Skelly left Hot Springs in May with a vapor trail that hasn't gone out.
The Practical Joke gelding scored three of his meet-tying four victories last season after clearing his first allowance condition for trainer Steve Asmussen on Feb. 25 at Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort.
Striking with a hot iron, the Hall of Famer wheeled Skelly back into an allowance optional claimer March 17, then for stakes victories on two of the meet's biggest days.
Skelly, in his eighth appearance and first stake, prevailed in the Grade 3 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap on April 15 and then in the inaugural running of the Lake Hamilton on May 6. One of Asmussen's three Count Fleet starters, Skelly won by 2 1/4 lengths over Brad Cox-trained Strobe, his front-running six furlongs in 1:09.20 coming under Ricardo Santana Jr. with the horse paying $14.
Picking up five pounds (122), Skelly won the Lake Hamilton by three lengths in 1:09.00 on closing day at Oaklawn.
His winning streak rose to five with a May 29 triumph in the Speightstown Sprint at Lone Star Park.
That's where it remains on the eve of Skelly's last race as a 4-year-old in a $143,000 allowance today at Oaklawn, one race ahead of the featured $200,000 Poinsettia.
The 4-5 program favorite, Skelly will be among friends, or at least familiar rivals, at six furlongs, again with eight-time Oaklawn riding champion Ricardo Santana Jr. aboard.
Sir Wellington, a stakes winner at three over the track for Mac Robertson, chased him home when second in the Lake Hamilton after winning a local prep on the same card as Skelly April 15.
Asmussen, many of whose more than 10,000 career winners came when starting more than one horse in a race, puts son Keith aboard Count Fleet also-ran Payne. Edge to Edge ran eighth in the Count Fleet between bookend thirds in the Lake Hamilton and Grade 3 Whitmore at the most recent meeting for trainer Chris Hartman.
The 2015 Oaklawn training champion won the Dec. 9 Ring the Bell with Tejano Twist, whose performance had TV commentators referencing the Breeders' Cup Sprint in November. Second in the Ring the Bell was Hartman-trained Necker Island, whose obit will include that, in 2020, he ran in the only September Kentucky Derby.
THE POINSETTIA
If she gets points on persistence alone, I'm the Boss of Me bears watching in Oaklawn's last Saturday stakes race of 2023.
Though 0 for 5 in career stakes, the 5-year-old daughter of Midshipman has kept company with some top runners. Her three local stakes last season came in races won by existing or future graded winners: Pretty Birdie in the $150,000 Poinsettia (fourth), Hot and Sultry in the $150,000 American Beauty (second) and Wicked Halo in the $250,000 Matron (third).
The Poinsettia, for female sprinters 3 and up, is 5 1/2 furlongs, carded as the ninth race on the program, which starts at 12:30 p.m. Central. Probable post time is 4:14 p.m. for the stake.
I'm the Boss of Me, with Francisco Arrieta named aboard, is 4-1 on the morning line and breaks from post three.
She runs on the eve of her 2021 claim by trainer Greg Compton, that for $50,000 after a victory, with Midshipman's daughter winning again over the track last April 21.
Near-misses include the American Beauty, when I'm the Boss of Me led briefly in midstretch before losing by a half-length. Third in a Pimlico stake on the Preakness undercard May 20, the Compton trainee ran fifth in a Delaware Park hundred-grander July 8, both of those races and her last local win at six furlongs.
"We've been close," said Compton, who has developed a reputation for winning with recent claims. "Hopefully, we can check this off the list. It looks like a great spot for her. It's not the toughest field in the world, but there are some horses in here on the improve."
Compton trains the mare for Danny Brown and Brown's fiance, Charis Brenneman. The same connections finished second with Willy D's at 67-1 odds in Oaklawn's Advent for 2-year-old sprinters Dec. 8. The Lookin At Lucky colt is entered Sunday in a one-mile allowance race on the track's second all-juvenile card.
Poinsettia opponents include Asmussen-trained Topsy, the program favorite and last-out winner of the $100,000 Zia Park Distaff in New Mexico.
The Hall of Famer also entered uncoupled stablemate High Class, a two-time allowance winner this fall at Churchill Downs for the meet's leading trainer.
The only snag for Compton is that a Dec. 8 allowance sprint at Oaklawn didn't fill, hence I'm the Boss of Me returns off five published local workouts.
"Wanted to get a race over the track," he said, "but she's run well before fresh."