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Blind Luck gallops beneath the Twin Spires
Cross said Monday that Blind Luck took some time to get a hold of the track, but beamed Tuesday after coming back to the barn. "She took to today's track like a duck to water," Cross said. "The track was squishy today and she loved it. Yesterday it was half-sealed, half-opened and had a different feel to it." Hollendorfer aims for a third career Oaks score, following successes by Lite Light in 1991 and Pike Place Dancer in 1996. Jockey Rafael Bejarano has the Oaks mount on Blind Luck as he seeks his first win in the race. Bejarano was widely criticized in Blind Luck's only loss this year, a troubled third in the Santa Anita Oaks (G1). "The one thing about Bejarano, you can bet he won't make the same mistake twice," Hollendorfer said. Regarding Blind Luck's drawing post position 5, Hollendorfer said, "I think that post is good. I was talking to Rafael this morning and we thought from the 5 on out to the 10 would be OK for us, so he's happy with that. "He's ridden this filly a lot of times, so he knows this filly well and he knows the track, and he's a very good rider, so you couldn't ask for much more than that. "She's been training well. She went through the mud pretty nice this morning and it didn't look like it bothered her at all." AGE OF HUMOR (Distorted Humor) drew post position 4 for Friday's Kentucky Oaks, a spot that trainer Mike Maker was pleased with. "She did fine," Maker said. Maker also reported that Age of Humor galloped 1 3/8 miles Tuesday morning over a sloppy Trackside Louisville surface with regular exercise rider Marvin Jimenez up. Exercise rider Patti Barry was aboard AILALEA (Pulpit) Tuesday morning at Churchill Downs, but the New York-based star jockey John Velazquez will be at the controls Friday when she goes postward in the 136th edition of the Kentucky Oaks. Barry sent the Tempted S. (G3) heroine through a gallop of 1 1/4 miles, along with a visit to the gate, following which trainer Todd Pletcher confirmed that Velazquez would ride his filly in the Run for the Lillies. The issue of a rider for Ailalea had been up for grabs because of the situation surrounding another three-year-old filly of Pletcher's, Devil May Care. That one was being considered for a run in the Oaks, as well as a run in Saturday's Kentucky Derby against the boys. There was further consideration to possibly enter Devil May Care in both races. In the end, Pletcher chose to enter Devil May Care only in the Kentucky Derby, meaning Velazquez would ride her there and be available to ride Ailalea in the Oaks.
The cut on the left-hind leg of last year's Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) runner-up BEAUTICIAN (Dehere) won't be an issue in the Kentucky Oaks, trainer Ken McPeek said Tuesday morning. Beautician walked the shedrow Tuesday, as is the custom for all the barn's horses on the day after a workout. Beautician drilled a half-mile in :49 1/5 on Monday and emerged with a cut to the front of her left-hind leg. "She did a little 'speed cut' on the left-hind, and she's had a history of it her entire career," McPeek said. "We think we have it figured out if we rearrange her shoes that she won't catch her left-hind leg with her front-left foot when she runs. We're changing the way she's shod and that hopefully will take care of it." McPeek said that Beautician will be back on track, right on schedule, Wednesday morning. Jockey Alex Solis and trainer McPeek both will be in search of their first Kentucky Oaks victories in Friday's feature. Grade 3-placed BELLA DIAMANTE (Lost Soldier) appeared on the track during the Derby and Oaks training session with Eddie Milligan Jr. aboard. "I just backed her up to the seven-eighths pole and galloped her once around," said Eddie Milligan Jr., brother of trainer Allen Milligan. "She felt great. She hit the ground really good, handled the off going pretty well -- really no complaints. Everything went well." Allen Milligan will arrive in town Thursday. CHAMPAGNE D'ORO (Medaglia d'Oro) made it into the Kentucky Oaks field, just as trainer Eric Guillot said she would. "I told everybody I had some insight," Guillot said. "I know things. I'm like Sixth Sense." Champagne d'Oro drew post position 10 for the Oaks, further out than Guillot would have liked. "I can't get a good draw," the trainer said. "I'll just have to out-train them all, like I always do." Tongue-in-cheek boastfulness is a regular part of the Guillot persona. Earlier in the morning Guillot attempted in vain to position Champagne d'Oro, who broke her maiden in February and has yet to win a race beyond one mile, as the filly to beat. "The rumor I'm hearing is that Todd Pletcher's scared to run against 'Champagne' and that's why he's entering Devil May Care in the Derby," Guillot said. "And I don't blame him. This is for all the marbles and you don't want to face one that Guillot trains." A number of question marks dog Champagne d'Oro coming into the Oaks, but Guillot said he is at least confident that he's done everything he can to have the filly at her best. "Is she a mile-and-an-eighth horse? I don't know. She needed that race (her runner-up effort in the Fair Grounds Oaks [G2]), obviously, first-time routing this year. Is she doing wonderful? You can't get a horse to do any better. She looks great, she hollers for her feed, she hollers for her walk in the afternoon. She's training like a boogie bear."
Crisp, who won the Santa Anita Oaks (G1) on March 6 in her most recent start, will be ridden Friday by Joel Rosario, one of California's current riding stars and a favorite of Sadler's. "He's just good," the trainer said. "An instinctual rider who knows how to win." After a cross-country flight from Ontario, California, EVENING JEWEL (Northern Afleet) walked off the van at Churchill Downs at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday. Trainer James Cassidy was there to greet his Ashland S. (G1) winner and reported all was well. "She travels well and looks just fine," Cassidy said upon her arrival. "We'll gallop her the next few days leading up to the race, beginning tomorrow morning." The California-to-Kentucky flight was the second for Evening Jewel in the past month. In April she invaded Lexington's Keeneland Racecourse before returning home to California for her Oaks preparations. Evening Jewel, who drew post 11, will try to give Hall of Fame jockey Kent Desormeaux, a three-time Kentucky Derby winner, his first Kentucky Oaks victory. "I'm not unhappy with it (the 11 hole)," Cassidy said. "Of course we would have liked to have been inside a little bit. This forces us to sit back, which is what I wanted to do anyway. We certainly didn't want to be on the lead. "The only reason we were on the lead in the Ashland was there was no speed in there."
"I'll take anything but the one," Arnold said before the draw. "The one hole is a tough thing for a young horse. They are going to be looking at things they likely will never see again. I don't think any trainer in the Oaks or Derby would want the one hole." Stakes winner and multiple Grade 2-placed JOANIE'S CATCH (First Tour) walked the shedrow at Churchill Downs on Tuesday morning after arriving by van from her Calder Race Course base. The Barry Rose pupil, who has finished first, second or third in 16 of 18 starts, will break from the far outside 14 post position under jockey Paco Lopez. "We didn't get the best post position, but we'll handle it," Rose said. "If I were going for the early lead, I'd be really upset, but we're not. For us, it's just a matter of getting good position into the turn. Paco will have to deal with it." Silverbulletday S. (G3) and Tiffany Lass S. queen JODY SLEW (Slew City Slew) galloped 1 1/2 miles during the Derby and Oaks training session with Eddie Corerra in the saddle. "Everything's good but this weather, man," said Dennis "Peaches" Geier, assistant to trainer Bret Calhoun. "She'll do the same thing tomorrow and she'll school tomorrow." After winning the first two legs of Fair Grounds' series of three major stakes races for three-year-old fillies, Jody Slew finished seventh in the Fair Grounds Oaks. About 10 days before that race, Jody Slew was cast in her stall and suffered bruising ("up high on the inside of her rear end," Calhoun said at the time) that forced her to miss a scheduled work. Since then, according to Geier, there have been no signs of any residual problems. "She's back to her old self, believe me," Geier said. "She's definitely back to her old self. I know I'm prejudiced but I think she's going to run good."
Albarado has been aboard for all three of the filly's victories, including the Fair Grounds Oaks and Delta Princess (G3). TIDAL POOL (Yankee Gentleman), trained by D. Wayne Lukas, walked Tuesday, the morning after she had a two-furlong blowout Monday morning. Tidal Pool was third in the Tiffany Lass and second to Blind Luck in the Fantasy (G2) at Oaklawn Park this season. SEEKING THE TITLE (Seeking the Gold) entered the Oaks but was excluded because of insufficient graded stakes earnings. Fifteen fillies were entered but the field was limited to the 14 entries with the most graded stakes earnings.
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