Little Rock Hash

 I was out for 1:29:46 with the Little Rock Hash House Harriers this afternoon. We started and ended at a house not far from where Walt and Amy once lived in Argenta.

Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort

 HOT SPRINGS—I walked for 40:10 en route from my car to the press box at Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort at lunchtime today.  The Grade II 1-mile-and-1/16th Rebel Stakes and the Grade III 1-mile-and-1/16th Honeybee Stakes—qualifying races for the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks, respectively—are scheduled for this afternoon. ...At 11:09 p.m., I feel compelled to report this was among the thirty or forty best ten days of my life. I think I wrote well,

OVERHEARD "You're the first person I have seen try to hang up on Baffert. I remember a couple of years ago when he tried to hang up on you." — one of the dozens of Oaklawn's suit-wearing management team whose name I have never learned

PETE PERKINS

HOT SPRINGS — In her previous two races, Briland Farm’s Secret Oath exposed a rare potential for seemingly effortless bursts of speed that, in short order, leave the rest of the field to race for second.

Secret Oath, ridden by Luis Contreras at 1-5 from the barn of Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas, ran her streak of brilliance to three when she turned for the wire, took the lead, and pulled away to a 7 1/2-length victory in the Grade III $300,000 1-mile-and-1/16th Honeybee Stakes for three-year-old fillies in 1:44.74 on a fast track at Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort before an estimated crowd of 31,000 on Saturday.

“This is definitely one of the top horses I have ridden right now,” Contreras said. “I thank God. She is really good. Let me tell you something, I’ve ridden a lot of horses all over the world, but she is so amazing.”

Shortleaf Stable’s Ice Orchid, ridden by Ricardo Santana, Jr., and trained by John Ortiz, finished second in the field of six, 1 3/4 lengths in front of the 7-2 second-choice Yuugiri, ridden by Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez and trained by Rodolphe Brisset. Free Like a Girl finished fourth, 16 3/4 lengths behind the winner.

“She’s starting to win us all over now,” Lukas said. “She’s such a pro. She does all that so professionally, so easily,”

Lukas said he noticed Secret Oath’s talent from the start. It became apparent to all in her third and final start as a two-year-old when she opened up 7 3/4 lengths in the final furlong of her 8 1/4-length 1-mile allowance win at Oaklawn on New Year’s Eve.

That was enough to make Secret Oath a 2-5 favorite in Oaklawn’s 1-mile-and-1/16th Martha Washington Stakes on Jan. 29. Those short odds were rendered legitimate when Secret Oath opened up all of her 7 1/4-length win after she turned for home.

They were confirmed again as she coasted closer to glory in the Honeybee.

“That’s a racehorse,” Ortiz said. “She’s the best. We’re happy to finish second behind her. You know Coach Lukas knows for sure what he’s got. Secret Oath is great.”

Lukas coached college basketball before his training career blossomed in the quarter horse and thoroughbred ranks. A handful of the 86-year-old trainer’s admirers still address him as coach.

“Never count the coach out,” said Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert three hours later, shortly after Lukas-trained Ethereal Road finished a long-shot second in Oaklawn’s Grade II Rebel Stakes. The 4-5 Rebel favorite Newgrange, trained by Baffert, finished sixth, 4 1/4 lengths behind the 75-1 winner Un Ojo. “[Secret Oath] is serious. She’s a serious filly.”

As in her previous start, Secret Oath jogged along behind the early lead of Optionality, ridden by Tyler Gaffalione and trained by Hall of Fame member Steve Asmussen. Optionality led through the opening quarter-mile and half-mile in 23.15 and 47.07, with Secret Oath in 5th, 3 1/2 lengths back, and 4th, 2 lengths from the front, respectively.

Optionality stopped when asked for more in the second turn and jogged home last, 39 lengths back.

“Going into the second turn, she took a deep breath and let go of the bit, and I couldn’t get her back engaged,” Gaffalione said. “She had run her race then. There just wasn’t anything left.”

Tsunebumi and Sekie Yoshihara’s Yuugiri led through three-quarters in 1:12.86. Ice Orchid was 1/2 length behind in second. Secret Oath, a length back in third, briefly paused behind 13-1 Ice Orchid as they exited the midway point of the turn.

Secret Oath then moved to the rail and rocketed away.

“My thinking was to go outside, but I had another horse right there in front, so I knew it would be a little longer,” Contreras said. “I saw the rail open, so I asked her to go and she just made a tremendous move.”

It was true to Secret Oath’s current form.

Connections of the lesser money winners each seemed content.

“[Yuugiri] ran good,” Brisset said. “The track is pretty heavy with a lot of moisture in it. She got a little tired the last sixteenth. We’ll see how she comes back and make a plan. Obviously, the Fantasy will be in the picture, for sure.”

Each connection, including Ortiz, said their next target is likely Oaklawn’s Grade III 1-mile-and-1/16th Fantasy Stakes on April 2.

Lukas said he has not decided. With Secret Oath a nearly certain lock for in the Kentucky Oaks’ 14-stall gate, he said short-term future results in the three-year-old male division might put Secret Oath on the road to the Kentucky Derby, starting with the Oaklawn’s Arkansas Derby, also on April 2.

Lukas trained the filly Winning Colors, winner of the 1988 Kentucky Derby.

“It’s going to come up, because of who I am,” Lukas said. “I’ve done it before, so people are going to say, ‘It won’t be the first time he’s jumped out of the box like that,’ but I want to analyze the boys.”

Lukas said he believes Secret Oath’s best distance will come at a mile and a quarter or further.

“If they had run all the way to the hotel here, she’d still be rolling,” he said.

Oaklawn’s resort hotel is approximately 3/16ths of a mile past the racetrack’s wire, enough to make the length of the Honeybee identical to that of the Derby.

Ortiz said he hopes Lukas chooses the latter option for Secret Oath.

“Hopefully, she runs in the Arkansas Derby,” Ortiz said. “That would leave the Fantasy for the rest of us.”

PETE PERKINS

HOT SPRINGS — A one-eyed long, long, long shot won the $1 million Grade II 1-mile-and-1/16th Rebel Stakes for three-year-old horses to become a virtual lock for a place in the Grade I Kentucky Derby’s 20-stall starting gate. The odds-on favorite finished sixth with both eyes in place.

Cypress Creek Equine’s Un Ojo, ridden by Ramon Vazquez and trained by Ricky Courville, won the Rebel in 1:45.69 at 75-1 as slushy rain fell from a 34-degree, dark gray sky on a fast track before an estimated crowd of 31,000 at Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort on Saturday.

“I knew we would win at the eighth pole,” Vazquez said.

Aaron Sones’ Ethereal Road, ridden by Luis Contreras from the barn of Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas, finished 1/2 length back in second, a nose in front of third-place Barber Road, ridden by Reylu Gutierrez and trained by John Ortiz. James Rogers’ and Michael Robinson’s Kavod, ridden by Francisco Arrieta and trained by Chris Hartman, was fourth, 1 3/4 lengths behind the winner.

Newgrange, the 4-5 favorite from the southern California stable of Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, finished sixth in the field of 11, 4 1/4 lengths behind the winner.

Un Ojo has spent his brief career in an exchange program between Courville and trainer and Tony Dutrow, who shipped the Rebel winner from Aqueduct on Monday to the Copper Crown training center in Opelousas, La.

Courville watched the Rebel on his cell phone as he made the two-hour drive to Opelousas from Delta Downs in Vinton, La.

“Gosh, I feel bad for Tony,” Courville said. “The owners kind of decided [on the Rebel] I think Tony wanted to keep him up there for the [Derby-qualifying Gotham Stakes], but they wanted to not go back to a one-turn mile and Kevin [Moody of Cypress Creek Equine] wanted to send him down here and take a shot at the money. He kept saying, ’Two turns is going to be better for us.’ ”

Un Ojo lost his left eye as a yearling. Courville said he struggled in company until he was gelded.

Past performances indicated four potential Rebel pacesetters, including Kavod and Newgrange. Kavod led Oaklawn’s Grade III 1-mile-and-1/16th Southwest Stakes from the start until the stretch call on Jan. 29. He maintained his position until Newgrange hurried past to take the lead 20 yards short of the 1/16th pole. Newgrange, who started the Rebel from the gate’s second stall just outside of Kavod on the rail, led the Grade III 1-mile Sham Stakes at Santa Anita Park from gate to wire, four weeks before his win in the Southwest.

In the Rebel, Kavod led from the gate through the opening quarter-mile in 23.42. Newgrange was two lengths back in second. The winner was in fourth, 3 1/2 lengths back and half a length in front of fifth-place Ethereal Road, who started at 15-1.

A two-dollar win ticket on Un Ojo paid $152.80. A one-dollar exacta with Un Ojo over Ethereal Road paid $708.20.

Kavod’s lead remained intact through the half-mile in 48.86 and three-quarters in 1:14.30, at which point he led Newgrange by one length. Newgrange was another length in front of Un Ojo in third. Ethereal Road was fourth, 2 1/2 lengths behind Kavod.

The importance of the next 5/16ths of a mile to the finish of the Rebel, an 85-point Kentucky Derby qualifier, is difficult to understate.

For most horsemen, the 85-point round — the third of four at five U.S. racetracks, including Oaklawn — is similar to the quarterfinal round of playoffs in most sports. It commonly makes top contenders easier to distinguish from the long shots.

The Risen Star is the 85-point race at Fair Grounds in New Orleans. It was won last week by Epicenter from the barn of Hall of Fame trainer and Oaklawn regular Steve Asmussen. The three others come next Saturday, with the Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream, the Gotham at Aqueduct, and the San Felipe at Santa Anita.

“The March 5th races, coming up, are going to clear the picture quite a bit,” said Lukas on Thursday. “When the sun sets on those races and the Rebel, we’ll have a much clearer picture of who has the better horses.”

Fifty points go the winner, with 15, 10, and 5 to second through fourth, respectively.

Ethereal Road had taken the lead by the stretch call, 1/8th of a mile from the wire. Kavod was in second, 1/2 length back and 1/2 length in front of third-place Un Ojo. Barber Road was in fourth, 3 1/2 lengths behind the leader and 1/2 length in front of Newgrange in fifth.

Newgrange had apparently thrown in the figurative soggy, cold towel.

“I could tell he just didn’t have it when those other horses took off,” Baffert said. “You know, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Today was not his day, but he came back well. We’ll ship him back to California and figure something out with him.”

Un Ojo, a son of Laoban, dug into the deep, heavy track — described by Lukas as peanut-buttery — to his upset win. Barber Road also accelerated relative to the others to his third-place finish. Kavod’s fourth-place finish was his third-consecutive in Oaklawn’s four-race Derby qualifying series.

“He ran fourth,” Hartman said. “That’s my first thought. That’s about the best he could do, I guess. Fourth, fourth, fourth. [We didn’t find that extra 16th of a mile], but he ran a hell of a race. He was in the race until they squeezed him late.”

Kavod was put in tight by Ethereal Road late. An objection was filed by Arrieta, but track stewards ruled the contact was inadequate to have altered the order of finish.

Lukas, who also trains three-year-0ld filly Secret Oath, the winner of the Grade III Honeybee Stakes earlier in the day, seemed delighted by Ethereal Road’s performance.

“We now leave this race with a really nice prospect for the races moving forward,” Lukas said.

Ortiz also spoke highly of Barber Road’s effort.

“We are really proud of the way he ran today under these conditions,” Ortiz said.

Barber Road, who finished second in Oaklawn’s 1-mile Smarty Jones Stakes on New Year’s Day and in the Southwest, has earned 18 Derby qualifying points. With Oaklawn’s Grade I Arkansas Derby to go on April 2, thirty or more will likely meet the Kentucky Derby standard.

Un Ojo’s 50 points have not fallen short of Derby qualification since the points system was put in place for the 2013 race, scheduled this year for May 7 at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky.

“This is a dream come true,” Un Ojo’s assistant trainer Clay Courville said.

Levy Trail South

I walked icy Levy Trail South this afternoon in 32:44. It is 32°F with light freezing drizzle (according to weather.com) at 2:58 p.m. CDT. 

Oaklawn/LRHHH/35th Street Loop

 I walked the 35th Street Loop this early this afternoon in 1:24:39. ...On Sunday, I was out for about an hour and ten minutes with the Hash. We made a big loop from the Arkansas Heart Hospital Clinic in west Little Rock. ...On Saturday, I walked for a bit under forty minutes from the press box back to the Crown Vic after an afternoon at Oaklawn. I lost $5 and am now down $11 for the 2021-22 season.

Hash/38th Street Loop

I walked the 38th Steet Loop at lunchtime this morning in 35:45. On Sunday, I was out for nearly an hour on Tom's Super Bowl run.

Cooks Landing

 Several other Geezers and I walked from Cooks Landing in North Little Rock, over the Big Dam Bridge, up Overlook Drive, and back this morning. It took us 1:55:53.

Hash

 This afternoon, I ran with the Little Rock Hash House Harriers from Western Hills Park in Little Rock. The city remade this property from Western Hills Country Club, part of which paralleled First Tee's eighth fairway when at least two Pam's Boy readers played out there fifteen years ago. I was out for 1:53:44 and went about four miles. The still-deep snow and ice made this a challenging run. ...At least a handful of vocal Hashers have begun a public campaign geared to encourage me to restart the Hash Trash. I have begun to consider it. It is doubtful I will, but we'll see.