HOT SPRINGS -- Not much on opening statements, Secret Oath's closing argument Saturday was one that Perry Mason might have been proud to deliver in court.
The unofficial horse of the 2021-22 meeting, the reigning Kentucky Oaks winner made a triumphant return to Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort. A three-time Hot Springs winner last season, Secret Oath won the Grade II $350,000 Azeri by 2 3/4 lengths -- "strongly," according to the Equibase Co. chart footnote.
An Eclipse Award finalist for champion 3-year-old fillies, she beat division champion Nest in the Grade I Oaks on May 6 at Churchill Downs but did not win again until Saturday. If a reminder of her ability was needed, it came in the stretch Saturday when she defeated Clariere, a multiple Grade I winner for Steve Asmussen, and others including Oaklawn stakes winners Lovely Ride and Hot and Sultry.
With Tyler Gaffalione up, replacing regular pilot Luis Saez, Secret Oath and Clariere played cat and mouse down the backstretch. Before the night when timepieces are moved up an hour for daylight saving time, Secret Oath turned back the clock with a signature Oaklawn move -- not always the same one but effective more often than not.
From the rail post, Secret Oath emerged from far outside and with Gaffalione riding in hand, as if conserving fuel for the next race -- the Grade I $1 million Apple Blossom Handicap on April 15.
D. Wayne Lukas won for the fourth time in what was renamed the Azeri after the only three-time Apple Blossom winner. The Hall of Fame trainer won the Apple Blossom with Azeri in 2004, North Sider in 1987 and Miss Huntington in 1983. In 1988, when he dominated the sport and won his first Kentucky Derby with the filly Winning Colors, Lukas won the inaugural Oaklawn Breeders' Cup (now Azeri) with North Sider.
"I thought I had her tuned," Lukas said. "When she kicks it in like that, her stride increases about four feet. She just eats that ground up. ... I thought she would run a big one today. I have so much respect for Steve Asmussen's filly ... but when you've got a field like this, you've got to beat them."
Said Gaffalione: "I didn't want to rush her off her feet. I know what kind of kick she has, so I just let her find herself in the place she wanted to. Going into the [second turn], she tried to go about the three-eighths pole. Just took a little hold of her and she came right back to me. Swung her out coming down the stretch, showed her the whip once and she finished the job well."
Secret Oath, a March 20 foal and thus not yet 4 by the calendar, scored her second graded stake victory in the Azeri to go with that in the Grade III Honeybee last February. Sired by the since-deceased Arrogate, her dam, Absinthe Minded, won two Oaklawn stakes and placed second in the 2013 Apple Blossom for Lukas. She also wears the silks of Briland Farm, owner by Kentuckians Robert and Stacy Mitchell, who Lukas said vetoed her husband's idea to sell Secret Oath at Keeneland after the Breeders' Cup.
An Oaklawn return with Lukas, with the Azeri and Apple Blossom in mind, resulted. So far, so good. Secret Oath posted four 5-furlong works here in the 1-minute range, three getting a "bullet" as the day's fastest.
Clariere finished a head better than Interstatedaydream, an Oaklawn allowance and later multiple graded winner for Hot Springs owner Staton Flurry. Trained by Brad Cox, the 4-year-old Classic Empire filly is pointing to the Apple Blossom, said Flurry, referring to a race he contested with multiple graded winner (including the 2022 Azeri and 2020 Oaks) Shedaresthedevil.
"I thought I was second, to be honest," said jockey Florent Geroux, aboard the show horse. "Very good race. Just off the lead, nice and relaxed, found room on the inside and I went for it. Got out-bobbed right there at the end by Clariere for second. ... The winner was very impressive today."
Arkansas-owned Hot and Sultry led in the stretch but ran fourth, followed by Le Da Vida, two-time meet stakes winner Lovely Ride and two distant shippers. Secret Oath received $213,850 for her sixth victory in 14 starts. She is now poised to top $2 million overall in the Apple Blossom.