McPeek considers single Oaks prep for Restless Rider
Grade 1 winner Restless Rider, who has not returned to the work tab yet this year, is galloping at Gulfstream Park, trainer Kenny McPeek this week told the hosts of the Horse Racing Talk podcast. And she may seek to make a bit of history later this spring when attempting to win the Kentucky Oaks after a single prep.
Since at least 2000, no filly has won the Oaks with only one start as a 3-year-old.
The daughter of More Than Ready was last seen Nov. 24 at Churchill Downs, running a close second in the Golden Rod Stakes (G2). She holds 22 Oaks qualifying points by way of a win in Keeneland's Alcibiades (G1) win and a runner-up effort in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.
Overall, Restless Rider sports a record of three wins and three seconds from six starts.
McPeek will point the filly to Keeneland’s April 6 Ashland (G1), which offers 100 points to the winner, followed by 40, 20 and 10 to the next three finishers. The other prep McPeek could consider is the one-mile Davona Dale (G2) on March 2 at Gulfstream Park.
“She’s had a series of two-turn races, then I’m going to run her one turn and then go back to two turns?” he said. “I think it’s confusing for a young horse, so my notion is to go ahead and skip the Davona Dale, although I think I could make it if I pressed it, and the fact that I don’t think I need to press it, it gives me the option to wait.
"Right now that’s the plan. We’re just going to wait for Keeneland and we’ll go straight to the Ashland and fire away high and hard there.”
The Ashland is run at 1 1/16 miles and finishes at the first wire in Keeneland’s stretch. It also brings Restless Rider back to the site of her Alcibiades win, and McPeek believes she’ll run well off the layoff.
“I’ve won that race a few times," said McPeek, whose prior winners were Take Charge Lady (2002) and Rosalind (2014), "and this is a filly that I would go in there with supreme confidence."
McPeek also trains Kentucky Derby hopefuls Harvey Wallbanger and Signalman. He considers Restless Rider to be right up there with them, saying, “She might be the fastest of all my 3-year-olds to be honest.”