HOT SPRINGS -- Oaklawn Park's Grade II, $350,000 Azeri Stakes for fillies and mares 4 years old and up has just six entrants but is deep enough in class to resemble a race of championship status.
The 1 1/16-mile Azeri is one of four stakes races at Oaklawn today. The 11-race card also includes two divisions of the Grade II, $750,000 Rebel Stakes for 3-year-old Kentucky Derby hopefuls, and the $350,000 Essex Handicap for horses 4 years old and up.
Post time for the Azeri is scheduled for 4:21 p.m., a race that includes four Grade I winners.
"It's definitely a salty spot," Midnight Bisou co-owner Jeff Bloom said.
Midnight Bisou is a daughter of Midnight Lute trained by Steve Asmussen. She won last year's Grade I Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., where she was ridden by Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith. Smith rode Midnight Bisou to a win in the Grade III Houston Ladies Classic at Sam Houston on Jan. 27 in her last start.
"She's a dream; she really is," Smith said. "She's just incredible. She shows up. Even when she's not really liking the surface, boy, she still runs, and when she does like it, she can run and beat the best of them."
Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott brings Elate, by Medaglia d'Oro, to Oaklawn for the first time since her third-place finish in the 2017 Grade III Honeybee Stakes. She is the 8-5 second choice on the morning line.
Elate, a 5-year-old mare, has not raced since Aug. 25, when she finished second in the Grade I Personal Ensign Stakes at Saratoga. Mott said recent works, highlighted by 5 furlongs in 1:01.20 on March 2, told him Elate was ready to race. He said he would have preferred a race a half-furlong longer for her next start.
"If you asked me what my preferred distance would be to start her back, I would probably say a mile and an eighth, but that's not how far the race is, and there aren't a lot of options," he said.
Trainer Kenny McPeek brings Eskimo Pie from South Florida to the track where she broke her maiden and won her first optional-claiming allowance race last season. The 4-year-old by To Honor and Serve won the Grade I Alabama Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 18.
"It's ideal timing," McPeek said. "If she runs well here, we'll come back in the Apple Blossom."
Oaklawn's Grade I, $700,000 1 1/16-mile Apple Blossom Handicap is set for April 14.
Trainer Mark Casse has entered Shamrock Rose off a fourth-place finish in the Grade III Hurricane Bertie Stakes at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale, Fla., on Jan. 26. Shamrock Rose, by First Dude, won the Grade I Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint on Nov. 3 at Churchill.
"I think she'll be very tough in the Azeri," Casse said.
Sports on 03/16/2019