HOT SPRINGS -- Today's 10-race card at Oaklawn Park features a stakes race for stars on the rise and another for established champions.
The doubleheader starts with the $150,000, 6-furlong Hot Springs Stakes for horses 4 year olds and up, followed two races later by the Grade III $200,000 1 1/16-mile Honeybee Stakes for 3-year-old fillies.
The former includes the return of Robert LaPenta's Whitmore, Oaklawn's top older sprinter the past two seasons. The Honeybee, worth 85 Kentucky Oaks qualifying points, serves as a rematch for three of the top-four finishers of Oaklawn's 1-mile Martha Washington Stakes on Feb. 2, when Gary Barber's Power Gal won by half a length over Marathon Queen, trained by Steve Asmussen.
Power Gal, Marathon Queen and Sunset Wish, fourth in the Martha Washington as the 7-5 favorite, are entered in the Honeybee with seven others. Those include 3-1 morning-line favorite Motion Emotion and Raintree Starlet, winner of Oaklawn's 6-furlong Dixie Belle Stakes on Feb. 16.
Raintree Starlet's trainer Brian Williamson said the race is deep in potential winners.
"It's a tough race," Williamson said. "They all look pretty good to me. I wouldn't be shocked if any one of them won, but I like our chances going in."
Seattle cardiovascular surgeon Mark Dedomenico bought Motion Emotion as a yearling and moved her to trainer Tom Van Berg's Oaklawn barn for her 3-year-old season. Motion Emotion is undefeated in two Oaklawn starts under jockey Jon Court this season. She won at 6 furlongs in 1:10.41 on Jan. 25 and at 1 1/16 mile on Feb. 17 in 1:44.07, or faster than seven of the last 10 winning times for the Honeybee. She enters the race with the highest last-out speed figures, established in her first route attempt. Motion Emotion led through each split of her two starts.
"I knew she was a decent filly, but I didn't know how much of that would come out when we stretched out," Van Berg said. "She seemed like she wanted to run long. She trained like she wanted to run long, but I think the big difference is she kind of had everything her way."
Motion Emotion led unpressed from the start before she pulled away in the stretch, and Van Berg said he thought the track favored speed that day.
"Everything kind of went in her favor, but I think, regardless, she's that type of filly," Van Berg said. "It's nice to see that she put it all together and performed like she did. I'm extremely confident in the filly. I wouldn't trade position with anyone in the race."
Raintree Starlet, owned by Nancy Vanier and Horse Players Racing Club, is unbeaten in three starts as a 3-year-old. The Honeybee will be her first attempt beyond 6 furlongs. Williamson said he was confident she can succeed at two-turn routes.
"I believe she can," Williamson said. "I know with a lot of speed horses, they'll go out there and just run as fast as they can, and you have to just hope they can last to the wire, but she seems to be able to relax and make that run."
Post time for the Honeybee is scheduled for 5:04 p.m.
Ron Moquett of Hot Springs has trained Whitmore, a 6-year-old gelded son of Pleasantly Perfect, through each of his 24 starts in a career he began as a Kentucky Derby hopeful in 2015. He made the 2016 Derby field with finishes of second place in Oaklawn's Southwest and Rebel stakes, and a third-place finish in the Arkansas Derby. He was 19th of 20 in the Kentucky Derby.
Moquett gave him nearly seven months off, and he returned with a victory over 6½ furlongs on Dec. 3, 2016, at Aqueduct in New York, and his career as a sprinter had begun.
In 17 starts between 6 and 7 furlongs since his Derby attempt, Whitmore is 9-5-1. He has won the last two Hot Springs and Grade III Count Fleet Sprint Handicaps at Oaklawn. Whitmore finished second in the Grade I 6-furlong Breeders' Cup Sprint at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., on Nov. 3 in his last start.
Moquett said Whitmore looks ready for his first race after the four-month layoff. He has four official works over 4 furlongs in the last month, highlighted by a breeze of 47.2 on March 2.
"I'm real pleased with the way everything's gone," Moquett said. "He's as fit as we can get him before a race. He'll get more fitness with this race, but he's as fit as we can get him before we run."
Oaklawn's leading rider, Ricardo Santana Jr., will ride Whitmore against five others in the Hot Springs, which has a post time scheduled for 4:03 p.m.
Among those listed to start are Share the Upside, owned by J.G. Sikura and Faheem Hasnain and trained by Asmussen, who ran 1:09.36 for a 6-furlong optional-claiming victory at Oaklawn on Jan. 27. Heartwood, winner of Oaklawn's $100,000 6-furlong King Cotton Stakes on Feb. 9, is also in the mix.
"This is a good field of fast horses," Moquett said. "Whitmore will have to run, but it's a good spot to start."
Sports on 03/09/2019