HOT SPRINGS -- Leave it to trainer Steve Asmussen to have an in-form closer in a race filled wth speed.
Bellamore will look to claim consecutive graded victories in the Grade II $400,000 Azeri Stakes today at Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort. Empire Maker's 6-year-old daughter makes her Hot Springs debut off a neck victory in the Grade III Houston Ladies Classic at Sam Houston Race Park on Jan. 27. Keith Asmussen rides for his father, replacing Stewart Elliott, no doubt with instructions to sit off an expected hot pace.
A native of Laredo, Texas, Asmussen has won the Ladies Classic five of the past six years. Pauline's Pearl, owned by Barbara Banke's Stonestreet Stable, won in 2022 and 2023 as an older horse after taking Oaklawn's Grade III Fantasy Stakes as a 3-year-old in 2021. Letruska won the Houston race in 2021 for trainer Fausto Gutierrez before her first of two Grade I Apple Blossom Handicap wins at Oaklawn.
Classic winners Forever Unbridled (2016 for Dallas Stewart) and Midnight Bisou (2019 for Asmussen) doubled in the Apple Blossom, which Asmussen won last year with late-running Clairiere. Kentucky Oaks winner Secret Oath won the 2023 Azeri before her tough-beat second in the Apple Blossom.
Asmussen, with a meet-high 42 victories, has six stakes wins en route to what would be his record 13th Oaklawn title. Bellamore, with 13 board finishes in 20 starts, sold for $350,000 at the 2020 Ocala Breeders' auction of 2-year-olds in training. She was third in the Grade I Spinster last October at Keeneland, Brad Cox-trained Idiomatic winning en route to an Eclipse Award as champion older female.
The Spinster marked her first start for Asmussen after transferring from Simon Callaghan's barn. Kaleem Shah, a Breeders' Cup Classic and local Grade II Rebel winner with Bob Baffert-trained Bayern in 2014, owns Bellamore.
Otherwise, pick a speed horse, any speed horse, in the Azeri.
Hot and Sultry, fourth in the Azeri last year, won the six-furlong American Beauty at Oaklawn and the one-mile Grade III Chilukki at Churchill Downs in 2023 for Conway owners Alex and JoAnn Lieblong. Norm Casse took over the filly's training from Asmussen before the 2022-23 Oaklawn season. Loose on the lead, she won the Chilukki by eight lengths in November under Ricardo Santana Jr. then lost all chance at the break in the Grade II Bayakoa on Feb. 2 at Oaklawn.
Hot and Sultry, keeping the eight-time local champion aboard, will look to turn the tables in the Azeri. Cox-trained Comparative, inheriting the lead, won the Bayakoa by a half-length with visiting rider Manny Franco. Street Sense's daughter races for mighty Godolphin Stable and has won five of six since May when eighth behind Randy Morse trainee Taxed in the Grade II Black-eyed Susan at Pimlico.
Brittany Russell didn't come from the East Coast to run second with 5-year-old Saddle Up Jessie, by More Than Ready. Russell loses Franco but regains Jevian Toledo, a capable replacement. This marks the trainer's third career starter west of the Mississippi River.
"I hope this works out. Maybe, we'll come back" said Russell, a former assistant to Cox and Ron Moquett whose only Oaklawn starter, in 2020, came at Oaklawn after racing in Maryland was suspended because of the coronavirus. "I spent a lot of time down there and I loved it. I miss it, actually."
Shotgun Hottie, the Grade III Molly Pitcher winner last summer at New Jersey's Monmouth Park, could be especially live in her second start off the bench. Tack leader Cristian Torres got acquainted in a March victory at Oaklawn and briefly led aboard Gun Runner's 5-year-old miss in the Bayakoa.
Misty Veil won the Pippin on Jan. 6 and placed third in the Bayakoa when tracking the pace. Ramon Vazquez sticks in the saddle for Mike Maker, who remained trainer after the Tonalist 6-year-old brought $210,000 in a Keeneland sale the week after the Pippin.
Soul of an Angel gets Emmanuel Esquivel after closing like a shot when second in a Grade III race in south Florida. Gerald Jones trains the three-time winner with 13 top-three finishes from 34 starts.
Named for the 2002 Horse of the Year and the only three-time Apple Blossom winner, the Azeri is the ninth of 10 races on today's card at Oaklawn and set for 4:55 p.m.