Remember the Name ... Dazzling Gem
I love Oaklawn Park. People ask me why, and I always tell them it’s the atmosphere. Hot Springs, Arkansas really gets into their racing, and Oaklawn is the happy epicenter. If you’ve never been, you are missing out.
With the family truckster pointed due southwest, Candice, Kendra, and I bugged out of Louisville yesterday, and made the successful drive to Hot Springs in less than nine hours total. A stopover in Memphis and Central BBQ yielded some of the best barbecue I’ve ever eaten. The short trip from Memphis to Hot Springs was completed this morning, and while the weather was a bit brisk, it was good to be back at Oaklawn Park, and in the company of old friends.
The Essex was today’s feature race, and it was won in a surprise by the late run of La Macchina under Channing Hill, but I honestly feel like a couple of allowance races on the card stole the thunder from the $100,000 feature.
In the fifth race, stakes quality sprinters went at it going six panels, and it’s now safe to say that Subtle Indian is back. The highly regarded sprinter of last year, went off the boil for a few races, but now has won back-to-back races in 2016 at Oaklawn. Today’s performance, in which he easily held off stakes winning sprinters, Bayerd and Hebbronville, was first rate. He won by 2 ¼ lengths in 1:09.75 going wire-to-wire under Ramon Vazquez. Still lightly raced, the four-year-old son of Indian Charlie is now 5-of-7 lifetime, but more importantly, he looks to have put the trouble of last year behind him. I believe he is a serious talent sprinting, and I have no hesitation in predicting that the Robertino Diodoro trainee will be a graded stakes winner in the near future.
Three races later came an interesting allowance heat for three-year-olds. Get Jets, a New York-bred stakes winner, was sent off as the chalk, but the unbeaten Dazzling Gem was the star of the show. Stalking a talented frontrunner named Gray Sky, the whole way, I didn’t know if the Brad Cox trained colt was going to reel him in when the field turned for home. That thought would not last long, though, as Dazzling Gem (pictured above and below) turned it on down the lane to win by two lengths going away under Shaun Bridgmohan.
Now perfect in two career starts, whether he is a potential Kentucky Derby horse remains to be seen, but I was thoroughly impressed with what I saw today. For comparisons sake, the final time of 1:45.91 was only .64 slower than the older stakes males ran in the Essex. That’s not bad for a horse making only his second career start. A son of Misremembered, Dazzling Gem is a name to remember. Look for him in stakes racing sooner than later -- perhaps even as soon as the $900,000 Rebel Stakes on March 19.
Day one at Oaklawn Park in the books, and a nice dinner in the belly, we now are enjoying a quiet evening at our charming accommodations on Lake Hamilton. Life is good.