HOT SPRINGS -- This time Chanteline ran like a favorite, as did the long-shot runner-up.
Chanteline, under jockey Ricardo Santana Jr., rebounded from her last-out stakes disappointment to grab the lead at the head of the stretch and take command late for a 1¼-length victory over 28-1 shot Marquee Miss in the $125,000 5½-furlong Spring Fever Stakes for fillies and mares 4 years old and up. She ran 1:04.29 over a fast track before an estimated crowd of 20,000 at Oaklawn Park on Saturday.
Swing and Sway finished third, a neck behind Marquee Miss and a length in front of fourth-place Natural Wonder. Golden Mischief, the 5-2 favorite in her first race since Sept. 24, finished ninth in the field of 10.
Chanteline, a 6-year-old daughter of Majesticperfection, finished fourth as the even-money favorite in the 6-furlong American Beauty Stakes won by Swing and Sway at Oaklawn on Jan. 12. With odds of 4-1 Saturday, she got out of the gate quickly and followed Defy and Okie Diva through the first quarter in 22.03. She trailed by a head through the half in 45.56 but entered the stretch with a 1½-length lead.
"The filly, she was feeling great today," Santana said. "We got a perfect trip. We sat off the pace, and turning for home, she picked it up."
Swing and Sway trainer Ron Moquett said a troubled start burdened his entrant. She raced five-wide around the turn and needed a late spurt under rider David Cabrera to finish third.
"You go 5½ furlongs, there's no room for mistakes," Moquett said. "The ground broke from under us at the break, and it ends up costing us. We had good speed, but we ended up spinning our tires. That caused us to have to be in a make-up mode the entire time."
Jockey C.J. McMahon had to direct Marquee Miss through a crowd from the head of the stretch to the wire.
"When we turned for home, I was kind of boxed in a bit, but I was able to maneuver my way around," McMahon said. "She responded very well for me."
As Marquee Miss, a 5-year-old daughter of Giant's Causeway owned by Joe Ragsdale of Tulsa, passed the 1/16th pole, it appeared she could move closer to Chanteline, but the winner dug in to hold her advantage to the finish.
"[Chanteline] was much the best today," Santana said. "My filly, when she started feeling the other horses from behind, she never gave up."
Golden Mischief, trained by Brad Cox, was in sixth, 6 lengths off the lead at the head of the stretch but failed to contend before dropping back.
"I was a little disappointed," Cox said. "I thought she'd finish up a little better. Five and a half is probably not her cup of tea, but hopefully she gets something out of it and comes out in good order."
Marquee Miss' Oaklawn career started with consecutive victories in 2016 when she won the Dixie Belle and Martha Washington Stakes over 3-year-olds in 2016. She finished third in last season's Spring Fever but was fifth among eight in an optional-claiming allowance at Oaklawn on Jan. 12. That race, her last before Saturday, was on a wet track rated good.
"If there's any moisture on the track whatsoever, she does not run her race," trainer Ingrid Mason said. "I knew the last time we ran here and the track was good, she would have a little bit of trouble with that. That's one thing we've learned. Even when she just gallops, she won't gallop on the mud."
Horses raced on a fast track in the Spring Fever and throughout the Saturday card, a recent rarity at Oaklawn. Until the eighth race Friday, a track at Oaklawn had not been rated fast since the final race Feb. 9, which covered a total of 117 races.
The responsibility resides with record rainfall in February, when the National Weather Service measured a total of 13.76 inches of rain at Hot Springs Memorial Field Airport. The former record of 10.11 inches fell in 1989.
Horsemen react to warm sunshine like most outdoor workers do.
"Our whole life revolves around the weather," Mason said. "When it's like it is today, everyone is happy on the backside. Everyone's smiling. Everybody's happy to work. Everybody shows up on time, all that stuff."
Moquett agreed.
"When we get pretty days, it shows everyone why we come here," Moquett said. "When it's pretty in Arkansas, it's the prettiest place in the country."
Sports on 03/04/2018