SMARTY JONES STAKES

3-year-old fever spreads to Oaklawn

Uncontested, ridden by Channing Hill and co-owned by Harry Rosenblum of Little Rock and Robert LaPenta, is a 2-1 morning-line favorite to win today’s 10th running of the $150,000 Smarty Jones Stakes for 3-year-olds at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs.
Uncontested, ridden by Channing Hill and co-owned by Harry Rosenblum of Little Rock and Robert LaPenta, is a 2-1 morning-line favorite to win today’s 10th running of the $150,000 Smarty Jones Stakes for 3-year-olds at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs.

HOT SPRINGS -- Many will watch. Not just the crowd gathered at Oaklawn Park for today's special holiday card, but diehards in smoky off-track betting facilities, business executives on Wall Street and around the world.

photo

Wayne Catalano

Participants and enthusiasts of thoroughbred racing will take time to watch the Smarty Jones Stakes.

Smarty Jones Stakes

• 3-year-olds. $150,000 purse. 1 Mile. Post time: 4:38 p.m. Central. TVG.

PP HORSE;JOCKEY;ODDS

1 Petrov; Ortiz; Moquett; 5-2

2 Warrior’s Club; Albarado; Lukas; 7-2

3 Cu Rahy; Corbett; Durham; 15-1

4 Rowdy the Warrior; LQuinonez; 6-1

5 Unbridled Eagle;Vazquez;; 8-1

6 Uncontested; Hill; Catalano; 2-1

7 Romeo O Romeo;Landeros;12-1

8 Love That Lute;Birzer;20-1

From Oaklawn's perspective, this is where the Road to the Kentucky Derby begins. Post time for the 10th running $150,000 Smarty Jones, a 1-mile race for 3-year-old Kentucky Derby hopefuls, is scheduled for 4:38 p.m.

"These are the days you train for and get up early for," said Danele Durham, who trains Smarty Jones entrant Cu Rahy. "There's nothing like the atmosphere. It's kind of like the NFL playoff games. It's not the Super Bowl. That's the Arkansas Derby or the Kentucky Derby, but these are big games, and the eyes of the country are upon you. It's definitely an exciting feeling."

Durham knows a little bit about Derby hopeful. She saddled Texas Bling to a second-place finish in the 2012 Smarty Jones.

The 2017 Smarty Jones, despite its nongraded status, offers a lucrative purse and a total of 17 Road to the Derby points, including 10 to the winner.

The highest points earners among nominated horses earn spots in the 20-horse Kentucky Derby field on May 6 at Churchill Downs in Louisville. The Smarty Jones is the first of four races at Oaklawn on the Road to the Derby, a series that concludes with the Arkansas Derby on April 15.

Among the eight Smarty Jones entrants, all colts, morning-line favorites are Uncontested at 2-1 and Petrov at 5-2.

Warrior's Club is third at 7-2. Cu Rahy is among the field's long shots, listed at 15-1, but he has a victory and a second-place finish in two races on wet racetracks.

Durham said she hopes the National Weather Service's prediction of a 90-percent chance of rain for Monday was accurate.

"Obviously this horse has an affinity for an off track," Durham said. "If the stars should align and give us one, it will definitely be to our advantage. He seems to be training well and likes this racetrack, so we really have some positive thoughts for him."

Uncontested, co-owned by Harry Rosenblum and Robert Lapenta, and trained by Wayne Catalano, began his two-race career with a 6-length victory at 6½ furlongs at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky., on Oct. 19.

His next start came in the 1 1/16th mile Grade II Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes at Churchill. As in his maiden victory, Uncontested led from the start, but he faded to fourth, beaten 5 lengths at the finish.

Catalano said his No. 12 post position and the high-caliber field were perhaps too much to overcome in his first attempt at a route distance.

Regardless, a string of 5-furlong training sessions are enough to have Catalano confident in Uncontested's chance.

"He's working good," Catalano said. "He's training very well."

Uncontested's three 5-furlong works have been timed between 1:00 and 1:01 since his first at Oaklawn on Dec. 23. Catalano said he saw signs early in training that Uncontested might have the talent that Kentucky Derby contenders require. He said he was convinced after a 6-furlong work of 1:12.8 at Keeneland on Oct. 9.

"It was an unbelievable breeze going into his first race," Catalano said of the work by the son of Tiz Wonderful. "I told Harry that he looked like something special. Now he's just got to go run his race."

Petrov also won his first start, a 6-furlong race at Churchill on Nov. 12. Petrov finished second by a nose in his other start, the $100,000 6-furlong King's Swan Stakes at Aqueduct Racetrack in New York on Dec. 2.

Moquette said questions remain, perhaps foremost among them how Petrov, a son of Flatter, will handle the added distance and the possibility, perhaps probability, of an off track.

"The known is that he can run," Moquette said. "The unknown is how's he going to do when we stretch him out against some really good competition, and another unknown is how he will handle the track. I feel really comfortable about the knowns, and I feel like after this race I will be more comfortable about the unknowns. It's just that until you see it, you always have to be a little bit guarded."

Warrior's Club, trained by Racing Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas, is one of two entrants, with Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen's Unbridled Eagle, to have run as many as seven races as a 2-year-old. Warrior's Club has won once, but that victory came in the $300,000 7-furlong Spendthrift Stallion Stakes at Churchill on Oct. 30. Warrior's Club finished third, a nose -- literally inches -- in front of Uncontested in the Kentucky Jockey Club, the final 2-year-old race for both colts.

Warrior's Club is owned by 200 members in the non-profit Churchill Downs Racing Club. Lukas said the colt has already surpassed the expectations of all associated. He said he thought most of the club members would attend the Smarty Jones.

"There's no way to know, but it wouldn't surprise me if 180 of them are here," Lukas said. "I know they'll make a lot of noise, and they should. Obviously, this is an important race."

Sports on 01/16/2017

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