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Lone Rock Shortens Up Successfully, Takes Tinsel Stakes At Oaklawn

Lone Rock has made his reputation as a long distance specialist, winning at a mile and a half and beyond more than once in 2021, but he showed in the inaugural Tinsel Stakes at Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort that he can win at nine furlongs as well. Over a muddy track in Hot Springs, Ark., the gelded son of Majestic Warrior dug in gamely to outlast stablemate Thomas Shelby and take the stakes by a length.

At the break, jockey Reylu Gutierrez hustled Huge Bigly out to the lead, with Thomas Shelby, Warrior's Charge, and Lone Rock following. Into the first turn, Huge Bigly was a length and a half in front, as Thomas Shelby and jockey David Cohen bided their time in second, with Warrior's Charge and Lone Rock stalking down the backstretch. As they approached the far turn, Cohen sent Thomas Shelby on Huge Bigly's outside, taking the lead with Warrior's Charge looking for room to make his play for the lead.

Lone Rock was caught in traffic on the turn, cutting to the inside of Thomas Shelby as the field enterted the stretch. The two stablemates dueled down the Oaklawn straight, with Beau Luminarie rallying on the far outside. Lone Rock was able to dig in and pass Thomas Shelby, hitting the wire three-quarters of a length in front. Thomas Shelby held on for second as Beau Luminarie's late challenge was not enough to catch the two front runners.

The final time for the 1 1/8 miles was 1:49.77. Find this race's chart here.

Lone Rock paid $5.60, $3.60, and $2.80. Thomas Shelby paid $4.60 and $3.80. Beau Luminarie paid $4.00.

Bred in Kentucky by Town and Country Horse Farms and Pollock Farms, Lone Rock is out of the Hard Spun mare Ruby Lips. He is owned by R. A. Hill Stable and Flying P Stable and trained by Robertino Diodoro. Lone Rock was consigned by Taylor Made Sales and sold to Shortleaf Stable for $55,000 at the July 2016 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Select Yearling Sale. The 6-year-old gelding has seven wins in nine starts in 2021, for a lifetime record of 14 wins in 37 starts and career earnings of $1,144,921.

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Cox Eyes Azeri, Apple Blossom For Shedaresthedevil

Trainer Brad Cox said Thursday afternoon that multiple Grade 1 winner Shedaresthedevil should return to his barn early next month to begin serious preparations for a 2022 campaign that figures to again unfold at Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort in Hot Springs, Ark.

Co-owned by Staton Flurry of Hot Springs, Shedaresthedevil opened 2021 with a victory over Letruksa in the $350,000 G2 Azeri Stakes for older fillies and mares in March at Oaklawn. Her final start this year was a sixth-place finish in the $2 million G1 Breeders' Cup Distaff Nov. 6 at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Del Mar, Calif. Shedaresthedevil, as a racing/broodmare prospect, sold for $5 million at Fasig-Tipton's Fall Mixed Sale Nov. 9, but will remain with Cox for a 2022 campaign. Flurry said the 4-year-old daughter of Daredevil received a 30-day break following the Breeders' Cup and is now in light training at new co-owner Mandy Pope's farm in Florida.

Cox said the $350,000 G2 Azeri March 12 and $1 million G1 Apple Blossom Handicap April 23 at Oaklawn are targets for Shedaresthedevil, who has bankrolled $2,331,458 after winning 9 of 17 career starts.

“I think those are realistic goals,” Cox said. “We'll get her back and probably ship her to the Fair Grounds and train her here and just kind of see how things go. I'm excited about hopefully taking a big swing at the Apple Blossom.”

Cox just missed sweeping Oaklawn's series of two-turn stakes races for older fillies and mares in 2021. Cox won the $150,000 Pippin with Getridofwhatailesu, $250,000 G3 Bayakoa with two-time Eclipse Award winner Monomoy Girl, and the Azeri with Shedaresthedevil. Monomoy Girl, in what would be her final career start, was beaten a nose by Letruska in the Apple Blossom. The Apple Blossom is the final race in the series.

Letruska, also ticketed to run next year, is the front-runner for an Eclipse Award as the country's top older dirt female of 2021. Shedaresthedevil won the $300,000 G3 Honeybee Stakes for 3-year-old fillies in 2020 at Oaklawn before capturing the $1.25 million G1 Kentucky Oaks later that year at Churchill Downs.

Flurry has owned a piece of Shedaresthedevil since November 2019.

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Horton, Stewart Will Point Last Samurai To 2022 Oaklawn Handicap

Prominent Arkansas owner Willis Horton won the 2021 Oaklawn Handicap on his 81st birthday. Horton may have an opportunity to celebrate again in 2022 with Last Samurai, who recorded his biggest career victory to date in Saturday's inaugural $150,000 Poinsettia Stakes for 3-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles at Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort in Hot Springs, Ark.

Ridden by Jon Court, a Horton favorite, Last Samurai ($10.20) edged 2021 Arkansas Derby winner Super Stock by three-quarters of a length in a meet-best 1:43.70 over a fast track. The Poinsettia was among four stakes races Oaklawn created in December to accommodate its earliest opening in history, and the last chance for Last Samurai to compete on a big stage against 3-year-olds.

“Well, I mean, he's turning 4 here pretty soon,” Fair Grounds-based trainer Dallas Stewart said by phone moments after winning the Poinsettia. “Just going to take our time with him. The main goal with him would be the Oaklawn Handicap.”

The $1 million Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap is April 23. The 1 1/8-mile race, Oaklawn's signature two-turn event for older horses, was won last season by Silver State, co-owned by Horton and Winchell Thoroughbreds (Ron and Joan Winchell). Silver State also won the $150,000 Fifth Season Stakes and $500,000 Essex Handicap earlier in the meeting for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen.

Like Super Stock, Last Samurai was making his first start at Oaklawn since last April's Arkansas Derby. Last Samurai finished a non-threatening fifth. The Malibu Moon colt also finished fifth behind champion Essential Quality in the $750,000 G3 Southwest Stakes last February, Oaklawn's second of four Kentucky Derby points races. Last Samurai was exiting races longer in advance of the Poinsettia, including a runner-up finish in the $200,000 G3 Greenwood Cup Stakes (1 ½ miles) Sept. 25 at Parx in Bensalem, Penn., and a troubled third in a Nov. 6 allowance event (1 ¼ miles) at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. He was an allowance winner at 1 1/8 miles on the turf Aug. 10 at Colonial Downs in New Kent, Va.

“Listen, he's a 3-year-old running against 3-year-olds,” Stewart said. “It's a two-turn race. I don't know if he knows the difference between a mile and a sixteenth and a mile and an eighth.”

Last Samurai's first career stakes victory, and third in 12 starts overall, pushed his career earnings to $312,744. Horton purchased the colt for $175,000 at the 2020 OBS March sale of 2-year-olds in training. Last Samurai received a preliminary Beyer Speed Figure of 95, a career high, for his Poinsettia victory.

“I think he's going to be a real nice 4-year-old,” Stewart said. “It's nice that Oaklawn's running in December. Good opportunity to run horses. I really appreciate the meet here, being in December. We've got some nice horses to run there.”

Stewart made an 11th-hour decision to split his stable, initially sending a handful of runners to Oaklawn for the expanded 2021-2022 meeting that began Dec. 3. In addition to Last Samurai, millionaire G2 winner Long Range Toddy and Curly Tail, a 2-year-old son of two-time Horse of the Year Curlin, are on the grounds for Stewart. Horton also owns Long Range Toddy and Curly Tail.

Stewart said he will eventually have about 10 horses at Oaklawn, including “four or five” for Horton.

Stewart and Horton teamed to win two of Oaklawn's biggest races for 3-year-old fillies last season, $200,000 Martha Washington Stakes and $300,000 G3 Honeybee Stakes, with Will's Secret. Court was aboard for both victories, as well as Long Range Toddy in the first division of Oaklawn's $750,000 Rebel Stakes (G2) for 3-year-olds in 2019.

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Last Samurai represented Court's first stakes victory since he turned 61 in November.

“Dallas really wasn't specific about instructions,” Court said. “He knows that I know the horse. But we go over just basically how he's run before and how I've had success with him and we kind of went from there. But the owners have been really good and we communicate on how they would like to see the strategy turn out. It turned out very well today, especially when you end up in the winner's circle.”

The Poinsettia was the 702nd career Oaklawn victory for Court (No. 6 all time) and 36th stakes triumph. Court was Oaklawn's leading rider in 2000.

Stewart's Oaklawn division is overseen by assistant Jade Cunningham, who worked as an exercise rider at last season's meeting for Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas. Stewart is a former Lukas assistant.

Oaklawn's first major two-turn race for older horses in 2022 is the $150,000 Fifth Season at one mile Jan. 15.

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Hollis Sets Track Record In Upset Win At Oaklawn

It took a track record to topple a track record holder.

Hollis lowered the 5 ½-furlong mark in Friday's eighth race at Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort in Hot Springs, Ark., rolling to a 4 ½-length victory under perennial local riding champion Ricardo Santana Jr. Racing over a fast track, Hollis stopped the clock in 1:02.17 to eclipse the previous record of 1:02.60 – a time converted from fifths of a second – set by Sis Pleasure Fager in a Feb. 15, 1984, allowance race for fillies and mares.

Friday's race, a conditioned allowance for 3-year-olds and up, marked the return of 1-5 favorite Nashville, who finished second in his first start in almost a year after setting the six-furlong track record on the Breeders' Cup undercard at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky., in November 2020.

Nashville was no match for Hollis ($11.20), who tracked the front-runner from the start on the outside before seizing control in the upper stretch. Hollis, under 120 pounds, broke the record with a strong southerly breeze pushing temperatures into the mid-70s, unseasonably warm for early December. He received a preliminary Beyer Speed Figure of 109, which equals the fourth-highest figure in the country this year in races up to a mile on the main track, according to Daily Racing Form.

“Hollis is a very special horse in our barn,” John Ortiz, the 6-year-old gelding's trainer, said Friday night. “He's got a personality like no other. We call him, 'The Scrapper.' We call him, 'The Boxer.' He wants to be in a fight. He'll take the fight to his competition. That's what my instructions were to Ricardo. When he's comfortable and you see Nashville take a breather, that's when you go up and join him. I know Ricardo was pumped. He said to me, 'Don't worry Johnny, we still had a lot left in the tank.' Good news.”

Santana, an eight-time Oaklawn riding champion, had ridden Nashville in his previous three starts, including the $125,000 Perryville Stakes for 3-year-olds when he set Keeneland's six-furlong track record (1:07.89) after sailing through a :21.54 opening quarter and :43.87 half-mile. Friday's splits were :21.81, :44.99, and :56.13 for 5 furlongs.

“It was pretty much what I thought would happen – seeing Nashville up in the front and us stalking him from the outside,” Ortiz said. “Just where we were, the fractions were perfect for Hollis. Sitting just off that pace was the best thing. To be honest with you, when you run Hollis, you're always in for an exciting race. You see in his record, he's dead-heated, he's won by a nose, he's lost by a nose and he's missing a nostril. It's always fun to win these races because he's really never disappointed us. We knew we were sending a horse that was 300 percent ready.”

Ortiz trains Hollis for William Simon (WSS Racing) and Brent and Sharilyn Gasaway (4 G Racing). On behalf of the Arkansas owners, Ortiz claimed the son of 2007 Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense for $40,000 May 25, 2020, at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. Hollis is a half-brother to Grade 1-raced Lady Lilly, a daughter of 2016 Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist who finished fifth in the $200,000 Martha Washington Stakes for 3-year-old fillies last season at Oaklawn.

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Hollis has proven to be a home-run claim, bankrolling $334,553 in 15 starts for his new connections and winning stakes races on dirt and turf. He was gelded shortly after being claimed. Hollis had previously sold for $200,000 and $120,000 at public auction.

“The pedigree was part of it,” Ortiz said of the claim. “I was the only one in on the horse. He was a pretty decent sprinter and we like sprinters. He was still intact and once we took the weight off, he really leaned out, literally, and became a much more focused horse to do what he likes to do, which is run really fast.”

Ortiz said Hollis will be considered for upcoming stakes races at Oaklawn, along with Mucho, another hard-knocking older stakes-winning sprinter he trains for Simon and the Gasaways (husband and wife). Owing to a Christmas gathering with family, Ortiz said he watched Friday's race from his Lexington, Ky., home.

Hollis' ninth victory in 22 career starts bumped his earnings to $420,333. He was also an allowance winner at 5 ½ furlongs last April at Oaklawn, covering the distance in 1:03.65 over a fast track.

Nashville was making his first start since being beaten for the first time in the $300,000 G1 Malibu Stakes for 3-year-olds Dec. 26, 2020, at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif., for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen and co-owners WinStar Farm and China Horse Club.

Nashville had a small ankle chip removed following the Malibu and suffered a minor physical setback last summer, said Elliott Walden, who is WinStar's president/CEO and racing manager. Nashville was making his fifth career start Friday. He won his first three starts by a combined 24 ¾ front-running lengths.

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