Levy Trail 5K

HOT SPRINGS—I walked the Levy Trail 5K this morning in 48:11, with a three-mile split of 46:56. ...Mammal Game result: 5 dogs, 4 squirrels, 1 cat. ...These lead paragraphs to my Arkansas Derby story are subject to change this evening. Still, I hope even minor adjustments will prove unnecessary beyond replacing brackets with a winning time and crowd number. Regardless, most of it will fit, even if I have to cannibalize the living fuck out of it:

PETE PERKINS

HOT SPRINGS — Her days of hands-down wins would surely run out with this race. Its sort resides at any racetrack’s pinnacle, unlike the optional claimer and two stakes she won by a total of 23 lengths against the equine equivalent of teenage girls.

This was the 88th running of the Grade I $1.25 million 1-mile-and-1/8th Arkansas Derby for three-year-old horses at Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort, the richest Kentucky Derby preparatory race on earth.

As it turned, it was all the same for the winner — the filly Secret Oath — who became, as of Saturday, a superstar who proved she belongs with any class.

Off as the [] favorite, Briland Farm’s Secret Oath raced from the barn of legend D. Wayne Lukas, long the bar for trainers, and out the sixth on nine stalls to another runaway win, this one in the Arkansas Derby in [] before an estimated crowd of [].

Bear in mind that those four paragraphs were converted into 985 words of the c. 2,400 I wrote for the paper today, Those 985 were the last, and most of what I wrote this morning were no longer applicable=, though they were cannibalized to what I hope is a reasonable extent. However, I don't know how they will look in review, since I did not have a second to read them before I turned them in. Not a second. By the way, as you will learn, Secret Oath finished third. Here's my literary result:

PETE PERKINS

HOT SPRINGS — The filly’s days of hands-down wins ran out at the Arkansas Derby.

Secret Oath’s story remains fresh and historic, but it took a backseat to the overall wonder of the day for trainer Brad Cox after Gold Square’s Cybernknife, under jockey Florent Geroux, was ridden from his barn to a 2 3/4-length win in the 88th running of the Grade I $1.25 million 1-mile-and-1/8th Arkansas Derby for three-year-old horses in 1:50.42 before an estimated crowd of 60,000 at Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort on Saturday.

Cyberknife was the first Arkansas Derby winner for Cox. He also trained the day’s Grade III Oaklawn Mile winner, Fulsome. Bubble Rock, his entry in the Grade III Oaklawn Mile, finished third.

Geroux rode the winners of each.

“I had a good day, you know,” Geroux said. “Things were going downhill last month, so I’m glad I had a great day.”

Cox’s day went well, too.

“It was good,” Cox said. “I felt we were due a good one. I was hopeful we could win a graded stake, and we got two today. It was a good day.”

WSS Racing’s Barber Road, ridden by Reylu Gutierrez and trained by John Ortiz, finished second, three-quarters of a length in front of third-place Secret Oath, ridden for training legend D. Wayne Lukas by Luis Contreras. SF Racing’s and eight other owners' Doppelganger, ridden by Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez, finished fourth, eight lengths behind the winner in the field of nine.

The Arkansas Derby distributed 170 Kentucky Derby qualifying points, with 100, 40, 20, and 10 to the first through fourth finishers, respectively.

Cyberknife, in his second-career stakes start, is locked for a place in the Derby’s 20-stall starting gate. So is Barber Road, who started the Arkansas Derby with 18 points and now has 58, more than enough.

“The race was wild, dude,” Gutierrez said. “It was wild. It wasn’t the trip we probably wanted. It wasn’t ideal, but he finished stronger than anybody and galloped out better than anybody. We’re looking forward to a mile and a quarter  [the length of the Kentucky Derby].”

It was Secret Oath’s last and only shot. After easy wins in Oaklawn’s first two Kentucky Oaks qualifiers, the Martha Washington and the Grade III Honeybee, the hands of her jockey Luis Contreras were up throughout the Arkansas Derby.

Though she appeared in a stalking position similar to hers in the races for Oaks hopefuls as the field turned for home, Contreras said she was troubled by traffic through the backstretch.

“Early in the race, we were just bumping and bumping,” Contreras said. “It was a little rough today, but I still thought she would make her move.”

Lukas knows.

“That’s horseracing,” he said.

Lukas, 86, has, like all horsemen, seen far more losses than wins. He said the most celebrated from his barn was Winning Color’s in the 1988 Kentucky Derby. This season, an Oaks appearance for Secret Oath is adequate compensation.

“The race just didn’t unfold this time,” Lukas said. “We hoped it would with her trip and everything, but you got to have them come back a little bit. It just wasn’t her day. We got outrun, but we’ve had the Oaks on our mind all the time. We never thought we’d be a 20-horse field. Here we were with just nine, and we didn’t get a good trip.”

At first, the ultimate Oaklawn target for Secret Oath was today’s Grade III $600,000 1-mile-and-1/16th Fantasy Stakes, Oaklawn’s 170-point Kentucky Oaks qualifier. Her wins of 7 1/4 and 7 1/2 lengths in the track’s previous Oaks qualifiers rendered further Oaks pursuit unnecessary.

Lukas said then that he might consider a grander option.

On the morning of March 12, over cups of coffee, Lukas told retired Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens he had decided to enter Secret Oath in the Arkansas Derby, a first for fillies since 1986, when two raced, including Family Style, trained by Lukas. It was, perhaps, no more than a coincidence, but Stevens rode the filly Winning Colors, also trained by Lukas, to her win in the 1988 Kentucky Derby.

Lukas said the Arkansas Derby’s offer of $650,00o more than the Fantasy mattered in his and Briland Farm owners Robert and Stacy Mitchell’s decision.

“Don’t kid yourself,” he said. “That had a lot to do with it.”

All horsemen count well enough to know the winner would earn three-quarters of a million dollars, and James Rogers’ and Mike Robinson’s Kavod, ridden by Mitchell Murrill and trained by Chris Hartman, led the chase for that bundle through the first three-quarters of a mile in 1:11.22.

Kavod also led through nearly every stage of Oaklawn’s previous three Derby qualifiers. He finished fourth in those. He finished fifth this time.

“He ran a good race,” Murrill said. “He just couldn’t get there today.”

At three-quarters, Cyberknife was in second, a head behind Kavod. Chasing Time, who would finish last, was in third. Secret Oath was fourth, 2 1/2 lengths off the lead.

Cyberknife had a winner’s share of momentum and led by 2 1/2 lengths with an eighth of a mile to run. He was home free, and Geroux said he knew it.

“I was confident the whole way,” he said. “Cyberknife was traveling great.”

Cox, who grew up in his family’s home two blocks from Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., where the Kentucky Derby will go four weeks and six days from today, calls Churchill his racing home. Still, he said Oaklawn was an ideal spot for this particular Saturday.

“It is always good to come to Oaklawn and win big races,” Cox said. “It’s a great atmosphere, and it was a fantastic day. Oaklawn means a lot to me. I kind of got going here, and I love this place."