9-year-old Rated R Superstar battles Concert Tour at Oaklawn
Danny Caldwell’s first Oaklawn Park stakes victory came with a 9-year-old. Now, Oaklawn’s four-time leading owner bids for a second with another 9-year-old in late-running millionaire Rated R Superstar, who is scheduled to make his 2022 debut in the $150,000 Fifth Season Stakes for older horses at one mile Saturday at Oaklawn.
Rated R Superstar is seeking his fifth career stakes victory in the Fifth Season, which has attracted two other millionaires in Snapper Sinclair for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen and Long Range Toddy (Dallas Stewart). Also entered is Concert Tour, who won the Rebel Stakes (G2) for 3-year-olds last March at Oaklawn for Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert. The colt, unraced since the Preakness Stakes last May, is now with trainer Brad Cox.
“It’s tough,” said Caldwell, Oaklawn’s leading owner in 2014-2017. “It’s not going to be easy.”
Caldwell won the 2017 Fifth Season with Domain’s Rap, who was making his 9-year-old debut after being claimed for just $10,000 in November 2015 at Remington Park. Caldwell claimed Rated R Superstar for $50,000 last January at Oaklawn and has been rewarded, again, by another member of the elderly equine set.
Rated R Superstar, in eight starts for Caldwell and trainer Federico Villafranco, has bankrolled $298,991. Caldwell recouped his investment when Rated R Superstar finished second in the Essex Handicap for older horses last March at Oaklawn. The gelding surpassed $1 million in career earnings in the Essex, was eighth in Oaklawn Handicap (G2) for older horses last April at Oaklawn, an allowance winner in May at Prairie Meadows and captured the Governor’s Cup Stakes on Aug. 20 at Remington Park, where Caldwell is the all-time leading owner.
“I’d been watching this horse for a long time,” Caldwell said Monday afternoon. “I liked him, and I liked the way his running style was. Most horses that run at the end of the race, normally they take care of themselves. They’re not like sprinters. They go out there and go all out. He knows how to take care of himself. He had a couple of bad races there at Turfway Park, where he didn’t hit the board. I thought, ‘You know, I’m just going to throw those two races out because that’s a Poly track.’ He just didn’t like it. I think he had run in a Grade 2 before that at Keeneland and he only got beat three lengths, I think. I thought I would give him a shot for $50,000. We love older horses. The best horse I’ve ever had is Domain’s Rap and he made me more than a half-million dollars, most of it as a 9-year-old.”
After winning the Fifth Season, then worth $125,000, Domain’s Rap made his final four career starts later in the 2017 Oaklawn meeting. He won an allowance race, was third to eventual 2017 Horse of the Year Gun Runner in the Razorback Handicap (G3) for older horses, second to eventual 2017 Met Mile winner Mor Spirit in the Essex Handicap for older horses and second to Inside Straight in the Oaklawn Handicap (G2) for older horses. Inside Straight finished second to Domain’s Rap in the allowance race. Domain’s Rap retired with $880,850 in earnings during a 64-race career.
Domain’s Rap spent most of his career in the allowance and stakes ranks in Illinois before tumbling down the class ladder and being claimed, but Rated R Superstar began his racing career as a promising Triple Crown prospect for nationally prominent trainer Kenny McPeek.
Rated R Superstar, in 2015, finished second in the Iroquois Stakes (G3) for 2-year-olds at Churchill Downs, then third in the Breeders’ Futurity Stakes (G1) for 2-year-olds at Keeneland. Breeders’ Futurity runner-up Exaggerator won the Preakness in 2016. Rated R Superstar became a multiple Grade 3 winner for McPeek, earning $518,367 in 30 starts before being claimed by trainer Cipriano Contreras for $62,500 in November 2018 at Churchill Downs.
In 18 starts for Contreras, Rated R Superstar earned $363,656. The gelding ran third in the 2019 Razorback before winning the Essex, then worth $350,00, in his next start.
“That’s amazing,” Caldwell said, referring to Rated R Superstar’s money-making skills. “He’s just a professional. He’s professional racehorse is what he is. He knows his job, he loves his job, he loves to go out there and perform. I wish I had a barn full of horses like him.”
Rated R Superstar hasn’t started since finishing second in a Sept. 11 allowance race at Remington Park. Caldwell said the gelding came out of the race with a minor splint bone issue, necessitating a short break from training. Rated R Superstar has five published workouts since Dec. 2, the last two coming at Oaklawn.
“We trained him on the wheel and just kind of brought him back slow,” Caldwell said. “He’s come back really feeling good. We’re hoping to have a good 9-year-old year with him.”
A son of 2008 Oaklawn allowance winner and 2009 champion sprinter Kodiak Kowboy, Rated R Superstar has a 9-10-8 record from 56 lifetime starts and earnings of $1,181,014. He has won from six furlongs to 1 1/8 miles.
The projected nine-horse Fifth Season field from the rail out: Thomas Shelby, David Cohen to ride, 122 pounds, 5-1 on the morning line; Rated R Superstar, David Cabrera, 122, 8-1; Snapper Sinclair, Ramon Vazquez, 122, 6-1; Necker Island, Francisco Arrieta, 122, 9-2; Concert Tour, Joel Rosario, 122, 5-2; Atoka, Luis Contreras, 122, 15-1; Long Range Toddy, Jon Court, 115, 10-1; Silver Prospector, Ricardo Santana Jr., 115, 10-1; and Mucho, Florent Geroux, 122, 7-2.
Probable post time for the Fifth Season, which goes as the eighth of nine races, is 4:46 p.m. EST. First post Saturday is 1:30 p.m. EST.