Report: Dream Tree counted out of Kentucky Oaks 2018 contention

Top 3-year-old filly Dream Tree, an undefeated member of trainer Bob Baffert’s barn, will no longer be pointed toward the 2018 Kentucky Oaks, the Hall of Famer told BloodHorse.

Baffert said he “just wasn’t happy” with the way the daughter of Uncle Mo came out of her March 7 workout. Dream Tree will receive time off from training rather than continue on to the Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks as originally planned.

"It's a small issue — very minor — and I'm not going to run her in the Kentucky Oaks,” Baffert told BloodHorse. “...She'll be fine. We'll shoot for stuff like the Acorn and the Test in the summer.”

Both of those are Grade 1 races as well.

Dream Tree has already won at that level, taking Los Alamitos’ Starlet in December. She returned at 3 to win the Las Virgenes and was pointing toward the Santa Ysabel earlier this month before the track came up sloppy and she scratched, with Baffert opting to work the Phoenix Thoroughbreds filly four days later.