After two weather postponements over the past two weekends, Oaklawn Park finally gets a thumbs-up from Mother Nature. That means the Arkansas track finally gets to turn loose its 3-year-old Kentucky Derby hopefuls in the $750,000 Grade 3 Southwest Stakes. That also means we finally get to see the 3-year-old debuts of Champion 2-Year-Old Essential Quality and his chief competition, Jackie’s Warrior.

We also get to see the best mare in the world �?Monomoy Girl �?make her 6-year-old debut in the Grade 3 Bayakoa Stakes at Oaklawn. She gets Sunday’s Oaklawn stage to herself.

The Southwest Stakes shares Oaklawn’s Saturday stage with the Grade 3 Razorback Handicap, featuring Owendale among other older males.

They would have had Derby stage to themselves

Essential Quality, Jackie’s Warrior, Spielberg, and the other Derby hopefuls in the Southwest don’t claim a Derby prep monopoly this weekend. The $300,000 Grade 2 Fountain of Youth gives us Greatest Honour gunning for his second consecutive Derby prep win at Gulfstream. He won the Holy Bull by 5 ¾ lengths last month.

And Friday gives us the Listed John Battaglia Memorial Stakes at Turfway Park in Kentucky. That Derby prep gives us Gretzky the Great leading a crew competing for 10-4-2-1 Derby points.

Gulfstream also gives us the Grade 2 Davona Dale, a Kentucky Oaks prep where Champion 2-Year-Old Female Vequist opens her 2021 campaign. The south Florida track also brings us two Grade 2s for older horses. The first is the $200,000 Mac Diarmida on turf. The second is the $200,000 Gulfstream Mile.

OG News takes a closer look at this weekend’s selected races.

Friday

Listed John Battaglia Memorial Stakes/Turfway Park

You don’t often see Derby preps at one of Kentucky’s outlying tracks, but this 1 1/16-mile jaunt on synthetic does give Derby points. It also serves as a prep for the Grade 3 Jeff Ruby Stakes on March 27. Expected favorite Gretzky the Great seeks a return to the form that produced three consecutive wins, not the form that produced a sixth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.

Saturday

Grade 3 Southwest Stakes/Oaklawn

After the two weekend delays, Keepmeinmind bows out of this 1 1/16 mile Derby prep in favor of the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes next month. But Essential Quality and Jackie’s Warrior stay put. Bob Baffert’s manic-depressive Spielberg, who is 2-for-7 after getting pasted by stablemate Medina Spirit in the Robert B. Lewis, joins them. So does Santa Cruiser and Notable Exception, who is double-entered in the Battaglia, but is likelier here. Either way, this race offers the same 10-4-2-1 Derby points as the Battaglia, with a much higher-profile field.

Grade 2 Fountain of Youth/Gulfstream

This 1 1/16-mile event is the second “Win and You’re Pretty Much Inâ€�?Derby prep, offering 50-20-10-5 Derby qualifying points to the top four finishers. Holy Bull winner Greatest Honour, who just closed as the 9/1 third individual choice in the Kentucky Derby Future Wager Pool 3, leads the top five finishers from that January Derby prep. The only one who was in his neighborhood was runner-up Tarantino. Keep an eye on Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner Fire At Will, who returns to dirt for the first time since breaking his maiden at Saratoga in September. Another threat is Saffie Joseph’s Drain the Clock, who won all four of the races he finished.

Grade 2 Davona Dale/Gulfstream

Say “hello�?to Vequist for the first time since she won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies in November. The daughter of Nyquist will take much of the betting action and most of the attention away from Curlin’s Catch and Dreaming of Drew. The former finished fourth in the Princess Elizabeth at Woodbine in October, but won her last two starts. The latter won the Princess Elizabeth, but hasn’t run outside of Woodbine.

Grade 2 Mac Diarmida/Gulfstream

The 1 3/8-mile turf jaunt offers up Aquaphobia, who hasn’t won since stealing the Grade 1 United Nations last July. Last out, he finished a well-beaten eighth in the Pegasus World Cup Turf. It also gives us Admission Office making his third start since coming off a seven-month hiatus. This produced a seventh in the Grade 3 Tropical Turf and a third in the Grade 3 Tampa Bay Derby.

Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Mile/Gulfstream

Performer comes in with six victories in his last seven starts, a streak snapped by his third in last December’s Cigar Mile to True Timber. He rebounded by winning the Fred Hooper last out. Eye of the Jedi finished second to Performer in the Hooper and before then, second to Tax in the Harlan’s Holiday.

Grade 3 Razorback/Oaklawn

A busy Brad Cox, who trains Essential Quality and Monomoy Girl, keeps occupied in this 1 1/16-mile trek for older horses with Owendale. He comes in off a third in the Grade 1 Clark in December. That followed a fifth in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile and a pair of graded-stakes seconds in the Alysheba and Pimlico Special. This gives him the edge over Long Range Toddy, who takes a long-range view to winning. He hasn’t won since the 2019 Rebel Stakes and hasn’t run since last May. Rated R Superstar rates a mention here.

Sunday

Grade 3 Bayakoa/Oaklawn

This 1 1/16-mile race for fillies and mares, 4-and-up is a race worth watching more than wagering. That’s because prohibitive favorite Monomoy Girl is a mortal lock to go off as a deep odds-on. Should you try beating a mare who is 13-for-15 in her career, the likely candidate is Finite, who finished fourth in the Grade 1 La Brea. That followed a win in the Grade 3 Chilukki.

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Before we meet Pletcher’s trio, and the rest of a balanced field, we need a Pegasus primer. The Grade 1 Pegasus Turf is the sister event to the $3 million Pegasus World Cup. The two Grade 1s headline a 12-race, seven-stakes Gulfstream Park program offering $4.725 million in purses.

Not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Especially for the winner, who gets a spot in the Feb. 20, $1 million Middle Distance Turf Handicap at King Abdulaziz Racetrack in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. That’s one of eight stakes on the Saudi Cup undercard.

The Pegasus Turf’s third edition sends its 12-horse field 1-3/16 miles around Gulfstream’s turf course. There isn’t a horse in this year’s field like Brown’s 2019 winner, Bricks & Mortar, or last year’s Zulu Alpha. Bricks & Mortar kicked off his eventual Horse of the Year season with this race. The Mike Maker-trained Zulu Alpha used the Pegasus as the first of his three graded stakes victories in 2020.

Pegasus Turf Field is Respectable, Not Dynamic

That said, even with a B to B-minus field, the Pegasus Turf turns loose 12 stakes winners â€�?10 of those graded stakes winners. Four horses — Say the Word (6/1), Storm the Court (12/1), Next Shares (20/1), and Aquaphobia (20/1) — own Grade 1 wins.

The two Grade 1 winners in this field are 20/1, with good reason. Next Shares finished last in this event last year. The 8-year-old gelding is 0-for-his-last-8, with his last win coming at Del Mar in November 2019. Aquaphobia, meanwhile, stole the Grade 1 United Nations at Monmouth Park last summer. Since then, he’s gone third-seventh-sixth, losing by a combined 18-¾ lengths.

Playing the role of favorite, albeit a tepid one at 7/2, is the first among equals in Pletcher’s three-headed contingent �?Colonel Liam. The $1.2 million son of two-time Grade 1 winner Liam’s Map defines “lightly raced.�?He’s 3-for-5 in his career �?the slimmest resume in the field. That resume got thicker his last time out, when Colonel Liam won the Tropical Park Derby by 3-¼ lengths.

Speed-figure wise, that 103 Equibase effort wasn’t Colonel Liam’s best race. That would be his 106 Equibase fourth in the Saratoga Derby last August.

The ‘Second Pletcher’ May Be the Better Pletcher

Behind Colonel Liam is the “second Pletcher,�?Largent (9/2). This 5-year-old Into Mischief gelding also comes in off a stellar race. He transitioned from beating up fellow Virginia-breds at Colonial Downs and Laurel Park to winning the Grade 2 Fort Lauderdale at 16/1 last month at Gulfstream. Largent got the perfect trip, saving ground before pouncing in deep stretch and stealing a two-length win.

“That was his breakthrough performance,�?Pletcher said about a gelding who owns six wins and three seconds in nine races. “He’s always been very consistent. He’s run against some really nice horses. We took advantage of his Virginia-bred status because that’s what you’re supposed to do when you have those kinds of options. It wasn’t so much that we felt like he didn’t belong at Saratoga or some bigger races. We had the opportunity and wanted to take advantage of it.�?/p>

Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational/Gulfstream Park

Morning Line (Jockey/Trainer)

1. Next Shares, 20/1 (Drayden Van Dyke/Richard Baltas)
2. Breaking the Rules, 10/1 (John Velazquez/Shug McGaughey)
3. Storm the Court, 12/1 (Julien Leparoux/Peter Eurton)
4. North Dakota, 10/1 (Jose Ortiz/Shug McGaughey)
5. Colonel Liam, 7/2 (Irad Ortiz Jr./Todd Pletcher)
6. Largent, 9/2 (Paco Lopez/Todd Pletcher)
7. Aquaphobia, 20/1 (Joe Bravo/Mike Maker)
8. Anothertwistafate, 5/1 (Joel Rosario/Peter Miller)
9. Cross Border, 15/1 (Tyler Gaffalione/Mike Maker)
10. Pixelate, 9/2 (Edgard Zayas/Mike Stidham)
11. Say the Word, 6/1 (Flavien Prat/Phil D’Amato)
12. Social Paranoia, 8/1 (Luis Saez/Todd Pletcher)

The “third Pletcher�?is Social Paranoia (8/1). He’s 3-for-4 at Gulfstream and 4-for-his-last-6. But, none of the 5-year-old Street Boss offspring’s wins came above the Grade 3 level.

“Social Paranoia has won as far as a mile and five-sixteenths, and Colonel Liam was a little bit unlucky in the Saratoga Derby at a mile and a quarter,�?Pletcher said. “I think (the distance) should work for all three.�?/p>

Anothertwistafate Already on the Board in 2021

If you want to beat the Pletchers, where do you look? Start with Anothertwistafate (5/1). You won’t have to look too hard to find this California shipper, because in a race without much front-end speed, Anothertwistafate will provide it.

The 5-year-old Scat Daddy product comes in with the hot tandem of Joel Rosario in the irons and Peter Miller calling the conditioning shots. They brought you his last win, the Grade 2 San Gabriel Stakes at Santa Anita on Jan. 2.

Those with strong memories may remember that Anothertwistafate finished 10^th in the 2019 Preakness. The only plot twist concerning Anothertwistafate comes with what happened afterward: a puzzling, 16-month layoff. Yet, he’s rolled up two wins and a fourth since moving to Miller’s barn.

Sleeper North Dakota Could State His Case Here

Two other runners bear attention for your exotics, Say the Word (6/1) and North Dakota (10/1). The Florida-bred Say the Word won the Grade 1 Northern Dancer at Woodbine last October, and finished a good third in the 1-½-mile Hollywood Turf Cup at Del Mar a month later. The 6-year-old gelding gets standout California turf rider Flavien Prat back, who understands this deep closer needs some pace for his late kick to have some kick.

North Dakota is one of two Shug McGaughey options here. He needed seven tries to break his maiden, but knew what to do once he did. Since then, North Dakota won four of his last six races, including the Grade 3 Red Smith at Aqueduct in November. That Grade 3 race featured a better field than this Pegasus.

“He’s a true distance horse, probably even a little more than a mile and three-sixteenths,�?McGaughey said. “The way he’s doing and the way he’s been coming around, all year really (is great), and his races have been spaced. He’s fresh and we’re willing to give it a try.�?/p>

The pick: Anothertwistafate. He’s won stakes races on three surfaces: synthetic at Golden Gate Fields, dirt at the Longacres Mile at Emerald Downs, and turf at the San Gabriel. His speed numbers, connections, and form should be enough in this field.

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Or not. There’s 7-year-old Sadler’s Joy taking on his fellow 7-year-old graded-stakes champion Aquaphobia. And in case those two equine geezers aren’t to your handicapping liking, there’s the 6-year-old Red Knight.

With venerable horses like that to ponder, it’s a wonder the Red Smith isn’t sponsored by AARP. Instead, the Grade 3, 1-3/8-mile trek along Aqueduct’s inner turf course bears the name of one of America’s greatest sportswriters. Walter Wellesley “Red�?Smith held court on American sports pages for 55 years, covering and writing columns on every sport, including horse racing. The Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist spent much of his storied career at the New York Herald Tribune and the New York Times.

So there’s a symmetry here: old-school newspaperman lends his name to a race featuring old-school runners. But don’t let the age thing fool you, especially in Sadler’s Joy’s case.

Red Smith Brought Sadler’s Joy Plenty of Smiles

The venerable turf runner makes his 34^th career start as the 8/5 favorite in the Red Smith. He’s hit the board 22 times en route to seven wins and $2,648,160 in career earnings. Four of the victories came in graded stakes, the last being this race last November. That was Sadler’s Joy’s last victory. He’s currently 0-for-his-last-7 in 2020, although he does own four thirds and a disqualification from first to fourth in August’s Bowling Green Stakes at Saratoga.

Last time out, Sadler’s Joy finished third in the Oct. 3 Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic at Belmont Park. Despite a wide trip, he finished only 2-¾ lengths back, clocking a 110 Equibase Speed Figure along the way. The winner of that race �?Channel Maker �?finished third in a brutally tough Breeders’ Cup Turf field. Back in 2018, Sadler’s Joy finished third in that race himself �?to turf superstars Enable and Magical.

“He’s run some big races and was so close in some of the bigger races,�?trainer Tom Albertrani told the New York Racing Association. “I think one of the biggest disappointments was at Saratoga when he was disqualified. He’s just always consistently been right there. The horse just always shows up.�?/p>

Stretch Struggles Swallowed Up Aquaphobia

Usually, the same can be said about Aquaphobia (6/1), although the Grade 1 winner didn’t in his last outing. That was a miserable seventh in the Grade 3 Sycamore at Keeneland last month, courtesy of a bad trip featuring a boxed-in stretch run. This wiped out Aquaphobia’s favored stalking style that brought the son of Giant’s Causeway the Grade 1 United Nations at Monmouth Park in July.

“I felt he was a bit closer to the pace than he likes to be, so we crossed through that race,�?trainer Mike Maker said.

Aquaphobia’s resume resembles Sadler’s Joy’s: nine victories in 38 starts with 22 in-the-money finishes. The United Nations win is Aquaphobia’s only graded stakes triumph. His other victories came in allowances or non-graded stakes races, which explains his absence from the million-dollar earnings club ($707,961).

Aquaphobia Didn’t Scare Away Trainer From Claim

That didn’t stop Maker from claiming Aquaphobia for $62,500 in a January optional claiming race at Gulfstream Park. Maker wasn’t fazed by Aquaphobia’s fourth-place finish. His eye was rewarded when Aquaphobia won his next start, in the aptly named Old Man Eloquent Stakes at Gulfstream Park.

Which brings us to Red Knight (5/2), who won that Sycamore his last time out behind a skillful ride from James Graham. The jockey put the 6-year-old gelding between horses coming out of the turn, sent him three-wide, then opened the jets for a two-length victory.

Unlike his fellow geezers, Red Knight spent much of 2020 on the sidelines. After his fourth in the Grade 3 W.L. McKnight, trainer Bill Mott gave Red Knight the next eight months off. He returned with a solid second to Arklow in the Grade 3 Kentucky Turf Cup at Kentucky Downs in September.

That set the table for his Sycamore victory a month later. That’s one of Red Knight’s eight career victories in 21 starts. He’s hit the board 15 times in those 21 starts, including a second to Sadler’s Joy in this race last year �?a race bringing a 111 Equibase.

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