Secret Oath Could Give Lukas First Cotillion Win

Briland Farm's homebred Secret Oath  could deliver a rare victory Sept. 24 at Parx Racing should the 3-year-old filly by Arrogate  prevail in the $1 million Cotillion Stakes (G1). She could give Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas a first win in the stakes.

Lukas has saddled 61 starters at Parx Racing (known as Philadelphia Park prior to 2010) since 1977 and last celebrated a stakes win there in the 2013 Pennsylvania Derby (G2) with eventual champion Will Take Charge  .

He's on a similar mission in the Cotillion, where he hopes to put Secret Oath in the running for end-of-year honors.

"I think it does, yes," Lukas said of a Cotillion win putting Secret Oath in the hunt. "But we still have to probably go head-to-head with (Nest ) to get the right answer. Right now, on this day, she is better than we are. We are looking forward to getting down there for the Cotillion."

Secret Oath comes into the 1 1/16-mile race off consecutive second-place finishes to Nest, in the Alabama Stakes (G1) Aug. 20 at Saratoga Race Course, and before that in the Coaching Club American Oaks (G1) at Saratoga. She got the best of Nest in the Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1) at Churchill Downs and was third against males in the Arkansas Derby (G1), which explains her 126-pound highweight assignment in the Cotillion. She'll break from post 6 with Luis Saez.

"The draw was fine, she had a little breather (since Saratoga). There are a few more horses in there than I thought but, for a million dollars, they are going to show up," Lukas said following the post draw. "When the horses are good and the riders are good, I don't get too much involved with that (what the ideal post would be). I think that anybody would want to be on the outside. I think that is what everyone would prefer."

Out of the Alabama also comes third-placed Goddess of Fire , a Mineshaft   daughter who is a Red Oak Stable homebred and trained by Todd Pletcher. The filly has placed in three other graded stakes but has not visited the winner's circle since breaking her maiden Aug. 22 of last year at Saratoga. She will be ridden by John Velazquez from post 3 with 120 pounds assigned.

"With Goddess of Fire, we've placed her pretty aggressively all along after her maiden win and she's knocked on the door several times," said Pletcher. "When you look at her last race in the Alabama it was a very solid race, only two lengths behind Secret Oath, so hopefully she can continue to move forward. With the exception of the Kentucky Oaks, she's run well every time."

Pletcher has two other entrants in the field: KHK Racing's Shahama  (post 7), who most recently won the July 31 Monmouth Oaks (G3) and was second in the Mother Goose Stakes (G2); and Team Valor International's Green Up , in post 1, who won the Cathryn Sophia Stakes at Parx Aug. 23 by 3 3/4 lengths. Flavien Prat rides Shahama, while Irad Ortiz Jr. is on Green Up.

"Shahama was perfect in Dubai and then we were interested to see how she would train over here. She came over with the simple target of the Kentucky Oaks and we were very happy when she came in. She trained really well and like she belonged in the Oaks," Pletcher said. "She actually ran a better race than it looks on paper. She had an outside draw that day and that kind of worked against her, but she continued to run to the wire. Then she came back with a good race in the Mother Goose, and her Monmouth Oaks was another step forward. We've been targeting this since then and she's trained well for this. I'm sure she'll try hard like she always does, and hopefully she can take another step forward.

"Green Up is a filly that trained very well even before we ran her in a maiden race. She was able to do well there. She always gave us the impression she'd improve with some added distance and that's turned out to be the case. The obvious question here is it's a step up in class. She seemed to really enjoy herself at Parx last time."

Also out of the Alabama is Klaravich Stables' grade 2 winner Gerrymander , who won the Mother Goose at Belmont Park June 25. She was fifth, however, in the Alabama, and trainer Chad Brown said he is hoping he can eventually discount that performance.

"She seems to be doing fine. I was disappointed she didn't fire in the Alabama. I liked her going into the race and thought she would do better than that, but she was through midway through the race," he said. "Hopefully, we can draw a line through that one because she seems to be back on track."

Gerrymander will be ridden from post 5 by Joel Rosario and has been assigned 124 pounds.

Owner/breeder Peter Blum has a live homebred in the field in Society , a daughter of Gun Runner   who has won three of four starts with trainer Steve Asmussen. Her only off-the-board finish came in the CCA Oaks, where she stumbled at the break and got bumped early. She finished fourth. Asmussen brought her back in the seven-furlong Charles Town Oaks (G3), where she won gate to wire by 6 3/4 lengths.

Society will be ridden by Florent Geroux and leaving from outside post 9.

Bob Ehalt contributed to the reporting for this story.

Entries: Cotillion S. (G1)

Parx Racing, Saturday, September 24, 2022, Race 11

• Grade I
• 1 1/16m
• Dirt
• $1,000,000
• 3 yo Fillies
• 5:20 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Green Up (VA)	Irad Ortiz, Jr.	122	Todd A. Pletcher	6/1
2	2Adare Manor (KY)	Mike E. Smith	124	Bob Baffert	7/2
3	3Goddess of Fire (KY)	John R. Velazquez	120	Todd A. Pletcher	5/1
4	4Beach Daze (NJ)	Adam Bowman	120	Farrel Mann	30/1
5	5Gerrymander (KY)	Joel Rosario	124	Chad C. Brown	8/1
6	6Secret Oath (KY)	Luis Saez	126	D. Wayne Lukas	2/1
7	7Shahama (KY)	Flavien Prat	124	Todd A. Pletcher	8/1
8	8Morning Matcha (PA)	Paco Lopez	122	Robert E. Reid, Jr.	15/1
9	9Society (KY)	Florent Geroux	122	Steven M. Asmussen	8/1