Tag: Triple Crown

Jockey Florent Geroux capped a huge day on Saturday at Oaklawn with an upset victory aboard Gold Square LLC's Cyberknife in the Grade 1, $1,250,000 Arkansas Derby. Earlier in the day at the Hot Springs, Ark., track,  Geroux won two G3 races –the $400,000 Oaklawn Mile with Fulsome and $600,000 Fantasy with Yuugiri. Brad Cox trains Cyberknife and Fulsome.

After making a bold move splitting the leading horses Kavod and Chasing Time approaching the far turn, Geroux and Cyberknife took command into the stretch and drew off to win by 2 3/4 lengths. Barber Road was up late for second, defeating Secret Oath, the D. Wayne Lukas-trained filly bet down to 7-5 favoritism off three successive victories. Doppelganger, making his first start for Tim Yakteen after being transferred from the barn of  four-time Arkansas Derby-winning trainer Bob Baffert, was fourth. Completing the order of finish were Kavod, Ben Diesel, We the People, Un Ojo and Chasing Time.

The Arkansas Derby is a qualifying race on the Road to the Kentucky Derby awarding 100 points to the winner, with 40 for finishing second, 20 for third and 10 for fourth. The win by Cyberknife assures him a berth in the Kentucky Derby, giving trainer Cox a solid candidate for a possible second consecutive Derby win following Mandaloun's victory via the drug disqualification of Medina Spirit in 2021.

Updated Kentucky Derby/Oaks leaderboard

Time for the 1 1/8 miles on a fast track was 1:50.42. Cyberknife returned $13.60 on a $2 win mutuel. The 3-year-old colt from the first crop of Three Chimneys Farm stallion Gun Runner was bred in Kentucky by Kenneth and Sarah Ramsey and purchased by Joe Hardoon, on behalf of Al Gold, for $400,000 at the 2020 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky yearling sale. The Arkansas Derby winner was produced from the stakes-winning Flower Alley mare Awesome Flower.

Cyberknife, breaking from the No. 8 post position, settled into fourth position early, tucking in behind Kavod, Chasing Time and Doppelganger rounding the first turn. Kavod set fractions of :22.11 and :46.54  for the opening half mile under pressure from Chasing Time.

Approaching the far turn, Geroux gunned Cyberknife into contention between the two front runners and battled with them through a six-furlong split in 1:11.22. Luis Contreras, aboard Secret Oath, was stuck near the back of the field, but then swung her out to commence a strong rally.

Turning into the stretch, Cyberknife held the advantage as Chasing Time and Doppelganger retreated. Secret Oath circled the field with a strong move to make a bid but flattened out in the final furlong after the opening mile was clocked in 1:37.24. Barber Road and Reylu Gutierrez came up the rail to pass Secret Oath for second approaching the wire.

The win for Cyberknife was the colt's third in five starts and first in a stakes. His only previous stakes attempt came Jan. 22 at Fair Grounds when he finished sixth behind Call Me Midnight in the G3 Lecomte.

 

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Ideally placed in midfield early, favorite Tiz the Bomb uncorked his winning rally on the turn and drove clear in the $600,000 Jeff Ruby Steaks (G3) Saturday at Turfway Park.

With Brian Hernandez Jr. aboard, the Hit It a Bomb colt won by 2 ¼ lengths and finished 1 1/8 miles in 1:48.60, marking his second straight score on the synthetic track.

Dowagiac Chief showed the way to the far turn then faded. Tawny Port looked to have a slim advantage in upper stretch before finishing second; Rich Strike rallied from next to last for third at 26-1 odds in the field of 12 3-year-olds.

Tiz the Bomb was second in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf (G1) then started his 3-year-old campaign in the Holy Bull Stakes (G3) Feb. 5 at Gulfstream Park but finished seventh. In his first start on Turfway's Tapeta surface, he outfinished Stolen Base to take the John Battaglia Memorial Stakes March 5.

Trained by Kenny McPeek, Tiz the Bomb, who returned $5, earned 100 qualifying points for the Kentucky Derby (G1) May 7 but could ship to England or Ireland for a classics start.

Tiz the Bomb has a 5-1-0 record from eight lifetime starts and $1,044,401 in earnings. He is campaigned in the name of McPeek's Magdalena Racing, Lessee.

Bred by Spendthrift Farm, Tiz the Bomb is out of the Tiznow mare Tiz the Key.

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Doug O'Neill, who won the Santa Anita Derby (G1)  with Goldencents in 2013 and eventual Kentucky Derby winner I'll Have Another in 2012, pursues another victory Saturday in the West Coast's major steppingstone to the Kentucky Derby (G1) with Happy Jack and Win the Day.

Working in company, Happy Jack and Win the Day each went six furlongs Saturday in identical times of 1:14.20, while O'Neill's Santa Anita Oaks (G1) nominee Awake at Midnyte went the same distance in a bullet 1:12.20.

Happy Jack, like O'Neill's stable star Hot Rod Charlie a son of Oxbow, was third by 10 ½ lengths to Santa Anita Derby-bound Forbidden Kingdom last out in the San Felipe Stakes (G2) March 5, while Win the Day, a son of Midshipman, is coming off an impressive 5 ½-length maiden victory at one mile on March 6.

“Happy Jack is doing really well,” said O'Neill, who will have Abel Cedillo aboard the bay colt owned and bred by Calumet Farm for the fourth consecutive race.

“Win the Day had a nice maiden win going two turns on the main track here, so we're hoping he moves forward a little bit. He's got a big chance. Obviously, it's going to be a tough race but we've got two live ones.”

Umberto Rispoli, who was aboard Win the Day for his maiden victory, retains the mount.

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D. Wayne Lukas decided four days before the race to run his star filly, Althea, against males in the 1984 Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn. Almost 40 years later, the Hall of Fame trainer is at it again, but the timeline involving Secret Oath is much different.

Lukas was seriously considering Secret Oath for Saturday's $1.25 million Arkansas Derby (G1) in mid-February, roughly two weeks after she crushed 3-year-old fillies in the $200,000 Martha Washington Stakes.

“One morning I was sitting down there with him and we were discussing her,” Lukas' close friend, retired Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens, said Tuesday morning. “I mentioned it and he smiled at me and said: 'It's been running through my mind.'”

As an analyst for Fox Sports' “America's Day at the Races,” Stevens broke the news March 12 that Secret Oath, after winning her three starts at the meeting by a combined 23 lengths, would face males for the first time in the Arkansas Derby.

Asked 17 days later if Lukas made the right decision, Stevens said, “Absolutely.”

“Wayne's always been game, you know,” Stevens said. “But he takes what I would call educated risks, where the odds are in his favor. He weighs all options. You can go back all the way to Althea when she won the Arkansas Derby and then he had great success with Lady's Secret. She faced the boys. He's never been afraid to run the girls against the boys and I think a lot of that comes from his Quarter-Horse days. They do it a lot more often. Like the All American Futurity, there's been fillies that have won it.”

A week after finishing a troubled second in the Fantasy Stakes – Oaklawn's biggest race for 3-year-old fillies – Lukas wheeled back Althea in the Arkansas Derby. Ridden for the first time by Pat Valenzuela, Althea equaled the track record for 1 1/8 miles (1:46.80) in a front-running seventh-length victory.

Lukas also finished third in the 1986 Arkansas Derby with another filly, Family Style, a week after she finished fourth in the Fantasy. Both Althea and Family Style were Eclipse Award winners at 2 and faced males at 2.

“I don't know if I would have the ba*** to do that again, to lead Althea over there,” Lukas, 86, said Tuesday morning. “But it worked. When I think back, 'Christ.' I think that we're fine-tuning and taking a better horse, that's set up for this race, whether it's good enough or not. Family Style, that was a pretty ambitious move. Althea, I thought could win it, but I think back in (seven) days, come on. This is a better-planned chance for her to maybe do something.”

Secret Oath is the 5-2 program favorite for the Arkansas Derby, which will offer 170 points (100-40-20-10, respectively) to its top four finishers toward starting eligibility for the Kentucky Derby. Secret Oath already has secured a spot in the Kentucky Oaks, the nation's biggest race for 3-year-old fillies and could be considered for the Kentucky Derby with a top two finish Saturday.

A homebred for Lukas' longtime clients Robert and Stacy Mitchell (Briland Farm), Secret Oath has been a different horse since finishing fifth, beaten 11 ¼ lengths, in the $400,000 Golden Rod Stakes (G2) at 1 1/16 miles Nov. 27 at Churchill Downs. The Golden Rod was her stakes debut.

Secret Oath closed her 2-year-old campaign with an 8 ¼-length allowance victory at 1 mile Dec. 31 and dominated Oaklawn's first two Kentucky Oaks points races. She captured the Martha Washington by 7 ¼ lengths Jan. 29 and the $300,000 Honeybee Stakes (G3) by 7 ½ lengths Feb. 26. Both races were 1 1/16 miles.

“The Golden Rod, if you can back and look at it, was a horrendous trip,” Lukas said. “But we were still trying to get her to rate off of it and then make that kick. We knew that she had that, but we never got a chance to show it. So, we just drew a line through that one. I wanted to go in the allowance race to make sure that she was back on course. And she did that, I was comfortable for these two.”

Secret Oath is the from the crop of the deceased Arrogate, who named the country's champion 3-year-old male of 2016 after roaring to five consecutive victories, including the $6 million Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) at Santa Anita. Arrogate was trained by Hall of Famer Bob Baffert, another close friend of Lukas.

“I've been talking to him a lot,” Baffert said Tuesday afternoon. “He is so excited. I told him, that horse, that filly, looks and runs like Arrogate. He's done an unbelievable job. One thing about Wayne, he's still sharp. He's a great horseman, one of the greatest ever. He's got the right horse. I've been very impressed with all the races.”

Althea is the only filly in Oaklawn's modern era, which began in 1934, to win the Arkansas Derby. Secret Oath is the first filly scheduled to run in the Arkansas Derby since Family Style and Ann's Bid in 1986. Ann's Bid finished sixth for now-retired trainer Joe Cantey. The only other filly to win the Arkansas Derby, when run at Oaklawn, is Angleta in 1905.

Lukas and Stevens teamed to win the 1985 Arkansas Derby with Tank's Prospect and the 1988 Santa Anita and Kentucky derbies with a filly, Winning Colors.

“It takes a certain type of filly,” said Stevens, now the agent for Oaklawn-based jockeys Geovanni Franco, Tiago Pereira and apprentice Jeremy Alicea. “Wayne weighs the good and the bad. I spoke to him at length to him about it. Right now is the time to try it.”

Lukas is a four-time Kentucky Derby winner and a 1999 inductee into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.

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