 2015 at Keeneland, and the $400,000 G2 Presque Isle Masters Stakes in 2016 at Presque Isle in Erie, Penn. The Honeybee was Mason's first career graded stakes victory.

A $20,000 2-year-old purchase, Sarah Sis sold as a broodmare prospect for $750,000 at Fasig-Tipton's 2016 November Sale.

Bloodstock agent Christina Jelm, on behalf of owner Mike Waters, purchased Hypersport for $100,000 at the 2020 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. Waters (Muddy Waters Racing Stables) is Mason's significant other.

Hypersport is by 2010 champion older male Blame out of Good Witch Glinda, a daughter of Unbridled's Song. Hypersport is a half-sister to the speedy Oaklawn-raced Mesoma, who set a six-furlong track record (1:07.98) in 2014 at Ellis Park in Henderson, Ky. It was his second career start. Runner-up Race Day won two graded stakes in 2015 at Oaklawn, including the $600,000 G2 Oaklawn Handicap for older horses.

“Mike picked her out off of pedigree and then I told him I was in love with her and had to have her,” Mason said. “He bought her off the Internet. I never saw her, but he had Christina over there, his agent, look at her and said he liked her.”

Mason said Hypersport flashed ability from Day 1.

“She's always been quick and showed talent,” Mason said. “She's destroyed everything in my barn, pretty much, I worked her with. She had a little bruising in her back end early on and then we backed off her. She's been good ever since – knock on wood.”

Mason also trains G T Three Fifty, an unraced 2-year-old Speightster colt, and stakes-placed 4-year-old Lykan for Waters, who won eight races in 2020 at Oaklawn to tie for sixth in the owner's standings. G T Three Fifty, Mason said, is named for a model of Ford Mustang that Waters owns. Lykan and Hypersport are also automobile-inspired names.

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Mason, the second-winningest female trainer in Oaklawn history, said she will have around 30 horses this season at Oaklawn. She won five races from 99 starts at the 2021 meeting.

“I'm actually really excited about the meet,” Mason said. “This is the most excited I've been in a long time. I didn't have good horses last year. It's hard to do good when you don't have good horses. I think I stepped it up a little bit this year, so we'll see what happens.”

Mason has 121 career Oaklawn victories. Lynn Chleborad, who also has horses on the grounds, is the winningest female trainer in Oaklawn history with 126.

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‘Onwards And Upwards’: 500th Career Win, Promising Juveniles Bring Optimism To Trainer Ingrid Mason

Trainer Ingrid Mason registered her 500^th career win on Sunday at Arlington Park in Arlington Heights, Ill., when Storminside scored a wire-to-wire victory as an odds-on favorite in the day's second race, a $4,000 claiming event going six furlongs.

A former exercise rider and jockey who in the early 1990s traveled to Dubai to work in Sheikh Mohammed's stable, Mason began training in 2004, saddling her first winner with her eighth career starter the following February. She lost the few horses in her stable, went back to exercising horses for a few more years, then returned to training in 2009. She hasn't looked back since.

“I started at the bottom and worked my way up,” said Mason, 50, who has stabled primarily at Oaklawn Park in Arkansas and Arlington and Hawthorne in Illinois. “When I restarted my career at Arlington, I had three horses and was work riding for Steve Asmussen. I'd start at 4 a.m. and work till 1 p.m. then come back to feed.”

Mason grew her stable to 40 horses at one point (she's now at about 28) and put together six consecutive $1-million plus earnings years beginning in 2014, her best season coming in 2016 when her runners earned $1,432,666. Much of that was earned by stable star Sarah Sis, a five-time graded stakes winner for Mason. The trainer's winningest year was in 2014 when she won 56 races from 287 starts.

“I've had a rough couple of years after some great years, but that happens to everybody,” Mason said. “If you don't have the animals to back you, it's hard. It's a challenging sport and so many things can go wrong. My biggest thing is to try and do as much preventive management as possible.

“I've got some nice babies this year, so it's onwards and upwards,” she added. “That's the fun and exciting part of our sport, the youngsters coming up and getting to watch them develop and progress. It's exhilarating and the best part of the game.”

Storminside is anything but a youngster. The 7-year-old gelding by Hansen was bought privately early in 2019 by Mason's “significant other,” Mike Waters, who races as Muddy Waters Stables. In his second start for Mason, Karl Broberg claimed Storminside for $10,000. Nine weeks later when Broberg ran him for the first time in a $6,250 claiming race, Mason and Waters claimed him back. He's been in the stable ever since, winning four of 21 starts, including his last three.

He was claimed out of Sunday's winning effort.

“I'm very fortunate,” Mason said. “I've got a lot of great owners who have supported me through the years and have never left my side, even during some difficult times. I'm very grateful for that. It's hard to find loyal people in this business, especially when they see this guy or that guy winning races at high percentages.”

Mason could not be at Arlington for her milestone win, watching the race at home after being hospitalized for two days with a kidney issue. She is hoping this will not be her final year of racing at Arlington, which has been put up for sale by the track's corporate owner, Churchill Downs Inc., and could be shut down for development.

“There is optimism here, because there are a lot of good people in the industry who want to buy Arlington Park and keep racing going,” she said. “To see Arlington Park close would be the saddest thing in the world.”

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Lawlessness Aiming For Derby Points In Oaklawn’s Smarty Jones Stakes

Lightly raced Lawlessness will make his two-turn and stakes debut in the $150,000 Smarty Jones for 3-year-olds Jan. 22 at Oaklawn, trainer Ingrid Mason said Tuesday afternoon.

Post positions for the one-mile Smarty Jones, Oaklawn's first of four Kentucky Derby points races, will be drawn Friday. The race will offer 17 points (10-4-2-1) to the top four finishes, respectively, toward starting eligibility for the Kentucky Derby.

A son of Congrats, Lawlessness compiled a 1-0-2 record from three starts last year. Lawlessness broke his maiden Oct. 4 at Hawthorne and finished third in his last start – an entry-level allowance sprint – Oct. 30 at Hawthorne.

“He's named appropriately because he's a little turkey,” Mason said. “He's a little screwball.”

Lawlessness was purchased for just $14,000 at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Co.'s spring sale of 2-year-olds in training by Mike Waters, Mason's significant other. Mason said she picked out the colt, who covered a quarter-mile in 21.80 in his under tack preview work. Mason and Waters teamed to finish seventh in last year's Smarty Jones with Lykan, another son of Congrats who was making his two-turn and stakes debut.

“It's funny,” Mason said. “They actually are a lot alike, as far as personality, him and Lykan, and they're by the same sire. The mothers are different, obviously. You don't really call them brothers, but they have a lot of the same personality. Congrats kind of stamps out his babies most of the time, it seems. I think Lawlessness, at this stage, is more talented than Lykan was, and I think the longer he goes the better he's going to be. I think the distance for him, the mile, is going to suit him really, really well.”

Following the Smarty Jones, Lykan returned to sprints and was a first-level allowance winner at Oaklawn before finishing third in its $90,000 Gazebo Stakes and $100,000 Bachelor Stakes.

Mason said David Cohen, Oaklawn's leading jockey in 2019, will ride Lawlessness for the first time in the Smarty Jones. Another locally based horse pointing for the Smarty Jones is Caddo River, a powerful Nov. 15 Churchill Downs maiden special weights graduate for trainer Brad Cox.

Oaklawn's Kentucky Derby points series continues with the $750,000 Southwest Stakes (G3) Feb. 15, $1 million Rebel Stakes (G2) March 13 and the $1 million Arkansas Derby (G1) April 10. The Smarty Jones closed Jan. 7 with 96 nominations, the bulk part of an expanded early bird date linked to the other three Kentucky Derby points races for the first time.

The 2020 Smarty Jones closed with 51 nominations.

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