Fair Grounds' Bonapaw to sharpen Gray Attempt for Oaklawn sprints

Gray Attempt, among Oaklawn’s leading 3-year-olds this year, will make his next start in the $75,000 Bonapaw Stakes, an about 5 ½-furlong turf race, on Dec. 21 at Fair Grounds, trainer Jinks Fires said Thursday morning.

Fires said he’s using the Bonapaw as a prep for the $125,000 King Cotton Stakes for older sprinters Feb. 8 at Oaklawn. The King Cotton is Oaklawn’s first of two major steppingstones to the $500,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap (G3) April 11. The 2019 Count Fleet winner, Mitole, is expected to be named the country’s champion male sprinter.

Gray Attempt won Oaklawn’s Smarty Jones Stakes and Gazebo Stakes at the 2019 meeting before being “turned out pretty much all summer” in Kentucky, Fires said. Gray Attempt resumed training in late fall, Fires said, before finishing third in his Nov. 28 allowance comeback race at Churchill Downs. Gray Attempt, in his first start against older horses, was beaten 4 ¼ lengths by Wilbo, winner of the 2018 King Cotton.

“He ran very well,” said Fires, who trains Gray Attempt for Dwight Pruett of Texarkana, Ark. “Unfortunately, he caught some really tough horses and older horses, too. I’m just trying to get another race in him, so he’ll be sharp for here.”

Gray Attempt is already a stakes winner at Fair Grounds, taking the Sugar Bowl in his final start at 2. Gray Attempt opened 2019 by winning the 1-mile Smarty Jones, Oaklawn’s first of four Kentucky Derby points races.

After finishing a troubled 11th in the Southwest Stakes (G3), Gray Attempt cut back to 6 furlongs and won the Gazebo, ran ninth in the Arkansas Derby (G1) and completed his busy local campaign with a third-place finish in last April’s Bachelor Stakes at 6 furlongs. Gray Attempt didn’t resurface until the allowance sprint last month.

“He did win going long, but basically he’s a sprinter,” Fires said.

A son of Graydar, Gray Attempt has a 4-0-2 record from nine starts overall and earnings of $290,199. He was a $50,000 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Select Yearling Sale purchase.