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Oaks Winner Shedaresthedevil Back On The Work Tab At Oaklawn, Azeri Potential Target

Kentucky Oaks winner Shedaresthedevil returned to the work tab Monday morning at Oaklawn, covering 3 furlongs in :36.60 in preparation for her 2021 debut, possibly the $350,000 Azeri Stakes (G2) for older fillies and mares March 13.

Shedaresthedevil, under exercise rider Fernando Espinoza, breezed on a fast track following the first break to renovate the racing surface for newly minted Eclipse Award-winning trainer Brad Cox and co-owner Staton Flurry of Hot Springs. Clockers had the 4-year-old daughter of Daredevil galloping out a half-mile in :49.80.

“Really, really good,” Cox said after watching the work. “We were just looking for like :38, and she honestly looked like she was going :38. Just well within herself. Just nice and easy. We're not going to get in a big hurry with her, just kind of pick it up a little bit each week. Couldn't have asked for a better first work back.”

Shedaresthedevil was a finalist for an Eclipse Award as the country's champion 3-year-old filly of 2020 after winning four races, including Oaklawn's $300,000 Honeybee Stakes (G3) and the $1.25 million Kentucky Oaks (G1) Sept. 4 at Churchill Downs, Shedaresthedevil hasn't started since finishing third in the $400,000 Spinster Stakes (G1) Oct. 4 at Keeneland, her first start against older horses.

Following the Spinster, Shedaresthedevil received a 60-day break, Flurry said, before resuming light training in mid-December in Kentucky. She arrived at Oaklawn Jan. 9. Cox said the 1 1/16-mile Azeri, Oaklawn's final major prep for the $1 million Apple Blossom Handicap (G1) April 17, is a potential landing spot for Shedaresthedevil's 2021 debut.

“It's going to get close there,” Cox said. “We're just going to have to kind of really watch her and let her tell us if she's ready for that, but that would be the first logical target.”

Cox already has won Oaklawn's first of three Apple Blossom preps and is scheduled to have the heavy favorite in the second.

Getridofwhatailesu – in her stakes debut – was a 1 ½-length winner of the $150,000 Pippin at 1 mile Jan. 23. It marked the third victory in the last four starts for Getridofwhatailesu, who hadn't raced since winning an allowance route last March at Oaklawn. Cox said Getridofwhatailesu was subsequently diagnosed with “lameness that didn't require surgery” and sent to Custom Care Equine in South Carolina to recover.

“They did a fantastic job,” Cox said. “She came back to us and when we started breezing her she appeared to be the same horse she was last year. We had a lot of high hopes for her last year. We thought she was a graded-stakes filly. It wasn't ideal, probably, to bring her back in that stake off the layoff, but just based off the condition book, with what she's eligible for, there's not a lot of options. We were kind of forced into the race and it worked out well.”

Cox said Getridofwhatailesu is being pointed for the Azeri.

Monomoy Girl, Cox's dual Eclipse Award winner, is scheduled to make her 2021 debut in the $250,000 Bayakoa Stakes (G3) Feb. 15 at Oaklawn. Monomoy Girl has won 13 of 15 career starts, including the $2 million Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) Nov. 7 at Keeneland to conclude a perfect 2020 campaign (4 for 4) and clinch an Eclipse Award as the country's champion older dirt female. Monomoy Girl won the 2018 Kentucky Oaks en route to champion 3-year-old filly honors.

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‘Very Consistent’ Keepmeinmind Fires Another Bullet Toward Southwest Stakes

Keepmeinmind is coming into the $750,000 Southwest Stakes (G3) Feb. 15 at Oaklawn firing bullets. The stakes winner did it again Tuesday morning, completing major preparations for the Southwest with a swift 5-furlong workout under regular rider David Cohen.

Keepmeinmind was timed in :59 – fastest of 17 works published at the distance – and, following a final quarter-mile in a sharp :22.80, galloped out 6 furlongs in 1:11.80, 7 furlongs in 1:25.40 and a mile in 1:40.40, according to the clockers. Keepmeinmind worked over a fast track following the second break to renovate the racing surface.

It marked Keepmeinmind's fifth published workout this season at Oaklawn and second to receive a bullet designation (fastest of the day at the distance), following a 5-furlong move in 1:00 Jan. 19. A late-running son of Laoban, Keepmeinmind closed his 2-year-old campaign with a last-to-first maiden-breaking victory in the $200,000 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes (G2) Nov. 28 at Churchill Downs.

“Did it the right way again,” said Robertino Diodoro, Oaklawn's leading trainer in 2020. “I love that his works have been very consistent. Again, I always say take each day at a time, but his works have been very consistent – consistently good – since he's been here.”

Diodoro said he plans to come back with an easy half-mile work and a “couple of stiff gallops” next week leading up to the Southwest, Oaklawn's second of four Kentucky Derby points races.

“I'd like it to be Tuesday,” Diodoro said of the maintenance breeze. “But it could be adjusted by a day or two because it looks like a little bit of (weather).”

The 1 1/16-mile Southwest will offer 17 points (10-4-2-1, respectively) to the top four finishers toward starting eligibility for the Kentucky Derby. Post positions will be drawn Feb. 11. Prior to the Kentucky Jockey Club, Keepmeinmind finished second in the $400,000 Breeders' Futurity (G1) Oct. 3 at Keeneland and third in the $2 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) Nov. 6 at Keeneland.

Unbeaten Essential Quality also is scheduled to make his 3-year-old debut in the Southwest, trainer Brad Cox said. Essential Quality (3 for 3) was the country's champion 2-year-old male after winning the Breeders' Futurity and Breeders' Cup Juvenile. Essential Quality has been based this winter at Fair Grounds.

Essential Quality (30) and Keepmeinmind (18) rank 1-2 on the Kentucky Derby points leaderboard, according to Churchill Downs.

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At 60, Court Having Too Much Fun To Consider Retirement

Jockey Jon Court rode his first Oaklawn stakes winner at the age of 24, his 10th at 42, his 20th at 51 and his 30th at 56.

If it's still a race against Father Time, Court is winning.

Now 60, Court turned back the clock – again – Saturday afternoon at Oaklawn in Hot Springs, Ark., when he guided Will's Secret to a 5 ¼-length victory in the $200,000 Martha Washington Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at 1 mile.

The Martha Washington was Court's 689th career Oaklawn victory, 34th career Oaklawn stakes victory and first stakes victory as a sexagenarian. He turned 60 Nov. 26.

“At 60, it's amazing,” Court said moments after winning at Oaklawn in a fifth decade. “I'm just very, very fortunate and thankful to the higher powers. Taking care of my health, I was able to do that.”

A year after launching his riding career, Court won 10 races as an apprentice at the 1981 Oaklawn meeting and recorded his first career stakes victory in Hot Springs aboard Earl's Good Time in the $50,000 American Beauty Handicap Feb. 22, 1985. Court was Oaklawn's leading rider in 2000 and has been a fixture in the standings for much of the past two decades, although he was winless in 2020 after missing most of the meet because of a collapsed lung and cracked ribs sustained in an accident going to the gate before a race in February. Court also was sidelined several months after the Oaklawn meet with a wrist injury.

The Martha Washington was Court's first victory with Becky Esch, the jockey's new agent. Esch said when Court's former agent Steve Krajcir called last fall to inquire if she would be interested in taking another rider for the 2021 meet, she initially believed it was Kelsi Harr, Oaklawn's leading apprentice last year.

“I thought he was talking about her,” said Esch, the longtime agent of Walter De La Cruz. “When he told me that he was talking about Jon, I said, 'Are you kidding?' He's a household name around here.”

Krajcir again represents Harr at Oaklawn, along with De La Cruz's brother, Fernando.

Will's Secret, a homebred for Willis Horton of Marshall, Ark., represented Court's final victory in 2020 and first this year. Trained by Dallas Stewart, Will's Secret broke her maiden in a 1 1/16-mile off-the-turf maiden specials weights race Dec. 20 at Fair Grounds. In her stakes and 3-year-old debut, Will's Secret ($18) recorded the most lopsided Martha Washington victory since Rachel Alexandra began her Horse of the Year campaign with an eight-length romp in 2009.

“She's push button,” Court said. “She'll give you the speed when you need it and she'll sit off it. She continues to deliver every time you ask her. Any time in the race, she's pretty much push button.”

Court said the Martha Washington, Oaklawn's first of three Kentucky Oaks points races, had added significance because it was for Horton, best known for campaigning Eclipse Award winners Will Take Charge (the sire of Will's Secret) and Take Charge Brandi.

Court won the $150,000 Smarty Jones Stakes and the $600,000 Rebel Stakes (G2) aboard Will Take Charge in 2013 at Oaklawn, victories at 12-1 and 28-1, respectively, that helped the colt secure a 3-year-old championship. Court won the 2015 Martha Washington aboard odds-on favorite Take Charge Brandi, who was the country's champion 2-year-old filly of 2014. Court and Horton also teamed to win the first division of the 2019 Rebel with Long Range Toddy, who, at odds of 8-1, upset future Eclipse Award winner Improbable.

“These silks mean a lot to me,” Court said. “Six years ago, I won this race for the Hortons, and here we are back again. The odds weren't quite as favoring, but it was a pretty awesome experience to win. You know me, I'm known for pulling off long shots. It's just what I do.”

According to Equibase, racing's official data gathering organization, Court entered Sunday with 4,194 career North American victories to rank 63^rd in history. Court ranked 52^nd in North American history in career purse earnings ($108,191,731).

Retirement? No way, the jockey said. After all, Court's still in session.

“I feel great,” Court said. “That (retirement) is always brought to my attention. I'll do like Scott Stevens says: I am retired. I'm winning races doing it now. I'm really having fun doing it.”

Will's Secret earned 10 points toward starting eligibility for the Kentucky Oaks with her Martha Washington victory. She ranks ninth on the Kentucky Oaks leaderboard, according to Churchill Downs.

Oaklawn's Kentucky Oaks series continues with the $300,000 Honeybee Stakes (G3) March 6 and the $600,000 Fantasy Stakes (G3) April 3. Stewart said next-race plans are pending for Will's Secret, who has been based at Fair Grounds.

“She's a real nice filly,” Stewart said. “She's got a nice future ahead of her.”

Stewart and Horton teamed to win the 2006 Kentucky Oaks with Lemons Forever.

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Frank’s Rockette Returns To Winning Ways In American Beauty

Frank Fletcher Racing Operations, Inc's multiple Grade 2 winner Frank's Rockette lived up to her 1-2 odds and returned to the winner's circle after making a successful 2021 debut in Saturday's $150,000 American Beauty Stakes at Oaklawn in Hot Springs, Ark. The 4-year-old filly was making her first start since taking on older males in the Breeders' Cup Sprint last November.

Breaking from post 7 under jockey Florent Geroux, Frank's Rockette raced just to the outside of 2019 American Beauty winner Amy's Challenge and stayed within easy striking distance through early fractions of :21 3/5 and :44 3/5 before edging clear of her rival to win by 1 ¼ lengths. Her final time was 1:10 over a muddy track. Wildwood's Beauty was third.

“She broke very alertly, which gave me a great option to be right there off the speed without any effort,” Geroux said. “And, from there, I was just continuing to get pressure on Amy's Challenge because when she's on the lead she can be very difficult to pass. I wanted to make sure I didn't give my filly too much to do down the lane. But she was very professional and when I asked her to go down the lane, she was all in and she gave me everything she had.”

Frank's Rockette, a homebred daughter of Into Mischief, improved her record to 7-4-0 in 12 starts and has now earned $696,103. She returned $3.20, $2.40 and $2.10 as the heavy favorite.

“Nice to see her come off the bench,” trainer Bill Mott add via phone. “It's great. What makes it better is Mr. (Frank) Fletcher was there at his home track and he was there, so, you know I mean, that's like winning two. She ran on an off track there last year, but the bottom line is she ran into a very good filly (Kimari). Florent (Geroux) thought she handled it well enough today. Knowing she was second against a really good filly there last year, I felt she would handle it. Is it her favorite surface? Well, I don't know. But she certainly handled it well enough today.”

Frank's Rockette was saddled by Sebastian “Bas” Nicholl, longtime assistant to Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas. Frank's Rockette shipped into Lukas' barn.

Live racing resumes Sunday at Oaklawn with a 1 p.m. first post.

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