Like it is

Penultimate day at track offers riveting fields

HOT SPRINGS -- Oaklawn Park has been blessed with wonderful weather this race meet, and it was probably overdue.

It also has been a great meet on the track, and the first half of the Racing Festival of the South's late double -- which starts today -- is slowly but surely becoming like Oaks Day at Churchill Downs.

Used to be the Friday before Kentucky Derby Saturday was just another day at the track in Louisville, Ky. All partying was reserved for the day before Sunday.

Several years ago, more ladies showed up in hats and suddenly it would have been bigger than the Derby, except the Derby naturally grew, too.

Today's card is a good one, giving local trainers a last shot at earning some shipping money with some of their best stock, but this afternoon features the $400,000 Fantasy Stakes and the $600,000 Apple Blossom.

The Grade III Fantasy has drawn a 12-horse field of 3-year-old fillies going 1 1/16 miles.

Because they are lightly raced, with nine being the most races any of them has experienced, this can be a punter's paradise. Punters are bettors who like long odds, and this one sets up nicely.

The race has four shippers -- two from New Mexico and two with Southern California ties -- and their connections must feel like they have a shot for them to send a horse here for one race.

Spooky Woods -- there has to be a story behind that name -- has come all the way from Santa Anita to try for the $240,000 first-prize money.

Old Spook has hit the board five times in six races, but it wasn't until her fifth race that she broke her maiden.

Kell Paso shipped from Sunland in New Mexico, where she won twice and had two second-place finishes, but she hasn't faced the competition she will see today.

At least one Oaklawn-based filly, Benner Island, will see plenty of betting action.

She is coming off a strong second-place finish in the Honeybee, and she's owned by longtime racing enthusiast John Ed Anthony. If she runs another 96 Brisnet speed figure today, coming from just off the pace, she might run straight to the winner's circle.

There's no reason to tout Drinks On Broadway, who broke her maiden 19 days ago, other than she is trained by longtime Oaklawn fixture Gary "Red Dog" Hartlage. And how can anyone not pull for Red Dog and his longtime jockey, Oaklawn favorite Joe Johnson?

Keep in mind Drinks On Broadway may be the longest of long shots in that race. She has run just three times, the least of any of the mounts, so she's still green.

The Apple Blossom, for fillies and mares 4 and older, looks like a showdown between Terra Promessa and Stellar Wind.

Terra Promessa has been the odds-on favorite in all three of her Oaklawn starts this meet, and she twice won easily before coming up empty in the Azeri Stakes in a fifth-place finish. She has worked well since.

Stellar Wind is another Santa Anita shipper, and she has seven victories in 12 races, accruing more than $1.4 million in winnings, the most of any of the six-horse field.

The interesting thing about Stellar Wind is she hasn't run since Nov. 4, when she finished fourth in the Breeders' Cup Distaff. She does have some impressive works at Santa Anita leading up to this race.

Streamline could be a horse for course, having run three times at Oaklawn, winning the Azeri Stakes and consistently posting Brisnet speed figures in the 90s.

Of course, today is the prelude to championship Saturday at Oaklawn when more than 60,000 fans show up for a full card that features the Count Fleet Sprint Handicap; the Northern Spur, named after the Eclipse Award winner owned by Oaklawn CEO Charles Cella; the Oaklawn Handicap; and the Arkansas Derby.

Sports on 04/14/2017

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