Lone Sailor drops to headline 'salty' Oaklawn Park allowance field

Graded stakes winner Lone Sailor highlights the Oaklawn Park entries as the 3-1 program favorite for Friday’s featured eighth race, an $88,000 allowance optional claimer for older horses at 1 1/16 miles.

Campaigned by Gayle Benson, owner of the New Orleans Saints and New Orleans Pelicans, and trained by Tom Amoss, Lone Sailor won the Oklahoma Derby (G3) in 2018 at Remington Park and finished second, beaten a neck, in the Oaklawn Handicap (G2) last year at Oaklawn. In his final two starts at 4 years old, the late-running Lone Sailor finished 10th in the Korea Cup (G1) Sept. 8 in South Korea and third, beaten a half-length, in the $75,000 Tenacious Stakes Dec. 21 at the Fair Grounds. 

Tenacious winner Pioneer Spirit won the second division of the $100,000 Fifth Season Stakes last Saturday at Oaklawn.

“Look, he’s a horse that has to have his setup and when you look over this race, it looks like there’s a good amount of speed in the race and that’s important to him,” Amoss said Thursday morning. “But he’s quirky in other ways, too. He’d rather be outside. He’d rather come around. It’s a big field. There are some things in play here that we need to work to our advantage.”

Lone Sailor, who is scheduled to break from post no. 3 under Joe Talamo, is among 10 horses the Fair Grounds-based Amoss has at Oaklawn. Although the 5-year-old Majestic Warrior gelding doesn’t show a published work at Oaklawn, Amoss said a Jan. 14 breeze was missed because of fog.

“It’s hopefully a chance to get on track,” Amoss said. “He went all the way to South Korea to run. It was a disaster. They actually had a tsunami a couple of days before the race. He came back and ran well at the Fair Grounds. That field has held up very nicely.” 

Another Grade 3 winner in the projected 12-horse field is Forty Under for trainer Jeremiah Englehart and owner Bill Parcells, a two-time Super Bowl-winning coach and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Forty Under, by Uncle Mo, has made his last seven starts on turf after finishing ninth in his July 2018 career debut at Saratoga on dirt. Forty Under won the Pilgrim Stakes (G3) at Belmont Park and finished sixth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (G1) as a 2-year-old in 2018.

“He’s been training really well at Oaklawn,” Englehart said. “I’ve always wanted to try him back on the dirt once, so I just thought this was a good spot to try him. It’s a very salty race. If he runs well on the dirt, that’s great. If not, then we can take him back to the turf.”

Also entered are Curlin Rules for trainer John Sadler and Dueling for Hall of Fame trainer Jerry Hollendorfer. Dueling ran sixth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) in 2018 and was second in the Zia Park Derby Nov. 27 at Zia Park in his last start.

Probable post time for Friday’s eighth race is 4:42 p.m. CT.