Tempt Fate, the winningest horse of the 2021 Oaklawn meeting, is scheduled to be active again during the 2021-2022 live season that begins Dec. 3, owner Jerry Caroom of Hot Springs said.
A 4-year-old Arkansas-bred son of Hamazing Destiny, Tempt Fate was 4 for 4 last season at Oaklawn (all against state-breds), including the $150,000 Nodouble Breeders' Stakes and $200,000 Arkansas Breeders' Championship Stakes in his two-turn debut at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark.
The speedy Tempt Fate has raced just twice since the April 30 Arkansas Breeders' Championship, finishing sixth in the $100,000 off-the-turf Chamberlain Bridge Stakes May 31 at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, Texas, and fifth in his allowance comeback sprint Nov. 10 at Delta Downs in Vinton, La.
“Just tuning him back up,” said Caroom, who was Oaklawn's co-fourth-leading owner last season with 10 victories. “Almost exactly the program we did last year. He loves this track.”
Caroom said Tempt Fate will again target Oaklawn's lucrative program for Arkansas-breds. He won two allowance races last season before dipping, successfully, into stakes waters.
“Why screw up that?” Caroom said. “I hope we'll see him four times. Four wins, hopefully. His mission is to go 4-0 this year. Hoonani Road went 7-0 at this track. I want this one to do eight.”
Hoonani Road, also campaigned by Caroom, won his first seven Oaklawn starts (all against state-breds), including the $100,000 Rainbow Stakes in 2018 and the Nodouble and Arkansas Breeders' Championship in 2019. Tempt Fate ran third in the 2020 Rainbow before dominating state-bred foes in 2021.
Trainer Carl Deville, on behalf of Caroom, had claimed Tempt Fate for $40,000 out of a third-place finish in his second career start, Feb. 14, 2020, at Oaklawn.
After losing Hoonani Road to a $25,000 claim in August 2020 at Ellis Park in Henderson, Ky., Caroom privately purchased him shortly before the 2021 Arkansas Breeders' Championship and retired the 6-year-old gelding to a farm near Opelousas, La., where Deville's grandchildren reside.
Caroom said he could have as many as 20 horses stabled at Oaklawn in 2021-2022, mostly with Deville. Caroom could eventually have a Kentucky Oaks prospect on the grounds in Pipeline Girl, a Tom Amoss trainee who won her career debut sprinting in June at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., before finishing 11th in the $400,000 Grade 1 Alcibiades Stakes Oct. 8 at Keeneland in her two-turn debut. Pipeline Girl returned to finish third in a Nov. 13 allowance sprint at Churchill Downs.
“In the Alcibiades, she just completely laid an egg,” Caroom said. “The route messed her up a little bit. My strong desire is to have her here, but if she turns out that she's more suitable for the grass, then she'll stay with Amoss at Fair Grounds.”
Caroom purchased Pipeline Girl, a daughter of Air Force Blue, a multiple Group 1 winner in Europe, for $100,000 at the 2020 Keeneland September Yearling Sale.
The post Caroom’s Tempt Fate Returns For 2022 Oaklawn Meet appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
