Oaklawn | Horse Racing Free Tips

Hard Spun Rising Star Romps in Smarty Jones

Caddo River (Hard Spun) made good on his 'TDN Rising Star'-worthy graduation at third asking with a facile first stakes score in Oaklawn's Smarty Jones S., good for 10 points on the Road to the GI Kentucky Derby.

Away well from his outside post, the 3-5 chalk seized the early advantage and clocked an unpressured opening quarter in :23.12 and a half in :47.16. Extending clear with ease on the backstretch run, the bay rolled home the easiest of winners under a hand ride from Florent Geroux.

Caddo River was second in his first two attempts at seven furlongs, debuting at Saratoga Sept. 5 and next out at Belmont Oct. 11. He took the field from gate to wire next out in a powerhouse performance going a mile at Churchill Nov. 15, romping by 9 1/2 lengths, defeating future Dania Beach S. winner Kentucky Pharoah (American Pharoah), among others.

“He broke very alertly,” Geroux said. “Very nice and relaxed. You want to see these type horses doing it the right way. It's easy to go to the lead and keep on going. You want them to relax and do everything right. He did everything perfect. The distance doesn't look like it's going to be a problem. Very excited about what's coming up ahead of us with him. Looks like he can run all day, which is a good problem. Hopefully, we can go on, go up the stepping stones and have a nice horse for the first Saturday in May.”

The victor, named for a river in Arkansas, has a 2-year-old half-sister by Into Mischief named Como Square and his thrice graded stakes-placed dam produced a Nyquist colt in 2020 before being bred back to Hard Spun. Second dam It's True Love was a SW as well and is responsible for recent GIII Allaire DuPont S. winner Eres Tu (Malibu Moon).

SMARTY JONES S., $150,000, Oaklawn, 1-22, 3yo, 1m, 1:38.19, ft.
1–CADDO RIVER, 115, c, 3, by Hard Spun
1st Dam: Pangburn (SW & MGSP, $338,480), by Congrats
2nd Dam: It's True Love, by Yes It's True
3rd Dam: Lovin Spoonful, by Dixieland Band
1ST BLACK TYPE WIN. 'TDN Rising Star' O/B-Shortleaf Stable
(KY); T-Brad H. Cox; J-Florent Geroux. $90,000. Lifetime
Record: 4-2-2-0, $166,092.
2–Cowan, 115, c, 3, Kantharos–Tempers Flair, by Smart Strike.
($185,000 Ylg '19 KEESEP; $385,000 RNA 2yo '20 OBSMAR).
O-L. William & Corinne Heiligbrodt, Madaket Stables LLC &
Spendthrift Farm LLC; B-Hill 'n' Dale Equine Holdings, Inc (KY);
T-Steven M. Asmussen. $30,000.
3–Big Thorn, 117, c, 3, The Big Beast–Save a Rose, by Super
Saver. O/B-Alex & JoAnn Lieblong (FL); T-Steven M. Asmussen.
$15,000.
Margins: 10 1/4, 7 1/4, NK. Odds: 0.60, 2.40, 12.40.
Also Ran: Moonlite Strike, Martini Blu, Hardly Swayed, Lawlessness.

Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.

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Joe Talamo Tests Positive For COVID-19, Off Mounts At Oaklawn

Jockey Joe Talamo has been taken off his six mounts on Friday's opening day card at Oaklawn Park, reports the Daily Racing Form, after a 6:00 a.m. rapid test returned a positive result for COVID-19.

Talamo was showing no symptoms, according to his agent Jake Romans, and had tested negative on Monday.

Oaklawn's requirements for outside jockeys include two negative PCR COVID-19 tests within five days, with the second to be taken on race day.

Talamo was named on Moonlight Strike in the $150,000 Smarty Jones Stakes for trainer Saffie Joseph, Jr., and will be replaced by Ramon Vazquez.

Romans said he expects Talamo won't return to the saddle until Feb. 5. Talamo was named on six horses Saturday and six horses Sunday, as well.

Refreshed Grade 1 Winner Wicked Whisper Kicking Off 2021 Campaign In Oaklawn’s Pippin Stakes

Wicked Whisper was poised for a championship in the fall of 2019. Now, it's a career reboot and step one in 2021 is the $150,000 Pippin Stakes for older fillies and mares at 1 mile Saturday at Oaklawn.

Probable post time for the Pippin, the eighth of nine races, is 4:47 p.m. (Central). First post for the second of 57 scheduled race days is 1 p.m. (Central).

Wicked Whisper is the slight 3-1 program favorite for the Pippin, which drew a field of 12 and is Oaklawn's first of three preps for the $1 million Apple Blossom Handicap (G1) April 17. The series continues with the $250,000 Bayakoa Stakes (G3) Feb. 15 and the $350,000 Azeri Stakes (G2) March 13.

Wicked Whisper was among the country's top 2-year-old fillies of 2019 for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen and owners Alex and JoAnn Lieblong of Conway, Ark. She was a front-running 6 ¼-length winner of her career debut at Saratoga and a front-running 2 ¾-length winner of her next start, the $400,000 Frizette Stakes (G1), at Belmont Park. Wicked Whisper's unbeaten record and hopes for an Eclipse Award crashed with a fifth-place finish in the $2 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) at Santa Anita, a 1 1/16-mile race that marked her two-turn debut.

Sandwiched around minor injury (splint bone) and minor illness, Wicked Wisper captured 1 of 4 starts last year and was withdrawn from Fasig-Tipton's November Sale (Nov. 8) – she was entered as a racing or broodmare prospect – to get another shot for the same racing team in 2021.

“Not really,” Alex Lieblong said, when asked if he seriously considered retiring Wicked Whisper. “He (Asmussen) knew to raise his hand at any point where he thought we should and he didn't. She had a real busy period there for a while, so we thought, 'OK, let's back off her for a while and see what can shape up at Oaklawn.' We did have her in the November Sale, just in case something did show up physically with her during that time. Nothing ever showed up physically, so that gave us a little bit of time for, hopefully, Steve to work his magic and stretch her out.”

Wicked Whisper's final two starts last year were at 6 furlongs. She won the $150,000 Miss Preakness Stakes (G3) Oct. 3 at Pimlico and finished an even fifth in the $125,000 Fort Springs Stakes Nov. 7 at Keeneland. Wicked Whisper had been scheduled to make her 3-year-old debut in the $300,000 Honeybee Stakes (G3) last March at Oaklawn, but spiked a fever approximately a week before the race, Lieblong said, and her first start didn't come until early July.

“You just couldn't make it up,” said Lieblong, chairman of the Arkansas Racing Commission. “But one thing I've learned in this business is it's got several ways to bite you.”

Wicked Whisper has had five published workouts at Oaklawn since Dec. 20 in advance of her 4-year-old debut. From the first crop of Grade 1 winner Liam's Map, Wicked Whisper was purchased for $500,000 at the 2018 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. Wicked Whisper is a half-sister to Grade 2 winner Point of Honor, who finished third in the $600,000 Apple Blossom Handicap (G1) for older fillies and mares last year at Oaklawn. The Lieblongs were Oaklawn's third-leading owners in 2020.

The 7-2 second choice in the program is Istan Council, who is seeking her first career stakes victory. Istan Council was a 2019 allowance winner at Oaklawn, finished third in the $100,000 Groupie Doll Stakes Aug. 9 at Ellis Park and endured a brutal trip finishing second, beaten a head, in the $75,000 She's All In Stakes at a mile and 70 yards Dec. 18 at Remington Park. Daily Racing Form short comments from Istan Council's past performance running line for the She's All In said the 5-year-old mare lacked room until late, “best.”

“I thought it was one of the very few times you see in the Racing Form where the horse that ran second was much the best,” Jones said.

Other contenders include the Brad Cox-trained duo of Vault and Getridofwhatailesu and Our Super Freak. All are 6-1 in the program. Vault ran sixth in the $263,000 Molly Pitcher Stakes (G3) July 18 at Monmouth Park in her last start. Getridofwhatailesu, unraced since last March, has never run in a stakes race, but has won two of her last three starts. Our Super Freak ran second in last year's Molly Pitcher for trainer Cherie DeVaux, a former assistant to four-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown. DeVaux has never started a horse at Oaklawn.

The projected Pippin field from the rail out: Vault, Florent Geroux to ride, 115 pounds, 6-1; Figure It Out, Francisco Arrieta, 119, 12-1; Getridofwhatailesu, Joe Rocco Jr., 119, 6-1; Sara Sea, Fernando De La Cruz, 115, 30-1; Chance to Shine, Ken Tohill, 115, 10-1; Istan Council, Joe Talamo, 115, 7-2; Wicked Whisper, Ricardo Santana Jr., 122, 3-1; Blessed Again, Terry Thompson, 119, 30-1; Regal Beauty, Martin Garcia, 115, 8-1; His Glory, David Cabrera, 117, 12-1; Graysonsmacho Gal, Ramon Vazquez, 115, 15-1; and Our Super Freak, David Cohen, 115, 6-1.

Jones won last year's Pippin with the recently retired Whoa Nellie.

The post Refreshed Grade 1 Winner Wicked Whisper Kicking Off 2021 Campaign In Oaklawn’s Pippin Stakes appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Love Machine: $32,000 Claim Hunka Burning Love Carrying Momentum Into Oaklawn’s Fifth Season Stakes

Among the best claims of the 2020 Oaklawn meeting occurred last April when owner/trainer Karl Broberg took Hunka Burning Love for $32,000 out of a seventh-place finish in a 1 1/8-mile event for older horses. Broberg didn't have to shake for the gelding, either.

All Hunka Burning Love has done in 10 starts for Broberg is win eight races, including four stakes, by a combined margin of more than 43 lengths and bankroll $259,199. Broberg had previously claimed Hunka Burning Love for $50,000 in September 2019 at Churchill Downs, but lost him for $62,500 less than a month later when, in his only start for the trainer, the gelding beat just one horse in an allowance/optional claiming sprint at Keeneland.

Clearly, Broberg hit a home run after taking his second swing at Hunka Burning Love.

“I wish I could say I had some grand master plan,” Broberg said. “I just knew from the previous claim that the horse was sound and that he had speed and it was at the end of Oaklawn. I'm like, 'I know he's going to fit somewhere.' He still had his non-winner of two other than (allowance) condition at the time, so I didn't have any grand plan other than thinking there were going to be much softer spots ahead for him.”

Well-spotted regionally, Hunka Burning Love dominated in two starts at Will Rogers Downs in Oklahoma before claiming the $75,000 Lone Star Mile in June at Lone Star Park in Texas, $75,000 Governor's Cup Stakes in August at Remington Park in Oklahoma, $100,000 Delta Mile Stakes Nov. 28 at Delta Downs in Louisiana and the $60,000 Jeffrey A. Hawk Memorial Stakes Dec. 18 at Remington Park in his last start.

Hunka Burning Love, North America's co-winningest horse in 2020, is scheduled to begin his 2021 campaign in Saturday's $150,000 Fifth Season Stakes at Oaklawn.

Hunka Burning Love began his racing career for the high-profile connections of trainer Mike Maker and owners Ken and Sarah Ramsey, competing against top runners like McCraken, Warrior's Club, Cool Arrow, Uncontested, Chief Know It All and Guest Suite before falling down the class ladder. Guest Suite won the first division of the 2020 Fifth Season.

“He's been a solid horse throughout his career,” Broberg said. “He's got heart. He's just professional. The thing that's funny about him is after every race, he doesn't pull up. He wants to run right back around again, which is funny for the jocks on him for the first time.”

Broberg, the country's perennial leader in victories, said the Fifth Season will be Hunka Burning Love's biggest challenge since he re-claimed the 7-year-old son of super sire Into Mischief.

The 1-mile Fifth Season also attracted millionaire Grade 1 winner Combatant, Grade 3 winner Night Ops, second-division 2020 Fifth Season winner Pioneer Spirit and Silver State, a sharp winner of his last two starts. Hunka Burning Love, 6-1 on the morning line, is winless in four Oaklawn starts.

“If this fails, then I'm going to give him a break for a few months and we'll come back elsewhere,” Broberg said.

Hunka Burning Love has a 16-4-6 mark from 46 lifetime starts and earnings of $517,329.

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