By Rowland Hoyt
Circle and jockey Rafael Bejarano stalked their way to a ¾-length victory in the $500,000 Rebel Stakes in front of 31,882 fans. It was the third consecutive win in the Rebel for trainer Bob Baffert and came a month after Secret Circle and Castaway gave his stable a sweep of the divided Southwest Stakes.
Sending away the even-money favorite of the St. Patrick’s Day crowd, Secret Circle showed a new dimension by sitting in fourth-place early – farther behind than he’d ever been in his career. Scatman and Unbridled’s Note set the moderate pace with the former breaking free turning for home, but Bejarano angled the 3-year-old son of Eddington to the middle of the track, and then held off a furious close from Optimizer, with a final time of 1:44.55 over a fast 1 1/16th miles.
“I’m glad they made the decision to bring him back here,” said Bejarano, who teamed with Baffert to sweep the Southwest last month. “The key was getting him to relax. He has lots of talent.”
The late charge by Optimizer at 27-1 buoyed D. Wayne Lukas another Hall of Fame trainer with considerable Triple Crown experience. “We are real proud,” he said. “They only get longer and tougher from here.”
Secret Circle is 5-for-6 on his career and pushed his Graded stakes earnings to $470,000 – more than enough to qualify for the Kentucky Derby, May 5th at Churchill Downs, the site of his win in the inaugural Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Sprint last November.
With a third straight Rebel Stakes victory sealed with Secret Circle, Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert was eagerly looking forward to the $1 million Arkansas Derby April 14th at Oaklawn.
“The win was exciting and the way he did it was promising,” said Baffert on Sunday morning, with reports from his assistants that Secret Circle was doing well. “It was a good schooling for him and I think he should get a lot out of it, although my guys tell me he was hardly blowing when he got back. He’s run well there and likes that track. If everything is good over the next few weeks, we will definitely come back.”
This latest Rebel win brings Baffert’s career record at Oaklawn to 13 wins in 21 starts. The Arizona-native has won with four of his last five starters in Hot Springs, with the lone loss coming when The Factor finished seventh in the last year’s Arkansas Derby. In the last three years, Baffert is 10-for-13 with three Rebel wins, three Southwest victories, an Azeri Stakes tally and two other six-figure stakes wins.
Post Rebel Round-Up
Nearly every runner in Saturday’s $500,000 Rebel Stakes returned in good order according to their handlers Sunday morning, with the exception of MarchFore Thoroughbreds Adirondack King who developed colic late this morning.
Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas was playfully jawing with Rebel winning co-owner Mike Pegram immediately after Secret Circle narrowly held off a late charge by Bluegrass Hall’s Optimizer. Pegram, who came within a nose of winning the Triple Crown in 1998 with Real Quiet, acknowledged that Lukas’s runner almost caught them, with Lukas offering congratulations, but a promise that “you know the races get longer from here.” That enthusiasm was still in evidence Sunday morning in the Lukas barn with the Arkansas Derby squarely in their sights for a rematch April 14.
On the flip side was the disappointment trainer Mike Lauer was feeling for owners James and Mary O’Grady and their third-place finishing Scatman. A game runner-up to Secret Circle in the second division of the Southwest Stakes last month, Scatman took a clear lead into the stretch of the Rebel, only to flatten out in the final furlong.
Lauer was a furlong from the biggest win of his 35-year training career, but the O’Gradys were quick to praise his work to put the lightly regarded Scatman in his position. “The whole time has been very good,” said James O’Grady, of JEOG Racing LLC. “The people here have been great, they’ve got a good track and the hospitality is special. We’ll head back home to check the messages on the phone. We need a service because this horse has gotten us so many calls.”
Trainer Allen Milligan described the fourth-place finish of Stephen Brown’s Jake Mo as “awesome,” and declared the son of Giacomo likely to take a swing in the Arkansas Derby. “I thought he ran a great race to finish where he did. We just came from too far out of it,” said Milligan, who leads the trainer’s standings this season. “He had to steady a little bit, but he finished strong. Talent-wise he seems like he’s a notch below a great horse, but then everything we’ve thrown at him he’s done. We thought about maybe going somewhere a little easier, but he keeps doing enough to give (the Arkansas Derby) another shot.”
Cyber Secret continues to confound trainer Lynn Whiting with an inability to relax in his races. Immediately after the fifth-place finish, Whiting indicated he would consider taking blinkers off the Charles Cella runner in his next race and his assistants reported the colt was fine Sunday morning.
Trainer Danny Peitz reported that his sixth-place finisher Najjaar was “doing fine” Sunday morning and that if things kept going well the next month, they’d take a serious look at the Arkansas Derby.
Shortleaf Stables’ Atigun had “really no excuses” according to assistant trainer Philip Bauer Sunday morning after finishing eleventh other than perhaps not being fully cranked after missing the Southwest with a hoof problem. “We’ll wait a couple days and see if anything pops up,” said Bauer, who oversees the Oaklawn string for Ken McPeek. “We’re obviously disappointed in that effort. Maybe he fooled us into thinking that he was ready after missing the race. We’ll regroup and see what the next step is.”
Circle and jockey Rafael Bejarano stalked their way to a ¾-length victory in the $500,000 Rebel Stakes in front of 31,882 fans. It was the third consecutive win in the Rebel for trainer Bob Baffert and came a month after Secret Circle and Castaway gave his stable a sweep of the divided Southwest Stakes.
Sending away the even-money favorite of the St. Patrick’s Day crowd, Secret Circle showed a new dimension by sitting in fourth-place early – farther behind than he’d ever been in his career. Scatman and Unbridled’s Note set the moderate pace with the former breaking free turning for home, but Bejarano angled the 3-year-old son of Eddington to the middle of the track, and then held off a furious close from Optimizer, with a final time of 1:44.55 over a fast 1 1/16th miles.
“I’m glad they made the decision to bring him back here,” said Bejarano, who teamed with Baffert to sweep the Southwest last month. “The key was getting him to relax. He has lots of talent.”
The late charge by Optimizer at 27-1 buoyed D. Wayne Lukas another Hall of Fame trainer with considerable Triple Crown experience. “We are real proud,” he said. “They only get longer and tougher from here.”
Secret Circle is 5-for-6 on his career and pushed his Graded stakes earnings to $470,000 – more than enough to qualify for the Kentucky Derby, May 5th at Churchill Downs, the site of his win in the inaugural Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Sprint last November.
With a third straight Rebel Stakes victory sealed with Secret Circle, Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert was eagerly looking forward to the $1 million Arkansas Derby April 14th at Oaklawn.
“The win was exciting and the way he did it was promising,” said Baffert on Sunday morning, with reports from his assistants that Secret Circle was doing well. “It was a good schooling for him and I think he should get a lot out of it, although my guys tell me he was hardly blowing when he got back. He’s run well there and likes that track. If everything is good over the next few weeks, we will definitely come back.”
This latest Rebel win brings Baffert’s career record at Oaklawn to 13 wins in 21 starts. The Arizona-native has won with four of his last five starters in Hot Springs, with the lone loss coming when The Factor finished seventh in the last year’s Arkansas Derby. In the last three years, Baffert is 10-for-13 with three Rebel wins, three Southwest victories, an Azeri Stakes tally and two other six-figure stakes wins.
Post Rebel Round-Up
Nearly every runner in Saturday’s $500,000 Rebel Stakes returned in good order according to their handlers Sunday morning, with the exception of MarchFore Thoroughbreds Adirondack King who developed colic late this morning.
Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas was playfully jawing with Rebel winning co-owner Mike Pegram immediately after Secret Circle narrowly held off a late charge by Bluegrass Hall’s Optimizer. Pegram, who came within a nose of winning the Triple Crown in 1998 with Real Quiet, acknowledged that Lukas’s runner almost caught them, with Lukas offering congratulations, but a promise that “you know the races get longer from here.” That enthusiasm was still in evidence Sunday morning in the Lukas barn with the Arkansas Derby squarely in their sights for a rematch April 14.
On the flip side was the disappointment trainer Mike Lauer was feeling for owners James and Mary O’Grady and their third-place finishing Scatman. A game runner-up to Secret Circle in the second division of the Southwest Stakes last month, Scatman took a clear lead into the stretch of the Rebel, only to flatten out in the final furlong.
Lauer was a furlong from the biggest win of his 35-year training career, but the O’Gradys were quick to praise his work to put the lightly regarded Scatman in his position. “The whole time has been very good,” said James O’Grady, of JEOG Racing LLC. “The people here have been great, they’ve got a good track and the hospitality is special. We’ll head back home to check the messages on the phone. We need a service because this horse has gotten us so many calls.”
Trainer Allen Milligan described the fourth-place finish of Stephen Brown’s Jake Mo as “awesome,” and declared the son of Giacomo likely to take a swing in the Arkansas Derby. “I thought he ran a great race to finish where he did. We just came from too far out of it,” said Milligan, who leads the trainer’s standings this season. “He had to steady a little bit, but he finished strong. Talent-wise he seems like he’s a notch below a great horse, but then everything we’ve thrown at him he’s done. We thought about maybe going somewhere a little easier, but he keeps doing enough to give (the Arkansas Derby) another shot.”
Cyber Secret continues to confound trainer Lynn Whiting with an inability to relax in his races. Immediately after the fifth-place finish, Whiting indicated he would consider taking blinkers off the Charles Cella runner in his next race and his assistants reported the colt was fine Sunday morning.
Trainer Danny Peitz reported that his sixth-place finisher Najjaar was “doing fine” Sunday morning and that if things kept going well the next month, they’d take a serious look at the Arkansas Derby.
Shortleaf Stables’ Atigun had “really no excuses” according to assistant trainer Philip Bauer Sunday morning after finishing eleventh other than perhaps not being fully cranked after missing the Southwest with a hoof problem. “We’ll wait a couple days and see if anything pops up,” said Bauer, who oversees the Oaklawn string for Ken McPeek. “We’re obviously disappointed in that effort. Maybe he fooled us into thinking that he was ready after missing the race. We’ll regroup and see what the next step is.”
