Taris Arrives at Oaklawn for Honeybee
Taris, undefeated in two starts and the winner of the $100,000 Wide Country Stakes at Laurel last time out on Jan. 25, arrived on the Oaklawn Park backside at 4 AM on Tuesday in preparation for her start in Saturday’s $150,000 Honeybee Stakes (G3) for 3-year-old fillies.
The Flatter filly may be lightly raced, but has shown true talent in winning her two races by a combined 20 lengths while being hand-ridden by regular jockey Clinton Potts.
“She hasn’t been hit yet,” said trainer Todd Beattie, who trains her for Commonwealth New Era racing, a partnership he formed while retaining 25% ownership of the filly. “Obviously, it’s been a lot of fun having her run as good as she has. I don’t think we’ve seen the best of her yet.
Beattie and his brother drove Taris in a van for 18 hours from the Ocala, FL training center owned by their sister Holly, who is married to Brian Rice, a member of racing’s famous Rice family. He decided to send her South when the winter weather at his Penn National base turned nasty following Taris’ Wide Country win.
“Hopefully, she can handle all of the differences we’ve thrown at her,” said Beattie said. “We took her to a different place to train and now we’ve taken her to a different place to run. Even though she shipped the last two times she’s run, we shipped in on the day of the race rather than five days ahead of time. You question whether a young filly is going to handle it. I’m optimistic and hopeful, but there are questions.”
Taris has yet to travel around two turns and the Honeybee will be contested at 1 1/16 miles. Taris’ wins have come at six furlongs and seven furlongs and she went gate-to-wire both times, but it looks like there will be plenty of fleet-footed fillies flashing early speed in the Honeybee.
“Obviously that’s a concern, but I don’t think she has to be married to the lead,” said Beattie. “At the same time, I wish she was a little more patient than she’s showed us, but I think that will come. The fact I’ve had her down there in Ocala and have been training her there, I think we were able to work on her relaxing. We’ve been concentrating on that. She’s going into the race good and I like everything.”
Beattie picked Taris out of the Keeneland September sale last year as a 2-year-old and signed the ticket for $90,000.
Taris now has the opportunity to notch her first graded stakes victory and Potts will be jetting in from Penn National to be aboard.
“If we can handle the newness of shipping and going to a strange place, 18 hours from where we were training, I like our chances,” said her trainer.
In related Honeybee news, Naïve Enough, fourth last time out in the Golden Rod Stakes (G2) in November at Churchill Downs, was declared by her trainer, Ignacio Correas, who said he changed plans to ship the filly from South Florida to Hot Springs when an overnight stakes race came up for her at Gulfstream Park on Sunday.
Nonetheless, provided that all continues to go well, the daughter of 2006 Juvenile champion and 2007 Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense will be in the starting gate for the $400,000 Fantasy Stakes (G3) for sophomore fillies on April 5.
The complete field for the Honeybee Stakes, in post position order, with riders: Please Explain, Drayden Van Dyke; Taris, Clinton Potts; Silk Purse, Ramon Vazquez; Midnight Eclipse, Glenn Corbett; Springsteen Road, David Mello; Euphrosyne, Ricardo Santana Jr.; Courageous Julie, Israel Ocampo; Kiss Moon, Terry Thompson; Ireland, Norberto Arroyo Jr.; Dream Spinner, Luis Quinonez, and Sugar Shock, Channing Hill.