Kentucky Oaks Moves
Workin' on mysteries without any clues
Workin' on our Oaks moves
Tryin' to make some front page drive-in news
Workin' on our Oaks moves
In the springtime
In the sweet springtime
You didn’t know Bob Seger was such a horseracing fan, now did ya?
They say Saturday is moving day in a golf tournament, and so it was for some of the best three-year-old fillies in the nation. There was no open length wins in Dubai, like Mubtaahij pulled off in the UAE Derby, for the fairer set, but what we did see on Saturday was a pair of fillies that I consider the most likely winners of the 2015 Kentucky Oaks.
With the champ, Take Charge Brandi, on the mend, many like the New York-based Condo Commando best, but I think the future Kentucky Oaks winner raced yesterday either at Fair Grounds or Gulfstream Park.
Back in January, and unlike most racing pundits (that’s the nicest thing I call myself these days) I listed I’m A Chatterbox (Munnings--Chit Chatter, by Lost Soldier) as the top rated young filly on my Kentucky Oaks rankings. Her win in the Silverbulletday was enough for me to believe that she was the genuine article. Larry Jones knows good fillies, and in this streaking chestnut filly, he has another good one to go along with past stars such as Havre de Grace, Proud Spell, Believe You Can, and the ill-fated Eight Belles. Since that romping win to begin her 2015 season, she has done little wrong in scoring rather easy victories in the Rachel Alexandra, and the Fair Grounds Oaks. There can be no doubt that I’m A Chatterbox has proven to be the Belle of the Big Easy in 2015. Still, though, winning easy is not quite enough for my discerning tastes.
Perhaps I detected just a trace of vulnerability in yesterday’s Fair Grounds Oaks, or maybe it only demonstrates how impressed I was with Birdatthewire in winning at Gulfstream, but I have now dropped my early Oaks pick down to the #2 spot. I still believe she is a major threat, but I know no longer consider her the fairest of them all.
It hasn’t always been winning beauty contests for Birdatthewire (Summer Bird--My Limit, by Wagon Limit), in fact the girl has a bit of a checkered past, but I think her talent cannot be held back for much longer. Just ask the winning rider from yesterday’s Gulfstream Park Oaks, Irad Ortiz, Jr. Time and time again, the talented young rider tried to slow the stretch runner’s early roll, as she tried to drag him much closer to the early lead then he wanted. At one point, it looked like he might even be trying to pull her up. While horse and rider had their own personal battle, Eskenformoney was looking like a winner.
Yet, after all that work to slow her down early, Birdatthewire still unleashed a powerful move and stretch run that carried her to a going away 1 ¼ -length victory. She may have taken her time to break her maiden, and still may not have learned all of her lessons, but I now see the Dale Romans trained bay as a powder keg ready to explode on the first Friday in May. The distance-bred filly is now my top pick for the lilies.