Zipse: Simply Joking is a serious Kentucky Oaks candidate

There’s just something about a horse who successfully begins a racing career in a stakes race. Few horses try, and many are not up to the challenge when they do, but when connections think enough of their charge to start out in a stakes race, it is worth taking notice. Kentucky Oaks candidate Simply Joking is just such a horse.

Dipping into my reservoir of 50-plus years following the sport, I can recall many runners who debuted in a stakes race. Horses like Groovy and Mom’s Command readily come to mind. Both were top performers in the 1980s after beginning their careers by winning a sprint stakes as juveniles. The former went on to become a sprint champion, but the latter might have more in common with Simply Joking.

Simply Joking goes gate to wire in Silverbulletday.

Mom’s Command got her career rolling by starting slowly but rallying for the win in the Faneuil Miss Stakes at the old Rockingham Park. Ten stakes wins later, and the beautiful chestnut daughter of Top Command was headed to racing’s Hall of Fame.

Comparing Simply Joking with a great like that at this point would be a fool’s folly, but at the very least this Pennsylvania-bred daughter of Practical Joke has my full attention.

Making her career bow in the six-furlong Letellier Memorial on Dec. 21 at Fair Grounds, Simply Joking was not ignored as Mom’s Command was four decades earlier, but she, too, overcame an awkward start to gamely win in a photo finish. Like the champion of another era, there was good reason to skip the formality of a maiden race.

Plucked out of the Keeneland September yearling sale of 2023 for the modest price of $65,000, the bay filly showed her talent early on for trainer Whit Beckman. A young trainer on the rise, he has two very good sophomore fillies in the barn, the other being the Untapable Stakes winner Her Laugh.

Beckman regularly has worked his two star 3-year-old fillies together, and before Simply Joking ever made it to the races, she showed her trainer she could run with her speedy and talented stablemate.

Two races before her barn mate would remain undefeated by winning the Untapable, a prep for the Kentucky Oaks, Simply Joking would make her successful debut at Fair Grounds. For now the plan for Beckman is to keep the two apart with Her Laugh targeting the Martha Washington Stakes next week at Oaklawn.

On Saturday at Fair Grounds, the rain arrived, and the track came up sloppy, but Simply Joking still managed to shine. The $150,000 Silverbulletday Stakes was the occasion for her second career start, and she passed her two-turn exam like a filly headed to bigger and better things.

Leading all the way in the one-mile-and-70-yard test under rider Jamie Torres, Simply Joking had time to fool around a bit down the stretch on her way to an easy victory. Looking less than tired after the race, she earned 20 qualifying points toward entry into the Grade 1, $1.5 million Kentucky Oaks on Friday, May 2.

Still 3 1/2 months away, there is plenty to be done before the female classic, but that is exactly where she appears to be headed after her second stakes victory in as many races. Owned by Grantley Acres, Ryan Conner, and Berkels0813, her connections remain confident in their filly.

“That was exactly how I thought it would go right there,” Beckman said after the win. “We’ve still got a lot of ground between here and (the Kentucky Oaks). We’re giving them each challenges, and they’re accepting every one. We’ll see how it all falls and see (whether Simply Joking or Her Laugh) is better suited for the Rachel Alexandra.”

While the Rachel Alexandra (G2) on Feb. 15 and the Fair Grounds Oaks (G2) on Mar. 22 loom as possible steppingstones on the road to the Kentucky Oaks for Simply Joking, the inexperienced filly still has plenty to learn.

Ridden by the Preakness Stakes winner Torres in both her starts, the filly out of E Dubai broodmare Imply showed off both her potential and her inexperience in winning the Silverbulletday over a sloppy and sealed racing surface.

“I was very comfortable on her the way she was traveling the track,” Torres said. “She did everything herself. She was a little bit green at the end waiting on company, but she was much the best. We thought she'd get better going two turns.”

Having won a six-furlong stakes race in her career debut but apparently wanting more distance makes Simply Joking a very intriguing filly moving forward. On Saturday she showed a new dimension running on the lead and going two turns.

The 2025 Kentucky Oaks recently lost a big name with the setback of early favorite Immersive. While that soon-to-be-champion is on the shelf for a few months, it’s time for new and exciting prospects to step up.

Enter Simply Joking. Already a two-time stakes winner, the daughter of Practical Joke has a big upside as we inch toward better weather and the important races of the spring.