FIFTH SEASON STAKES

Cella’s real secret trounces 10 rivals

HOT SPRINGS - The winner of Saturday’s Fifth Season Stakes is owned by Charles Cella and recorded the race’s most lopsided victory, but it wasn’t Cyber Secret.

Instead, unheralded stablemate Drogue, in his stakes debut under Calvin Borel, scored a 9-length victory over Cyber Secret in the $100,000 race for older horses Saturday afternoon with 16,917 in attendance at Oaklawn Park.

The Fifth Season provided trainer Mike Johnson of Star City with his first stakes victory.

Johnson, 37, went out on his own in late 2006 after spending the previous five years as an assistant to the now-retired Pete Vestal.

“That was awesome,” an emotional Johnson said after the race.

Cyber Secret finished 1¾ lengths ahead of Stealcase in the 1 1/16 race. The order of finish was completed by Joy Boy, the early leader, Stachys, Dipsy Drew, defending champion Donoharm, Jaguar Paw, Occasional View, Ted’s Folly and Big Town.

Right to Vote and Texas Bling were late scratches.

Drogue and Cyber Secret, as part of a heavily favored entry, paid $3, $3.60 and $2.10. Stealcase paid $5.

Drogue, a son of 1998 Arkansas Derby winner Victory Gallop, ran the distance over a good track in 1:47.91.

The 6-year-old was bred in Kentucky by Cella, who also campaigned the horse’s dam (Blu Spur) and broodmare sire (grass champion Northern Spur).

The result also gave Cella, Oaklawn’s president since 1968, his third consecutive victory in a local two-turn stakes race for older horses.

Cyber Secret won the $150,000 Grade III Razorback Handicap and $500,000 Grade II Oaklawn Handicap last year. But Cyber Secret, perfect in four starts last year at Oaklawn, was no match Saturday for Drogue.

Trainer Lynn Whiting said he knew Cyber Secret, ridden by Robby Albarado, was in deep water entering the second turn.

“Kudos to the winner,” Whiting said. “We were coming to him, but Calvin was laughing at us the whole time. When I saw Robby scrubbing on him at the five-sixteenths pole, I could tell he just wasn’t comfortable. It wasn’t his day.”

A forward factor from the start, Drogue, without urging, moved to the lead inside Joy Boy at the three-eighths pole, cut the corner turning for home and widened through the stretch under a steady hand ride.

The Fifth Season was the third consecutive victory for Drogue, the fifth in 19 starts overall and pushed his career earnings to $201,182.

Drogue was coming off a second-level allowance victory Nov. 7 at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. He completed preparations for the Fifth Season with a 5-furlong workout in 1:01.20 on Jan. 4.

“He worked great the other day,” Johnson said. “You couldn’t have asked a horse to work better, and I knew if he ran back to that race, he’d be tough today.”

Johnson said Drogue will be pointed for the $100,000 Essex Handicap on Feb. 15.

Johnson saddled his first winner Aug. 25, 2007, at Louisiana Downs near Shreveport.

Sports, Pages 28 on 01/12/2014

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