Connections expect step forward for Oaks participants

Untapable drew the outside post 13 for the Kentucky Oaks, which Asmussen said

he was not concerned about, unlike his Kentucky Derby entrant, Tapiture, for

whom he would prefer a stall toward the outside of the gate.

"I'll save all my draw luck for the Derby," Asmussen said.

Trainer Dallas Stewart said he expects Unbridled Forever to run better in the

Kentucky Oaks than she did in the Fair Grounds Oaks, where she finished third, 9

1/2 lengths behind Untapable. Unbridled Forever was returning from a 10-week

layoff when she ran in the Fair Grounds Oaks.

"I thought she ran pretty good off a layoff," Stewart said. "I actually

thought she was a little bit fitter than she was. She worked a couple of really

good three-quarters, and I came back two weeks before and just worked her

half-miles, easy, and I guess that might have been a little short on fitness

looking back. But she came out of it very healthy.

"She had a black-letter work here the other day, did it very easy. So she

seems like she's moved her game up since the last race to me."

In other Kentucky Oaks news:

"She worked head and head with Myositis Dan and you saw how he ran the other

night," Proctor said of the colt who was beaten two noses in a third-place

finish in the Derby Trial. "That kind of sealed the deal."

Julien Leparoux, who will ride Thank You Marylou in the Oaks, said he thinks

she might step forward from her performance in the Ashland on the synthetic

surface at Keeneland. She finished third in that race, her first around two

turns.

"I think it was a good race for her at Keeneland," Leparoux said. "The first

race I rode her going short at Gulfstream, I think she might handle the dirt a

little better than the Polytrack. I mean, she handled the Polytrack good, but I

think the dirt might be where she likes it better.

"The distance I think is still a little question, but I think the race at

Keeneland definitely set her up for it here."