Amid hot streak, Jones maintains high goals for Super Steed
Super Steed, unraced since winning the Southwest Stakes (G3) for 3-year-olds back on Feb. 18, is scheduled to resume training in late May, trainer Larry Jones said.
Super Steed had been pointing to the March 16 Rebel Stakes (G2) – the final local prep for Saturday’s Arkansas Derby (G1) – before being sent to Kentucky because of bone bruising in a front leg.
Jones said Super Steed could resurface in August, adding the Pennsylvania Derby (G1) Sept. 21 at Parx is a major target.
“Definitely want to be ready for that,” said Jones, who is having a stellar Oaklawn Park meeting that continued Saturday when Louisiana-bred star Ours to Run upset 1-2 favorite Mia Mischief in the $150,000 Carousel Stakes for older female sprinters.
Tackling open company for the first time in almost a year, Ours to Run finished 3 ¾ lengths ahead of Grade 2 winner Mia Mischief in the 6-furlong race run over a sloppy track. Ridden by Terry Thompson, Super Steed's jockey, Ours to Run stretched her winning streak to five. The previous four victories – all stakes – had come against Louisiana-breds.
“I knew Mia Mischief, she’s for real,” Jones said Sunday morning. “But every now and then, she won’t throw her ‘A’ game and I was just hoping it wasn’t going to be her ‘A’ game. Plus, I think when we got that big rain that helped us. I don’t know if it helped Mia Mischief, but it definitely helped my horse.”
A 5-year-old daughter of Half Ours, Ours to Run won for the 11th time in 19 starts to raise her career earnings to $427,988. Jones said Ours to Run will be pointed for Louisiana Legends Night – eight stakes races for Louisiana-breds worth $550,000 – May 25 at Evangeline Downs.
Ours to Run was recently named 2018 champion older female by the Louisiana Thoroughbred Breeders Association’s board of directors and fell three votes shy, Jones said, of winning 2018 Louisiana-bred Horse of the Year.
“The owner would like to have her overall champion next year,” said Jones, who trains Ours to Run for lifelong friend Kevin Atwood (Colonel Thoroughbreds LLC). “He’s wanting to get that.”
The Carousel was Jones’ seventh victory from just 31 starters at the meet.
“We’ve just been blessed,” Jones said. “It’s been a good meet for us. Hopefully, we brought in the right horses that would kind of fit and belong, and we were able to do it.”
The Carousel was the 20th career Oaklawn stakes victory for Jones, who has a string of horses in Hot Springs for the first time since 2011. He won 18 of 80 starts that year, including the $500,000 Apple Blossom Handicap (G1) for older fillies and mares with eventual Horse of the Year Havre de Grace. Jones has had approximately 15 horses on the grounds this year.
“What is really good right now with us is not all of them are stars, but we’ve got some pretty darn good horses here,” Jones said. “To have this many good horses, and such a small number of horses, what a joy that is. I don’t have to fool with 200 horses to come up with four or five good ones. We’re pretty happy right now.”
Overall, Jones has 138 victories and $5,638,147 in purse earnings in his Oaklawn career, according to Equibase, racing’s official data gathering organization. He won his first race at Oaklawn in 1989.