Oaklawn news: Zia Park Derby hero targets Razorback Handicap

Zayat Stables homebred Nanoosh worked 5 furlongs in 1:01.60 over a fast track Sunday morning at Oaklawn, the colt’s third local breeze in advance of the Grade 3, $500,000 Razorback Handicap for older horses Feb. 18.

Nanoosh, a 4-year-old son of the Zayat-raced Paynter, has won his last three starts, including the $250,000 Zia Park Derby Nov. 21 at Zia Park. Trainer Robertino Diodoro said Nanoosh will probably train up to the 1 1/16-mile Razorback, the first of two major local preps for the $750,000 Oaklawn Handicap (G2) April 13.

“Freshening him up,” said Diodoro, who won the 2017 Oaklawn Handicap with the now-retired Inside Straight. “He ran hard the last time at Zia. If everything works out, he’ll run pretty consistently once we get going here.”

Nanoosh is among some 40 horses Diodoro has housed in the American Pharoah barn, which honors the 2015 Arkansas Derby and Triple Crown winner campaigned by Ahmed Zayat and his family.

Diodoro finished runner-up to perennial champion and Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen the last two years in the Oaklawn trainer standings.

“I like what I see so far,” Diodoro said of his 2019 stable. “We’ve got a mix. We’ve got a few more upper-end horses.”

Diodoro’s biggest client is M and M Racing (Mike and Mickala Sisk), which won 21 races last year at Oaklawn to capture its first career owner’s title.

Oaklawn’s 2019 meeting begins Jan. 25.

Golden Arches

Jason Barkley has never had a stakes starter in his young training career, but that is scheduled to change this year at Oaklawn.

Barkley said he’s pointing Arch Avenue for the $125,000 Martha Washington Feb. 2, a 1-mile race that is the first of three local preps for the Kentucky Oaks, the nation’s biggest prize for 3-year-old fillies.

Purchased for just $5,500 at Fasig-Tipton’s Kentucky Fall Yearling Sale, Arch Avenue, a daughter of 2011 Arkansas Derby winner Archarcharch, has a 2-0-0 record from five starts, including a first-level allowance score Dec. 7 at Turfway Park in her last start.

Barkley said his father, trainer Jeff Barkley, broke Arch Avenue, adding “she was tough to get going.”

Arch Avenue, in her third career start, broke her maiden for a $50,000 claiming tag at a mile Sept. 28 at Churchill Downs before running 10th over a sloppy surface in an entry-level allowance race Oct. 26 at Keeneland. Scratched from another first-level level spot Nov. 24 at Churchill Downs because of a sloppy track, Arch Avenue was a three-quarter length winner going a mile last month at Turfway, which has a synthetic surface.

“I was pretty confident she could win that day,” Jason Barkley said of the Turfway race. “She did it impressively. She just gets stronger the farther she goes. As long as we hit all of our points, we’ll be in that stake and see what we can do.”

The bay filly is known as “Brown Ear” around the barn because the outside of her right ear is tan, Barkley said.

“They said she was born like that, and it’s just gotten more prevalent,” Barkley said. “She’s gotten a little darker … very unusual. I’ve never seen anything like that.”

Barkley, 29, saddled his first career winner Oct. 6, 2017, at Keeneland and is wintering in Hot Springs for the second consecutive year.

Finish Lines

Oaklawn had 1,048 horses on the grounds early Monday afternoon. … The track was closed for training Tuesday in observance of New Year’s Day…Diodoro said his primary riders at the 2019 meeting that begins Jan. 25 will be David Cohen and newcomer Orlando Mojica. Cohen, in his local debut, was Oaklawn’s third-leading rider in 2018 with 37 victories. Cohen rode 24 winners for Diodoro. Mojica (1 for 35 at the 2010 Oaklawn meeting) has more than 2,000 career North American victories, according to Equibase, racing’s official data gathering organization. Mojica won the $250,000 Zia Park Derby Nov. 21 at Zia Park aboard the Diodoro-trained Nanoosh. … Through Monday, Allen Milligan, Oaklawn’s leading trainer in 2009, had 998 career North American victories, according to Equibase.