Next-Race Plans Pending for Sarah Sis
Trainer Ingrid Mason said Tuesday morning that multiple stakes winner Sarah Sis was fine physically after a fourth-place finish as the favorite in Sunday’s $100,000 Bayakoa (G3) for older fillies and mares at Oaklawn. The 4-year-old filly, who was stretching out from 6 furlongs to 1 1/16 miles, was beaten nine lengths after being unable to grab the early lead.
“She’s perfect, actually,” Mason said. “She doesn’t really want to go a mile and a sixteenth. When she wins that race, she goes to the front. The fractions they went were so slow that she doesn’t have a big old kick going that far, in my opinion, plus she may have bounced a little bit from that race off the layoff. She ran a tough race that day.”
Sarah Sis finished second in her debut, beaten a neck, in the $100,000 American Beauty Stakes Jan. 23 at Oaklawn.
Mason said next-race plans are pending for Sarah Sis, but she will be nominated to the $300,000 Azeri Stakes (G2) at 1 1/16 miles March 19 at Oaklawn. She is also under consideration for the $200,000 Inside Information Stakes (G2) at 7 furlongs March 19 at Gulfstream Park, Mason said.
Sarah Sis won the $150,000 Honeybee Stakes (G3) at 1 1/16 miles last year at Oaklawn. She scored her biggest career victory at 7 furlongs in the $250,000 Raven Run Stakes (G2) Oct. 17 at Keeneland. Mason said Sarah Sis’ major year-end objective is the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint (G1) Nov. 5 at Santa Anita. The race is 7 furlongs.
A Sure Bet?
Gentlemen’s Bet is entered in Thursday’s eighth race at Oaklawn, 1-mile allowance that would mark the two-turn debut for the multiple stakes-winning sprinter.
But, trainer Ron Moquett of Hot Springs said Monday morning that he wasn’t sure if Gentlemen’s Bet would run or defend his title in the $100,000 Hot Springs Stakes for older sprinters March 5 at Oaklawn. Either race, Moquett said, would serve as a prep for the $400,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap (G3) April 10 at Oaklawn.
Gentlemen’s Bet is coming off a fourth-place finish in the $100,000 King Cotton Stakes for older sprinters Jan. 30 at Oaklawn.
The Hot Springs is the final major local prep for the Count Fleet.
“I understand those are the kind of horses you’ve got to beat to win a $400,000 race,” Moquett said. “The thing that I don’t want to do is have to run against those same horses for $100,000, so if you can save your horse’s big bullet – I guess, for lack of a better word, it’s like practicing the ‘A’ team against the ‘A’ team over and over.”
Moquett said he’s always wanted to try 7-year-old Gentlemen’s Bet around two turns, adding it would help the horse’s fitness for the Count Fleet.
Gentlemen’s Bet is among eight horses entered for Thursday’s race. Probable post time is 4:42 p.m. (Central).
A High Dollar Woman
Grade 2 winner High Dollar Woman will make her 4-year-old debut in Saturday’s $100,000 Spring Fever Stakes at Oaklawn, trainer Steve Hobby of Hot Springs said Tuesday morning.
Hobby is using the 5 ½-furlong race as a stepping stone to the $300,000 Azeri Stakes (G2) March 19 at Oaklawn, a 1 1/16-mile event that is the final major local prep for the $600,000 Apple Blossom Handicap (G1) April 15. The trainer said he chose the Spring Fever after an allowance race didn’t go because of insufficient entries.
“I’ve got to run her somewhere,” Hobby said.
High Dollar Woman hasn’t started since finishing 10th in the $100,000 Monmouth Oaks (G3) Aug. 22 at Monmouth Park because of a problem with a suspensory ligament in a hind leg, Hobby said. She was coming off a front-running victory in the $200,000 Indiana Oaks (G2) July 18 at Indiana Grand.
A $675,000 purchase by Alex and JoAnn Lieblong of Conway, Ark., High Dollar Woman broke her maiden at 6 furlongs as a 2-year-old at Saratoga. In her only Oaklawn start, she ran fifth in last year’s $100,000 Martha Washington Stakes.
Hobby and the Lieblongs won last year's Spring Fever with the recently retired Spring Included.
Also scheduled to run in the Spring Fever are Haveyougoneaway and Super Saks, first and fourth, respectively, in the $100,000 American Beauty Stakes Jan. 23 at Oaklawn.
Trainer Jinks Fires of Hot Springs said Tuesday morning that Simply Confection, a Jan. 28 allowance winner at Oaklawn, was under “pretty serious” consideration for the Spring Fever.
Finish Lines
Black Ops, 10th in the $150,000 Smarty Jones Stakes Jan. 18 at Oaklawn, worked 5 furlongs in 1:05.20 after the break Tuesday morning, his first breeze since emerging from the race with a foot abscess. Trainer Rodney Richards said he has no race in mind for Black Ops, a Churchill Downs maiden graduate. … Bumpy Cat, the first horse at the 2016 Oaklawn meet to break 1:10 for 6 furlongs, is pointing for the $100,000 Nodouble Breeders’ Stakes Feb. 28 at Oaklawn, trainer Ingrid Mason said. Bumpy Cat, a 5-year-old Portobello Road gelding, ran 1:09.90 in a 6 ¼-length allowance victory for Arkansas-breds Jan. 29. The 6-furlong Nodouble is also restricted to state-breds. … Trainer Robertino Diodoro has 4-year-old Subtle Indian, a two-time allowance winner this year at Oaklawn, ticketed for the $100,000 Hot Springs Stakes for older sprinters March 5. Subtle Indian won the $100,000 Gazebo Stakes last year at Oaklawn.
Source: Oaklawn Park