Malathaat Made 5-2 Favorite for Kentucky Oaks

Shadwell Stable's Malathaat , winner of Keeneland's April 3 Central Bank Ashland Stakes (G1) last time out, has been made the 5-2 morning line favorite for the April 30 Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1). Trained by Todd Pletcher, the daughter of Curlin   will break from post 10 under veteran rider John Velazquez. Co-second choices at 3-1 in the Oaks field are Larry Best's OXO Equine's Travel Column  (post 6)  and Klaravich Stables' Search Results  (post 12).

The 147th Oaks, worth $1.25 million, will go as race 11 on Churchill Downs' April 30 program with a scheduled post-time of 5:51 p.m. ET. NBCSN will preview and televise the race during an all afternoon program from 12-6 p.m.

The Oaks has been dominated of late by trainers Brad Cox and Steve Asmussen. Both have multiple entries in this year's field.

Cox won with champion filly Monomoy Girl  in 2018 and won last year's running, that took place Sept. 4, with Shedaresthedevil . Shedaresthedevel defeated eventual champion and classic winner Swiss Skydiver . This year's contenders are Travel Column and Coach  (post 9)

Asmussen also has two Oaks wins to his credit, both for Winchell Thoroughbreds: Summerly  in 2005 and champion Untapable  in 2014. Asmussen's runners this year, Pauline's Pearl  (post 1) and Clairiere  (post 3), are homebreds for Barbara Banke's Stonestreet Stables. The morning-line favorite was also bred by Banke's Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings and sold as a yearling for $1,050,000.

Pletcher is a three-time Oaks-winning trainer, having sent out Hall of Famer Ashado  (2004), classic winner Rags to Riches  (2007), and Princess of Sylmar  (2013).

Malathaat, out of grade 1 winner Dreaming of Julia  (fourth behind Princess of Sylmar in the Oaks), is unbeaten in four starts. At 2 she rattled off three wins in New York. After breaking her maiden on the front end at Belmont Park last October, she won Aqueduct Racetrack's listed Tempted Stakes by 7 3/4 lengths and added the grade 2 Demoiselle Stakes at the Oaks trip. At Keeneland in her seasonal bow she roared from fifth to catch Pass the Champagne  late in the short stretch of the 1 1/16-mile event.

"I'm basically fine with the draw," Pletcher said. "I probably would have preferred to be a bit more toward the middle but if it was a case of drawing inside or outside, I'll take the outside. It'll work out fine."

Malathaat worked a half-mile in :48 2/5 under Velazquez April 23. Working inside of recent maiden winner Ghazaaly , she posted splits of :12 3/5 and :24 2/5 and galloped out five panels in 1:00 4/5.

"She's a star," Pletcher said. "Johnny said she handled the track well."

As for the co-second-choices, the Chad Brown-trained Search Results is also unbeaten. Bred by Machmer Hall and a daughter of Flatter  —Co Cola, by Candy Ride  , Search Results has made all three of her starts in 2021. A half-length winner of Aqueduct's Busher Invitational Stakes at a mile March 6, she was a handy 2-5 winner of the Gazelle Stakes (G3) April 3 at nine furlongs.

She was a $310,000 Keeneland September Yearling Sale purchase. She also worked last Friday, getting five furlongs in 1:02 3/5 while working with grade 1 millionaire Dunbar Road .

"She's coming back in four weeks so she's very, very fit," Brown said. "I liked the way she went and she really seemed to get over the ground. I just wanted to get her used to the track a bit and she came back bouncing around when we untacked her. I wanted to bring her in there sound and happy and I think we're well on our way to doing that."

Travel Column, bred by Bayne and Chris Welker and Denali Stud, was a $850,000 graduate of The Saratoga Sale, Fasig-Tipton's select yearlings sale in N.Y., and is from the first crop of Frosted   out of the Victory Gallop  mare Swingit . In her favor is the fact she comes from the tried-and-true Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots road to the Oaks. The path has been popular of late.

Travel Column missed by a hard-fought neck to Clairiere in the Feb. 13 Rachel Alexandra Stakes Presented by Fasig-Tipton (G2), but came back strong to defeat her rival by 2 3/4 lengths in the March 20 TwinSpires.com Fair Grounds Oaks (G2). An on-the-pace type, she did come from ninth to win the Golden Rod Stakes (G2) last fall at Churchill Downs.

"I feel confident that we should get a good trip from the six hole," Cox said of Travel Column. "Obviously she has enough speed to be forwardly placed, that's what we're hoping. (Jockey) Florent (Geroux) knows her and how she gets away and we're in a good position with her. She won on Oaks day last year, the delayed Oaks. She broke her maiden and she obviously won the Golden Rod, so she has plenty of experience here.

"She's a filly we always thought would develop mentally and she has. Two big races this winter and now we're looking forward to her third race off a little bit of a layoff and hopefully it's her best one.

"She had a really good breeze this past week. She's a fantastic work horse. She's held her own with Essential Quality  several different times. They've worked together probably a half dozen times since last fall. She'll give you a lot of confidence watching her train. She was five-eighths in a minute and out 1:13 this past week and just kind of cruised along, so she's ready."

On being co-second choice and having the likely Derby favorite in Essential Quality, Cox said:  "That's where you want to be when you're in horse racing. It's tough to win period, but it shows we're bringing over live horses and excited about the chance."

A filly not to be forgotten is Phoenix Thoroughbred III's Crazy Beautiful . The daughter of Liam's Map   is trained by Kenny McPeek and she was second locally last year in the grade 3 Pocahontas Stakes and was a strong winner of the March 27 Gulfstream Park Oaks (G2) in South Florida. Jose Ortiz was aboard for the first time at Gulfstream Park.

"When he rode her at Gulfstream it was a pleasant surprise because he didn't really know her very well, but he held her together and he waited and he waited and then he uncorked her," McPeek said. "That's what she's going to need here. I think she's going to need a little pace in front of her to get it done and she's going to have to fire her best shot. I've had pretty good luck with my horses third off the layoff, this is her third race off the layoff, and I think she's as good as we can get her.

"I like where she's at in the (post) 4. I think the only post I was not wanting was the 1. She's going to be a come-from-behind horse and I think that kind of forces him to stay inside and save her ground. I'd rather be in the four than in the 14, but we don't put much energy into all that because you can't control the draw.

"I'm going to leave it up to Jose completely because he rode her so well last time," he continued. "As a 2-year-old she didn't show like she wanted to go quite that far. As a 3-year-old, I think if he rides her similar to his Gulfstream race that's going to be your best chance."

Post - Horse - Rider - ML

1 - Pauline's Pearl - Ricardo Santana Jr. - 20-1

2 - Maracuja  - Kendrick Carmouche - 20-1

3 - Clairiere - Tyler Gaffaleone - 5-1

4 - Crazy Beautiful - Jose Ortiz - 15-1

5 - Pass the Champagne - Javier Castellano - 15-1

6 - Travel Column - Florent Geroux - 3-1

7 - Ava's Grace  - David Cohen - 50-1

8 - Moraz  - Flavien Prat - 30-1

9 - Coach - Luis Saez - 50-1

10 - Malathaat - John Velazquez - 5-2 fav

11 - Will's Secret  - Jon Court - 30-1

12 - Search Results - Irad Ortiz - 3-1

13 - Competitive Speed  - Chris Landeros - 50-1

14 - Millefeuille  - Joel Rosario - 20-1