Oaklawn still making a case for Fantasy Stakes upgrade

Oaklawn Park knows better than to get its hopes up about an upgrade for the Fantasy Stakes.

If the grounds for doing so aren't already overwhelming, any posturing from Oaklawn in regard to its premier race for 3-year-old fillies might be of no use.

Its main argument: producing winners of two Triple Crown races, girls who beat the boys. Rachel Alexandra in 2009 and Swiss Skydiver this year are the only Preakness-winning fillies since 1924. Both won the Fantasy, which carries a Grade 3 designation.

And it doesn't stop there. Winners of this year's Kentucky Oaks and Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland, both Grade 1, also contested this year's Fantasy, which dates to 1973.

Swiss Skydiver finished first, Oaks winner Shedaresthedevil third and QE2 Challenge Cup winner Harvey's Lil Goil 11th in the $400,000 race May 1. The 2020 Fantasy filled the spot on the racing calendar traditionally occupied by the Kentucky Oaks, which was postponed until Sept. 4 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The American Graded Stakes Committee of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association makes these calls. It reviewed 844 races for 2020, assigning grades to 448, two fewer than were graded in 2019, and listed status to 196 races. It has heard protests from Oaklawn before; it can expect to hear more if the Fantasy doesn't get a boost. (The 2021 grades will be announced later this year.) 

Track management once took out an ad in Daily Racing Form, lampooning the committee's decision to lower the Apple Blossom Handicap to Grade 2. For a spell, Oaklawn refused to print grades in its program. The late Chick Lang Jr., then Oaklawn's operations director, said, "All of our races are grade A." (The Graded Stakes Committee eventually restored the Apple Blossom to Grade 1 status, which it shares with the Arkansas Derby.)

At its peak, the Fantasy produced three straight winners that campaigned at the highest level. The ill-fated Eight Belles, trained by Larry Jones, finished second to Big Brown in the 2008 Kentucky Derby, though suffering a fatal injury after defeating 18 males at Churchill Downs.

Rachel Alexandra, winning the Kentucky Oaks by 20 3/4 lengths for trainer Hal Wiggins, became the first Preakness-winning filly in 85 years after her sale and reassignment to the barn of Steve Asmussen. She beat males in two other races in 2009 and outpolled the unbeaten racemare Zenyatta, that year's Breeders' Cup Classic winner, as Horse of the Year.

Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer shipped in Blind Luck to win the 2010 Fantasy (then Grade 2) and captured the Kentucky Oaks in a championship season. She had an ongoing rivalry with Havre de Grace, memorably defeating the 2011 Horse of the Year in that year's Delaware Handicap after doing so twice as a 3-year-old.

The Fantasy will be worth a record $600,000 in 2021 for its April 3 running. For now, because of its alumni, it outshines higher graded Kentucky Oaks preps. With luck, someone on the graded-stakes committee will notice.

Bob Wisener covers horse racing for The Sentinel-Record of Hot Springs, Ark., where he was sports editor for 37 years.