Photo: Oaklawn Park
Trainer
Lynn Whiting, best known for 1992 Kentucky Derby winner and
Arkansas Derby runner-up Lil E. Tee, is wasting no time getting two of
his top 3-year-olds in action this meet. Saturday, he will start Charles
J. Cella’s
Lady Stonewall in the $60,000 Dixie Belle Stakes and he has
Officer Alex on target for his seasonal debut in the $150,000 Smarty
Jones Stakes Jan. 21, the feature on the special Martin Luther King Jr.
Day card.
Lady Stonewall, a Harlan’s Holiday filly, will not only be making
her first start of the year, but her stakes debut in the six-furlong
Dixie Belle, where she drew post seven of seven. In her two starts as a
juvenile, she finished second at Keeneland and then proved a gutsy
winner, taking a tough maiden special weight at Churchill Downs by a
head. She will be ridden by Robby Albarado, who is returning to Oaklawn
to ride full-time for the first time since being leading rider in 1997.
Winning Horses Stable and Choctaw Racing Stable’s Officer Alex
closed out 2012 by winning the Pennsylvania Nursery Stakes, the same
race 2004 Arkansas Derby, Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner
Smarty Jones used as a launching pad to great success. In preparations
for the Smarty Jones, the Officer colt breezed a half-mile in 49 4/5
Wednesday over a fast Oaklawn track.
“He’ll do a little something more before he runs,” said Whiting.
“He’s a pretty decent horse, but he has to prove how good he is. You can
project a lot of things but he has to answer the questions. He’ll get a
good three-quarters workout probably on Sunday and that should have him
ready. He’s coming off a good seven-eighths race and he put in a nice
breeze before he left Churchill Downs. I’ve already done something easy
with him here just to get him over the track…something like an
intermediate work in 49 and 4, galloped out in 1:04. He handled it well.
We will ask him to get a little dirty on Sunday and that should have
him ready.”
The complete field for the Dixie Belle, in post-position order,
with odds: No Free Ride, Rosemary Homeister Jr.; Baby Princess, Ramon
Vazquez; American Sugar, Alex Birzer; Little Miss Fitz, Ricardo Santana
Jr.; Sheila Tequila, Lindey Wade; Neith, Victor Lebron, and Lady
Stonewell, Robby Albarado.
American Sugar Brings Experience into Dixie Belle
Poindexter Thoroughbred’s American Sugar has already done
something that no other filly in the Dixie Belle has – she has won a
stakes race, actually two of them. She also even held her own against
colts when third in the Prairie Meadows Juvenile Mile. Now, the question
she must answer is whether or not she can carry her 2-year-old form
into her 3-year-old season and continue down the path towards the
$400,000 Fantasy Stakes (G3) April 10.
“She’s doing very well,” said trainer Lynn Chleborad. “She really
seems to like the surface here. In her last race (when fourth in the
Mistletoe Stakes at Remington Dec. 9), she drew the 12 hole and had a
very wide trip, but only got beat a few lengths. She’s always shown she
has the potential to be a top filly. Her only bad race was the Arlington
Washington Lassie and she just didn’t like the Polytrack.“Some
2-year-olds are just precocious, but we expect her to remain the same at
three. We’ll see how she fits with these fillies on Saturday.