Eight Rings to Begin Season in Bachelor at Oaklawn

With the competition at Oaklawn Park buoyed by a consolidation of racing elsewhere related to COVID-19, trainer Bob Baffert has a strategy for the remainder of the Oaklawn meet that wraps up May 2: run the 'A' team.

"I have to take my very best to win there; I can't do it with my second- and third-string," he said.

One exhibit of that approach is entered in the $100,000 Bachelor Stakes April 25 when the Hall of Famer brings Eight Rings, winner of the American Pharaoh Stakes (G1) last fall at Santa Anita Park, to the Arkansas track for his season debut. 

He had better return ready. His eight rivals in the six-furlong race for 3-year-olds include Long Weekend and Echo Town, colts with a combined record of five wins from seven starts that have each won races at this distance with sub-1:10 times.

Eight Rings hasn't sprinted since last summer at Del Mar when he won a 5 ½-furlong maiden race on debut before unseating his rider when ducking in toward the fence in the early stages of the seven-furlong Runhappy Del Mar Futurity (G1). Then he won the American Pharaoh at 1 1/16 miles by six lengths before a sixth in the TVG Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) Nov. 1 at Santa Anita. He is unraced since.

"He's been doing really well," Baffert said from California, where racing is on hold at Santa Anita and Golden Gate Fields. "I would have liked to have run him a mile. This race is six furlongs. It's a good spot for him on the comeback. It was either this or run him a mile and an eighth. I didn't really want to do that. He's probably fit enough to go a mile, a mile and a sixteenth."

The 3-year-old son of Empire Maker  is owned by Starlight Racing, SF Racing, Madaket Stables, Frederick Hertrich III, John Fielding, Golconda Stables, Susan Magnier, Michael Tabor, and Derrick Smith. Magnier, Tabor, and Smith—all associated with Coolmore Stud—acquired their ownership interest after the American Pharaoh.

Eight Rings has worked nine times this year after resuming training following a short winter break, mostly at Santa Anita before recording his final Bachelor tuneup with a five-furlong gate breeze in :59 at Oaklawn April 17. He is one of a small string of horses Baffert has stabled at Oaklawn, a group that includes grade 1 winner Improbable, who breezed a half-mile there in :49 2/5 April 21 in preparation for the Oaklawn Handicap (G2) May 2.

Baffert intends to further bring Nadal and Charlatan, two of his star 3-year-olds, to town for the Arkansas Derby (G1) also May 2, though Charlatan may need the race to be split into two divisions to gain entry in a potentially oversubscribed field.

Joel Rosario will have Saturday's riding assignment on Eight Rings, who likely has the outside-drawn Long Weekend to catch.

The latter, a son of Majesticperfrection, has led at the first call in all four of his starts, and the finish three times. His lone defeat came when he ran sixth in the Saratoga Special Stakes (G2) last summer in his second race.

"Like a lot of horses, too much too soon can be exactly that," said trainer Tom Amoss.

Given a long break after that race, which had followed a debut maiden victory at Churchill Downs, Long Weekend won an allowance race at Sam Houston Race Park by 6 ¾ lengths Feb. 19 before capturing the Gazebo Stakes by 4 ¾ lengths at Oaklawn Mar. 21. He raced six furlongs at Sam Houston in 1:09.58 and nearly as quickly in the Gazebo when he covered the distance in 1:09.77.

Video: Gazebo S. (BT)

"The most important takeaway from that race was what happened from the three-eighths pole home," Amoss said of the Gazebo. "My horse broke very fast, was part of the pace. Horses came to him as he turned for home and he was able to rebreak and take off from the field. To me, that's the sign of a good horse."

Joe Talamo will ride for owners BCWT Ltd., the stable of Barbara Webber, David Webber & William Webber III—the family of Temple Webber, for whom Amoss trained prior to the owner's death in 2014. 

"They are back getting involved again, and that's an exciting thing for me because I really enjoy working for them," Amoss said.

Though he runs differently, preferring to stalk the pace, Echo Town is also quick. He won a maiden race Jan. 18 at three-quarters of a mile at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots in 1:09.39, and after a close third-place finish in his first attempt against winners at Oaklawn, scored by 3 ¾ lengths in another local allowance March 13. Racing in the slop, he sped the distance in 1:10.15.

Ricardo Santana Jr. will ride the son of Speightstown  for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen and owners L and N Racing.

Asmussen also starts Little Menace, the Gazebo runner-up, who will have Stewart Elliott aboard.

The race also features Ginobili, a graded-placed sprinter who disappointed with a fifth in an April 5 Oaklawn allowance race after a slow break, and Sir Rick, winner of the Mine That Bird Stakes at Sunland Park Feb. 23. He adds blinkers after a last-place finish in the April 11 Oaklawn Stakes.

The Bachelor is the ninth race on an 11-race card with post time set for 4:45 CT.

Entries: Bachelor S.

Oaklawn Park, Saturday, April 25, 2020, Race 9

• STK
• 6f
• Dirt
• $100,000
• 3 yo
• 4:45 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Little Menace (KY)	Stewart Elliott	119	Steven M. Asmussen	4/1
2	2Beau Oxy (KY)	Alex L. Canchari	117	McLean Robertson	20/1
3	3Echo Town (KY)	Ricardo Santana, Jr.	119	Steven M. Asmussen	9/2
4	4Ginobili (KY)	David Cohen	117	Richard Baltas	6/1
5	5Lykan (KY)	Tyler Baze	119	Ingrid Mason	8/1
6	6Liam's Pride (KY)	Martin Garcia	117	Doug F. O'Neill	20/1
7	7Eight Rings (KY)	Joel Rosario	119	Bob Baffert	5/2
8	8Sir Rick (KY)	Orlando Mojica	119	Robertino Diodoro	30/1
9	9Long Weekend (KY)	Joseph Talamo	119	Thomas M. Amoss	3/1