Haveyougoneaway Seeks Oaklawn Stakes Hat Trick in Carousel
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Oaklawn’s Racing Festival of the South continues Thursday with the $150,000 Carousel Stakes for older filly and mare sprinters. Probable post time for the Carousel, the eighth of nine races, is 4:42 p.m. (Central).
An evenly matched field of seven is entered in the Carousel, with multiple stakes winner Haveyougoneaway the 2-1 program favorite for trainer Allen Milligan and regular rider Jareth Loveberry. A victory would make Haveyougoneaway, a 5-year-old New York-bred daughter of Congrats, the meet’s first three-time stakes winner.
“She’s doing great,” Milligan said.
Haveyougoneaway is coming off a powerful 2 ¾-length victory in the $100,000 Spring Fever Feb. 20. She opened her 2016 campaign with a neck victory over multiple graded stakes winner Sarah Sis in the $100,000 American Beauty Jan. 23.
Haveyougoneaway is scheduled to break from post 4 in the Carousel and shoulder top weight of 122 pounds. Milligan said he believes 6 furlongs is the ideal distance for Haveyougoneaway, who has used stalk-and-pounce tactics in her two stakes victories this year.
“Post is good,” Milligan said. “The race should set up good for her. I’m just concerned about a wet race track, but it looks like we’re going to be OK.”
Completing the projected Carousel field from the rail out: Dancing Diva, Floyd Wethey Jr. to ride, 119 pounds; Ghost Locket, Shane Laviolette, 117; Super Saks, Channing Hill, 119; Wrath of Ruthie, Ricardo Santana Jr., 119; Be Proud, Glenn Corbett, 115; and Harbour Island, Alex Canchari, 119.
The consistent Ghost Locket (first, second or third in 17 of 21 career starts) was runner-up to the speedy Super Saks in her 2016 debut March 26 at Oaklawn for trainer Don Von Hemel of Hot Springs.
Ghost Locket, who exits a conditioned allowance/optional claiming sprint, is a stakes winner at 6 furlongs and 1 1/16 miles.
“I wanted to run long, but I didn’t want to run against the Apple Blossom mares,” Von Hemel said, referring to Friday’s $600,000 Grade I event at Oaklawn. “I wanted some kind of allowance race going long. But it didn’t happen, so we ended up in the Carousel.”
Ghost Locket, 7-2 on the morning line, won 5 of 9 starts last year and earned $232,337.
“She’ll be right there,” Von Hemel said. “She’ll get a piece of it.”
Wrath of Ruthie (5-2) will be making her stakes debut for trainer Steve Asmussen after winning three of her first four career starts, including a second-level allowance/optional claimer March 19 at Oaklawn.
Super Saks finished fourth in the American Beauty and fifth in the Spring Fever following a slow start. Super Saks, trained by Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas, and Harbour Island are both 5-1 on the morning line.
Harbour Island is tackling stakes company again after winning a conditioned allowance race Feb. 27 at Oaklawn in her last start. High-percentage trainer Al Stall said the Carousel could be the final career start for Harbour Island, a 4-year-old daughter of My Pal Charlie, before being retired to the breeding shed.
Source: Oaklawn Park
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