HOT SPRINGS -- It took five races for trainer Otabek Umarov to make a name for himself at Oaklawn Park.
His fifth starter, La Macchina, won Saturday's $100,000, 1 1/16-mile Essex Handicap for 4-year-olds and up with a last-to-first run under jockey Channing Hill.
Oaklawn's extended holiday week continues with today's Grade III $100,000 Bayakoa Stakes for older fillies and mares and culminates Monday with the Grade III $500,000 Southwest Stakes, the second leg of Oaklawn's 3-year-old series leading to Kentucky Derby.
Saturday, with a season-high crowed estimated at 24,000, La Macchina, at 11-1, trailed the six-horse field from the start, lagging more than 2 lengths behind fifth-place runner Carve through 6 furlongs.
La Macchina and Hill started closing the gap as the tight pack turned for home, first passing favored Cougar Ridge and early pacesetter Texas Bling, who faded to fifth and sixth, resectively
La Macchina caught Ain't Got Time in the final 50 yards to win by half a length in 1:45.27 and pay $24.60, $8.00, and $3.80.
Ain't Got Time, ridden by Alex Cintron and trained by Tim Ritchey, finished second, half a length in front of Carve in the third.
Umarov, a native of Uzbekistan, is at the beginning of his first full season at Oaklawn, though he said he spent about two weeks at the track in 2005. He has trained in the U.S. for 16 years.
"I love this place," Umarov said. "Nice people. Nice area. The track is nice. I love it here, and the horses are good."
Umarov said Hill followed his instructions perfectly, and Hill, who rode La Macchina to a victory in an optional-claiming race on Jan. 23, Umarov's first winner in Hot Springs, said the trainer had his horse ready.
"He really fired nice coming down the lane," Hill said of La Macchina, who was claimed for $30,000 by Umarov at Churchill Downs in November. "This horse really stepped up from his last race. I've got to give Otabek credit. He did a fantastic job getting the horse to this level. He kicked hard when he needed to and got the job done."
At the start, a 14 mph east wind swirled around the grandstand as Texas Bling, at 18-1, charged to the lead.
The field behind the leader remained packed in close order, with Ain't Got Time followed by Cougar Ridge, Sharm, Carve, and finally La Macchina, a 4-old son of Malibu Moon.
Cougar Ridge, trained by Randy Morse, became the co-morning-line favorite with Carve after trainer Bob Baffert scratched Midnight Hawk, who never left California. Cougar Ridge, making his first start since a Nov. 15 victory at Delta Downs in Vinton, La., finished fifth, 4 3/4 lengths behind the winner.
"He just felt like he needed a race over the track surface," jockey Corey Nakatani said of Cougar Ridge, who had a four-race winning streak end. "You have good days and you have bad days, and today wasn't one of his better days."
Umarov critiqued Hill's ride as he watched a race replay on a television screen near the paddock.
"He was sitting nicely right there," Umarov said as the field passed the opening quarter mile in 24.10 and reached the half-mile mark in 48.40. "I wanted him to let him relax, and that's what he's doing right there. I told him to wait to start picking them up at 3/8ths pole, and that's what he did. He's nice and relaxed and you'll see him about to start picking it up pretty soon."
Umarov had nothing but praise for Hill
"He's a world-class rider," Umarov said. "He works my horses in the morning, and I really like him. He knows what he's doing, and he's very easy to work with. With the good riders who have a lot of experience, you don't really have to say anything because they know what to do."
Jockeys rode and horses raced in weather much nicer than a year ago at Oaklawn, and much nicer than elsewhere in the midwest and northeast, where tracks closed because of low temperatures and high wind.
It was 43 degrees for first post at 1:05 p.m., and 39 at 10 a.m., when Oaklawn-bound traffic, headed north and south on Central Ave., first began to back up along the western boundary of the track's parking lots.
Among the closed tracks was Penn National Race Course in Grantville, Pa., where at noon it was 15 degrees with a windchill of -2.
Director of racing David Longinotti said this holiday weekend is right up behind the Racing Festival of the South, which by tradition includes the Arkansas Derby on closing Saturdays, as far as business is concerned.
"This is the first weekend that we really start paying attention to the numbers," he said.
Last season those numbers were distorted after the holiday weekend was shortened when ice, snow and cold temperatures caused the cancellation of the Monday card and pushed the running of the Southwest Stakes back a week.
There should be no weather-related problems this year. The National Weather Service predicts a 3o-percent chance of rain and a high of 60.
Sports on 02/14/2016