Barn Tour: D'Amato's 2 Oaks contenders are gearing up
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After reaching a career-high in purse earnings with more than $7.4 million in 2021, trainer Phil D’Amato has accelerated the pace through the first six-plus weeks of this season.
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Through Thursday, D’Amato had already tallied five stakes wins this year, including last weekend’s Bayakoa (G3) at Oaklawn Park with Miss Bigly, and banked $1,324,824. He has won at a 23 percent clip while compiling a record of 19-13-13 from 82 starters this season.
“Things are rolling around nicely,” D’Amato told Horse Racing Nation Thursday. “We’re winning some good races and we’ve got some really nice horses in the barn, including many still waiting in the wings. So it’s been a very promising start. Hopefully, it will be a very promising year.”
D’Amato, 45, saddled his first starter in 2010 after taking over the operation of Mike Mitchell upon his death. Now, D’Amato has grown the stable to more than 100 horses while expanding into the Midwest.
Horse Racing Nation caught up with the conditioner for updates on his two Kentucky Oaks contenders and other top talents.
Ain’t Easy. Unraced since winning last October’s Chandelier (G2) at Santa Anita to improve to 2-for-2, the Into Mischief filly returned to the work tab on Jan. 31. She has worked three times at Santa Anita, including a sharp five-furlong move in 1:00.4 on Sunday.
“She’s come back just as good as she left, if not better,” D’Amato said. “You know, she’s a little bigger filly now as a 3-year-old and she’s just doing everything right.
Ain’t Easy was slated to contest the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies after winning the Chandelier, but was withdrawn when D’Amato was not satisfied with her training. She was given the rest of the year off.
D’Amato said Ain't Easy has two more works on the schedule and if all continues to go well, she’ll return to the Kentucky Oaks trail in the Santa Ysabel (G3) at Santa Anita on March 6. Ain’t Easy already earned 10 Oaks points when winning the Chandelier.
“If she tells us she’s ready, we’ll go in the Santa Ysabel. Otherwise we’ll await the Santa Anita Oaks,” D’Amato said of the Grade 2 on April 9. The Santa Anita Oaks offers a total of 170 Oaks points with 100 to the winner.
A $400,000 auction purchase, Ain’t Easy is campaigned by the partnership of Old Bones Racing Stable, Michael V. Lombardi and Joey Platts.
Desert Dawn. D’Amato’s other Kentucky Oaks prospect is also back working following a brief freshening. Last year, the daughter of Cupid was third in the Chandelier and sixth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies before closing out the campaign with a fourth in the Dec. 4 Starlet (G1) at Los Alamitos.
Desert Dawn has worked twice since Feb. 7.
“She’s come back good. We gave her a little three-week break following the Los Alamitos race,” D’Amato said. “She’s another one I’d be pointing to the Santa Ysabel, hopefully, and if not then the Santa Anita Oaks. Then if we get there, the Kentucky Oaks.”
Desert Dawn, who has earned $132,400 with a record of 5: 1-0-2, is campaigned by breeder H and E Ranch. She was entered at auction as a weanling, but was retained by H and E Ranch after failing to meet her reserve on a final bid of $32,000.
Going Global. The Grade 1-winning filly, who finished fourth in the voting for champion female turf horse of 2021, is nearing her first work following a brief freshening. As a 3-year-old last year, Going Global won six of eight starts including the Del Mar Oaks (G1), Goldikova (G2) when facing older, Honeymoon (G3), Providencia (G3), Sweet Life (G3) and China Doll Stakes.
“She’s also doing well and is probably due for a breeze in the next week,” D’Amato said. “We’ll probably point her to the Royal Heroine.”
The $200,000 Royal Heroine (G2) going a flat mile is scheduled for April 9 at Santa Anita
Irish-bred Going Global was a bargain $16,987 auction purchase in Europe as a yearling. The daughter of Mehmas won once in four starts as a 2-year-old. She has now compiled a record of 12: 7-1-0 with $649,292 in earnings for Michael Dubb, CYBT, Saul Gevertz, Michael Nentwig and Ray Pagano.
Miss Bigly. The Gemoligist mare won her first graded stakes as a 6-year-old when rallying to win the Bayakoa as the 5-1 fourth choice in a six-horse field. Last year, she won the black-type Tranquility Lake Stakes at Del Mar and finished in the top-three in five other stakes including the Chilukki (G3) at Churchill Downs and Zenyatta (G2) at Santa Anita.
After being stabled at Oaklawn Park this winter to contest both the Bayakoa and Pippin, Miss Bigly is now at Santa Anita.
“She came out of (the Bayakoa) in really good shape. She only really ran the last quarter of a mile,” D’Amato noted.
Miss Bigly is slated to remain in Southern California to prepare for a start in the $500,000 Beholder Mile (G1) at Santa Anita on March 5. That could be followed by a return to Oaklawn for a tilt in the $1 million Apple Blossom (G1) on April 23.
“In a perfect world you could probably do both, but we’ll take it one race at a time,” D’Amato said.
A $20,000 auction purchase as yearling, Miss Bigly has banked $641,242 with a record of 8-4-8 in 26 starts. She is campaigned by the partnership of Agave Racing Stable, Livin The Dream Stables and Rockin Robin Racing Stables.
Count Again. The 7-year-old gelding returned from a nearly six-month layoff and took down the Thunder Road Stakes (G3) at Santa Anita on Feb. 5. It was his first stakes win since the Seabiscuit Handicap (G2) at Del Mar in November 2020.
“He came out of (the Thunder Road) in really good shape. I think that time off, giving him that break after the Del Mar fall meet, really did him a lot of good,” D’Amato said. “He bounced out of this race really sharp.”
So sharp, in fact, Count Again is being pointed to the $500,000 Kilroe Mile (G1) on March 5. Last year, Count Again was third in the Kilroe Mile.
Owned by Agave Racing and breeder Sam-Son Farm, Count Again has a record of 14: 5-1-4 with earnings of $463,665.
Don’tcrossthedevil. The 3-year-old son of Cross Traffic got a shot on the Kentucky Derby trail at Oaklawn Park this winter and fell flat. In the Jan. 1 Smarty Jones, he beat just one horse to the wire when 12th. Then in the Southwest (G3), he was 12th and last.
“I don’t think he really had his mind on business, especially that last race,” D’Amato said. “So we went ahead and gelded him. We’ll regroup with him and you’ll likely see him in the second half of the year.”Don’tcrossthedevil won his first two career starts at Remington Park last fall for trainer and co-owner Jaylan Clary before being purchased privately and transferred to D’Amato. He is now campaigned by Agave Racing and Kevin Knuckley, who was one of his original owners.
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