Sarah Sis: Sibling With a Shot in the Oaks

She may not be mentioned in the same breath as big-named fillies for the Longines Kentucky Oaks (gr. I), but Joe Ragsdale's Sarah Sis is a contender with a fighting chance May 1 under the Twin Spires.



The diminutive runner might be overlooked off her last effort, a fifth-place finish behinds Oaks contenders Include Betty, Oceanwave, and Achiever's Legacy in Oaklawn Park's Fantasy Stakes (gr. III), however she was 3-3-0 in her six starts before that including a score March 7 in the Honeybee Stakes (gr. III).

"She's had some difficulties in some of her other races, so I think she's got a lot more talent than what she's been showing," said trainer Ingrid Mason. "She's been one, two in all of her races except the Fantasy. If you watch the race, it was pretty bad for her; she was in a lot of traffic."



Mason, who is currently based in Chicago, shipped Sarah Sis to Louisville from Arlington International Racecourse in the wee hours of the morning April 23. She galloped a mile under Mauricio Garcia that day, then worked five furlongs in 1:02 3/5 April 24.



"Normally she doesn't work them fast. That's her philosophy," Ragsdale said of Mason. "Usually Sarah Sis' workout times aren't that spectacular, but she knows when it is time to go run."



Ragsdale, 60, runs Cherokee Measurement and Control in Tulsa, Okla. Interested in racing since his mid-20s, he just took the plunge into ownership less than three years ago. Starting with a group of friends, he decided he wanted to go a little further with it, so went to Ocala and bought a few 2-year-olds in training at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Co.'s June sale.



It's Ragsdale's first trip to the Oaks as an owner, but he was in Louisville for the 2003 Derby and Oaks.



"You don't have to be a horse racing fan to have goose bumps on your skin when they do the call to the post for the Derby and everybody stands for 'My Old Kentucky Home,' " he said. "If you don't get a little tight in the throat, then you're not human."



Sarah Sis is by Sharp Humor out of Emerald Gal, by Gilded Time. She was bred in Kentucky by Dr. Catherine Rene White.



The grade III winner and earner of $215,000 was a $10,000 Keeneland September sale buy for Luis Chonqui from Bluewater Sales, agent, on the next to last day of the 2013 sale. Ragsdale signed the ticket for Sarah Sis for $20,000 at OBS from Doble Jak, agent.



"She's not very big but very well put together," Mason said of her 2-year-old purchase. "I had about 500 horses to look at, so I had to narrow it down quite a bit. I go by what my owner wants to spend and what I think the horse should go for price-wise. I have to like the horse and when she went through the ring, I actually loved her."



Mason, who has trained 232 winners from 1,344 starts (17%), should know a thing or two about good horses. She was an apprentice rider in Northern California and in Delaware and also spent two years in Dubai as an exercise rider for Sheikh Mohammed.



When it came time for Sarah Sis to make her debut, Mason turned to rider Julio Felix at Arlington. Sarah Sis, two months removed from the sale, thumped maidens by 11 lengths.



"Julio noticed right off the bat the first time he worked her she was special," Mason said. "She never went real fast in the morning but he knew how much horse he had."



Sarah Sis then ran second to the good Quality Rocks in the $100,000 Arlington-Washington Lassie Stakes and then won an allowance race at Keeneland in October by 4 1/4 lengths. Second that day was Brereton Jones' Lovely Maria, eventual winner of this year's Central Bank Ashland Stakes (gr. I) and a major candidate for the Oaks.



This winter at Oaklawn she missed by a neck in the six-furlong Dixie Belle Stakes and surprised many with her late rally to just miss catching 2-year-old filly champion Take Charge Brandi in the one-mile Martha Washington Stakes before her Honeybee breakthrough.



"I felt she could have won the race against Take Charge Brandi," Mason said. "She had a bit of a rough trip. She broke poorly, spotting her about three lengths from the get-go and was wide around the first turn.



"That was the first time I sent her long and she almost beat Take Charge Brandi," she said.



For the Oaks, Ragsdale and Mason have turned to Hall of Famer Gary Stevens to ride.



"We felt like we needed to come up with a top-flight jock considering the magnitude of the race and the size of the field," Ragsdale said. "Gary seemed to be very open and eager to ride her. His record obviously speaks for itself.



"She's not going to get the headlines, and I'm obviously optimistic, but I think she's going to surprise a few people," he said. "It looks like she's outrunning her pedigree a little bit, but the thing we're impressed with is when she was 2 all she did was run on the front end and win and now it seems like she's learned to rate a little bit. When she almost caught Take Charge Brandi we knew we had a runner."



Which gives her a fighting chance in the Oaks.