HOT SPRINGS -- The star of this season's first stakes race isn't where his connections had hoped, but Oaklawn Park's new schedule gives him a chance to reprise his opening-day role as a star.
Dwight Pruett's Gray Attempt, by Graydar, is the 2-1 morning-line favorite among seven others entered in the $150,000, 6-furlong Bachelor Stakes for 3-year-old horses at Oaklawn today. Post time for the Bachelor, the ninth of 10 races on the card, is scheduled for 5:28 p.m.
Gray Attempt won Oaklawn's $150,000, 1-mile Smarty Jones Stakes on Jan. 25, the first day of the track's 2019 season, by a neck over Long Range Toddy to earn 10 Kentucky Derby qualifying points.
With three Derby preps remaining on Oaklawn's schedule after that victory, Pruett and trainer Jinks Fires hoped for a spot for Gray Attempt in the 20-horse Derby starting gate, but the colt failed to earn another point.
An early collision in Oaklawn's Southwest Stakes led to Gray Attempt's 11th-place finish and a two-week break from training that kept him out of the Rebel Stakes.
He returned to sprints with a win under jockey Jon Court in the $125,000, 6-furlong Gazebo Stakes at Oaklawn on March 23.
"He launched out right to the front as if he were in command and control, and then he rated enough to finish in front of them," Court said. "That was impressive."
But in his final Kentucky Derby prep race, he finished ninth of 11 in the 1⅛-mile Arkansas Derby on April 13.
"We were really disappointed by that last race, but we think he's going to be a sprinter," Pruett said. "If we can have a good summer, I think he can have a brilliant career as a sprinter."
Leading contenders in the Bachelor Stakes include Landeskog, a son of Munnings trained by Doug O'Neill; Valene Farm's Classy John, trained by Dallas Stewart; Nitrous, a son of Tapit trained by Steve Asmussen; and Rialto Racing Stable's Frosted Ice, by Bellamy Road and trained by Ron Moquett.
Court rode Long Range Toddy to a win in the first of two divisions of the Rebel and is listed as the colt's rider in the Derby at Churchill Downs in Kentucky on May 4.
Racing has traditionally ended at Oaklawn on the Saturday of the Arkansas Derby, but the season was extended three weeks this year. Court said the bonus for him was another chance on Gray Attempt.
"I'm excited about the Bachelor and riding Gray Attempt," Court said. "It's the only reason I'm still here."
Landeskog enters the Bachelor off one career start, a 5¾-length win over 11 other maiden special-weights racing 6 furlongs at Oaklawn on March 31. Landeskog won in 1:10.17.
Classy John will return to sprints after he finished last of seven in the first of two Rebel divisions March 16. He won two of three stakes sprints as a 2-year-old against Louisiana-breds at Fair Grounds in New Orleans and Delta Downs in Vinton, La. He will enter the Bachelor off a 5-furlong work in 59.80 on April 20.
"We came to a conclusion that he's not a two-turn horse," Stewart said of Classy John. "This is a sprint race, and we're looking forward to running."
Nitrous finished fourth among six in the Gazebo, 3¾ lengths behind Gray Attempt, in his last race. He came to Oaklawn off a win in the $106,000, 1-mile Riley Allison Derby at Sunland Park Racetrack in New Mexico on Jan. 27.
Frosted Ice won his last two starts but has not raced since his win in the $150,000, 7-furlong Bertram F. Bogard Stakes for New York-breds at Belmont Park on Sept. 21.
"There were certain things that were just bugging him because he was growing so fast, so we just decided to give him some time," Moquett said. "He's a very fast horse, and we took our time to make sure he was ready."
Moquett knows Frosted Ice's return comes against a competitive field.
"This is a nice group of horses," Moquett said. "Jinks Fires' horse is a proven stakes winner at Oaklawn. The one start of Doug O'Neill's was a good race. This is a very nice group.
"We'll have to see what happens."
Sports on 04/27/2019