HOT SPRINGS -- The winner's jockey did not want to put the cart before the filly.
Briland Farm's Secret Oath began her march toward a potential stall in the Kentucky Oak's starting gate with a 71/4-length win as the 2-5 favorite in the $200,000 Martha Washington Stakes for three-year-old fillies in 1:46.21 before an announced crowd of 27,000 at Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort on Saturday.
The Martha Washington distributed 17 Kentucky Oaks qualifying points, with 10, 4, 2, and 1 to the first through fourth finishers, respectively.
Secret Oath, from the Oaklawn barn of 86-year-old Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas, now has 10 of those points.
"You know what? It's a long way until the Oaks," Secret Oath's jockey Luis Contreras said. "I don't want to say anything about that more than I have to, but I can tell she's run amazing."
Optionality, ridden by Ricardo Santana Jr., and trained by hall of famer Steve Asmussen finished second in the field of six, 43/4 lengths in front of third-place Como Square, ridden by 50-year-old Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez. Hypersport, ridden by Tiago Pereira and trained by Ingrid Mason, finished fourth, 14 lengths behind the winner.
"What was I thinking down the stretch?" Lukas said. " 'Oh boy. Boy, here she comes.' I said, 'Let her roll.' "
Lukas is best known as the trainer of 17 Triple Crown-series winners, including four in the Kentucky Derby, and a record 20 Breeders' Cup champions. But he also has trained four winners of the Kentucky Oaks.
Lukas is the last to have trained consecutive Oaks winners, with Open Mind in 1989 and Seaside Attraction in 1990. As an example of his generational diversity, Lukas' first Oaks winner, Blush With Pride in 1982, was ridden by Willie Shoemaker. Shoemaker led U.S. jockeys in wins as early as 1950, when Lukas was a 15-year-old high school basketball player in Wisconsin.
When asked to compare Secret Oath to other 3-year-old fillies he has trained over his 49-year career, Lukas mentioned Winning Colors, his most accomplished by virtue of her win in the 1988 Kentucky Derby.
"The way she runs and everything, she's a lot like Winning Colors," Lukas said. "She's not as heavy or as massive as Winning Colors, but she's got that stride."
In the Martha Washington, Secret Oath started third from the gate but was fourth by the first turn behind Optionality, Cupid's Music and Como Square in quarter-mile splits of 24.49, 25.92 and through three-quarters in 1:14.50.
Secret Oath, similar to the way she marched away with an allowance win at Oaklawn on New Year's Eve, passed those in front with no apparent effort and led by 51/2 lengths at the head of the stretch.
"I had so much horse the whole way," Contreras said. "Even in the stretch, I never really let her go. I think I have a lot of horse, yes. She made it look so easy. When I moved her out in the clear, she just exploded."
Everyone else seemed impressed.
"I saw [Secret Oath] at three-eighths, and when I saw [Contreras] pass me that easy, there was no way I was going to beat him," Santana said. "My horse ran well, just second-best."