NEWS
Baffert continues Oaklawn raid with Lookin At Lucky
Posted: Tuesday, March 09, 2010 5:17 PM
LOOKIN AT LUCKY
Benoit & Associates photo
by Jeff Lowe
Until last month, trainer Bob Baffert had not started a horse at Oaklawn Park since 2001. On Saturday, Baffert will go for his third stakes victory in four weeks at the Hot Springs, Arkansas, track.
This time, he is sending what he calls a “franchise horse.”
Lookin At Lucky, the 2009 champion two-year-old male, will start his season in the $300,000 Rebel Stakes (G2) as Baffert takes a crack at a third graded stakes victory this season at Oaklawn. He won the Southwest Stakes (G3) on February 20 with Conveyance and the Azeri Stakes (G3) on March 6 with Freedom Star.
Prior to the Southwest, Baffert’s most recent Oaklawn starter was Wooden Phone, who finished third in the 2001 Oaklawn Handicap (G2).
Lookin At Lucky raced exclusively on synthetic surfaces as a two-year-old, and his only loss in six starts was a second-place finish by a head to Vale of York (Ire) in the Grey Goose Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1).
The Smart Strike colt trained on dirt for his breeder Gulf Coast Farms before Baffert snagged him out of the Keeneland April two-year-olds in training sale for $475,000 on behalf of owners Karl Watson, Paul Weitman, and Mike Pegram. He breezed on Keeneland Race Course’s synthetic Polytrack surface during the under-tack show.
Baffert said after Lookin At Lucky’s victory in the CashCall Futurity (G1) on December 19 that the colt would not race again until March 13. He did not decide which race until last week, when he picked the Rebel over the San Felipe Stakes (G2) the same day on the synthetic track at Santa Anita Park.
“If it was dirt, I would leave him [at Santa Anita],” Baffert said on Tuesday. “I know what he can do here. I want to see what he can do on dirt.
“I hadn’t run a horse at Oaklawn in years and, after Conveyance, I sent Freedom’s Star there. It’s as close of a surface as you can get to Churchill Downs. You’re running for $300,000 and it’s some nice horses and a nice track, so we’ll see what he does there. It’s a great place to prep a horse and to get off the synthetics and see what he does there. He’s going to answer a lot of questions.”
Baffert also took the Oaklawn route in 1999 with the talented filly Excellent Meeting, who won the Fantasy Stakes (G2) at odds of 3-to-10 and then finished fifth as the coupled favorite with General Challenge in the Kentucky Derby (G1).
Jeff Lowe is a Thoroughbred Times staff writer
