Oaklawn Report #3

3 Stars of the Week

– 1st Star: Apprehender (KY) – On Saturday when winning the King Cotton, Apprehender was able to get three monkey’s off his back all at once. First, he got his first stakes win. Second, he avenged an earlier loss to Laurie’s Rocket, who soared by him as the favorite at Oaklawn in an ungraded stakes last year. Third, and perhaps most importantly, he was finally able to beat Alsvid in his third attempt to do so. With Alsvid and Apprehender likely to be pointed towards similar races throughout the year, you can bet these two are going to square off one again. Taking the blinkers off this horse has really helped him relax, and I look for him to continue to make a strong impact in the Oaklawn sprint division. I would assume the Grade 3 Count Fleet is his end of the meet goal.

– 2nd Star: Alsvid (KY) – He may have lost to Apprehender this time out, but Alsvid still ran a super race. The rail draw didn’t do him any favors, as the 4-year-old son of Officer was boxed in through much of the race. It looked as though he wasn’t able to hit his best stride until the late stages. That factor coupled with a lack of early pace pressure on Apprehender made if tough for Alsvid to run down the winner. Like I mentioned early, these two will surely meet again as this is a developing rivalry that should be fun to watch.

– 3rd Star: Z Rockstar (OK) – This horse is about as honest as they come when running at Oaklawn and Remington Park. Z Rockstar had to dig deep with everything he had to win Thursday’s featured allowance race, as he went wire to wire while just holding off Don Dulce at the end. The win gives Z Rockstar his third straight victory, and also his second straight victory at Oaklawn Park. Trainer Donnie K Von Hemel has plenty of options for this one’s next race, which will make it interesting to see where he pops up next.

– Honorable Mention: Awesome Mama, I Am Miss Brown, Channel Isle, Laurie’s Rocket

Flop of the Week

– Boss Man Rocket (KY) – The $800,000 purchase by Frank Fletcher was bet down to favoritism in Saturdays seventh race, an allowance for three-year olds, but Boss Man R0cket stopped badly at the top of the stretch finishing last. The three-year old son of War Front was head strong on the lead while setting fairly fast fractions, and looked to never settle in. Tough to tell what will be next for him, but this was certainly not what you wanted to see from such an expensive horse.

Trainer Standings

Rank	Trainer Name	Sts	1st	2nd	3rd	Total $	Win%	Top3	Top3%
1	Cody Autrey	21	6	2	2	$125,004	29%	10	48%
2	D. Wayne Lukas	27	5	3	3	$279,137	19%	11	41%
2	Chris Richard	14	5	1	2	$132,520	36%	8	57%
4	Randy L. Morse	19	4	2	1	$93,564	21%	7	37%
4	McLean Robertson	12	4	1	2	$85,682	33%	7	58%
4	Allen Milligan	31	4	6	3	$84,995	13%	13	42%
7	Philip A. Sims	12	3	2	1	$132,325	25%	6	50%
7	Ron Moquett	35	3	2	5	$87,338	9%	10	29%
7	Kenny P. Smith	19	3	1	3	$82,542	16%	7	37%
10	Donnie K. Von Hemel	18	2	4	5	$131,281	11%	11	61%
10	Chris A. Hartman	15	2	4	2	$66,452	13%	8	53%
10	Steve Hobby	12	2	1	2	$63,414	17%	5	42%
10	Albert M. Stall, Jr.	6	2	0	0	$55,973	33%	2	33%
10	Danele Durham	6	2	1	0	$51,745	33%	3	50%
10	Daniel C. Peitz	4	2	0	1	$47,212	50%	3	75%
10	David R. Vance	7	2	1	1	$46,779	29%	4	57%
10	Joseph R. Martin	18	2	1	1	$44,274	11%	4	22%
10	Jamie Ness	9	2	3	1	$34,766	22%	6	67%
10	J. R. Caldwell	15	2	0	2	$33,894	13%	4	27%
10	Bruce L. Riecken	7	2	2	1	$32,448	29%	5	71%
10	John Henry Prather, Jr.	6	2	0	0	$22,473	33%	2	33%
10	Richard D. Jackson	6	2	0	0	$19,362	33%	2	33%

Jockey Standings

Rank	Jockey Name	Sts	1st	2nd	3rd	Total $	Win%	Top3	Top3%
1	Robby Albarado	54	11	5	5	$296,819	20%	21	39%
2	Alex Birzer	51	6	11	4	$223,415	12%	21	41%
2	Terry J. Thompson	54	6	6	5	$206,976	11%	17	31%
4	Victor Lebron	35	5	6	5	$202,635	14%	16	46%
4	M. Clifton Berry	30	5	5	2	$166,075	17%	12	40%
4	Eddie Martin, Jr.	29	5	2	3	$116,351	17%	10	34%
4	Ricardo Santana, Jr.	36	5	3	8	$114,515	14%	16	44%
8	Jon Kenton Court	32	4	3	5	$220,938	13%	12	38%
8	Luis S. Quinonez	33	4	6	8	$186,009	12%	18	55%
8	Alex Cintron	27	4	3	3	$119,785	15%	10	37%
8	Glenn W. Corbett	19	4	1	1	$86,724	21%	6	32%
12	Rosemary B. Homeister, Jr.	22	3	2	3	$94,862	14%	8	36%
12	Israel Ocampo	30	3	1	6	$90,063	10%	10	33%
12	Alex Canchari	32	3	4	1	$72,069	9%	8	25%