Wet Paint Delivers Finishing Stroke in Honeybee
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Photo: Coady Photography
Wet Paint blasts home to a victory in the Honeybee Stakes at Oaklawn Park
Visualize an artist crafting a piece of work, carefully placing strokes upon a canvas, creating something that is entirely their own.
For 3-year-old filly Wet Paint , deep stretch on a sloppy Oaklawn Park surface is where she finds her inner maestro.
Marking hoofprints into the dampened ground Feb. 25, the daughter of Blame sketched a path to the wire to add the $300,000 Honeybee Stakes (G3) along with 50 points toward the May 5 Kentucky Oaks (G1) to a portfolio of growing achievements.
Away a step slowly from the gate in the 1 1/16-mile race, Wet Paint raced toward the back of the 12-horse field under a patient Flavien Prat, while Condensation and Taxed set the pace with a quarter-mile in :23.54 and a half-mile in :48.19. With three-quarters in 1:13.51, it was go time for the Godolphin homebred. Given daylight at the top of the stretch, she drove quicker and quicker to unleash a devastating late move, finishing the 1 1/16 miles in 1:45.35, three lengths ahead of runner-up Conendsation.
Wet Paint ($5.40) now has 70 points to top the Kentucky Oaks Leaderboard after earning 20 points in the Martha Washington Stakes at the same track, distance, and conditions a month prior. Pacesetter Condensation took home 20 points, steady third Grand Love nabbed 15, Gambling Girl earned 10 for fourth, and Towhead took five for her fifth-place finish.
Cox, who has seen the filly through all of her five starts, including a tenth-place finish in her first time out over the turf at Kentucky Downs last summer, could not hold back a smile as he discussed the filly's Honeybee trip and her path to the Oaks.
"She's a very good filly," Cox said. "Florent did a great job of being patient and not panicking at the quarter pole. I didn't like what I saw, but he stayed on the rail, and it opened up and he kicked on.
"It was a last-minute decision to run her in the Martha Washington last out, and obviously she ran well. Listen, she wears blinkers, but I don't know what they do for her because she doesn't have much early speed. That's just her; that's her style. She's not blessed with a lot of early speed, but she has a great closing kick."
With $334,100 in earnings and a 3-1-0 record from five starts, the filly is a trailblazer for her dam, the grade 3-placed Street Cry mare Sky Painter , who only has two other foals including an unstarted 5-year-old gelding named Cirrus, and a yearling Medaglia d'Oro filly. The dam was bred back to Not This Time for this year.
Cox says he will likely aim Wet Paint toward a start in the April 1 Fantasy Stakes (G3) at Oaklawn, the final prep in Arkansas for the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on the first Friday in May.
"She's a solid filly, obviously she likes a wet track. I think she'll run on a fast (track) as well. Hopefully, at some point she'll get that opportunity," Cox said. "The Kentucky Oaks is the goal; I think she's going to handle a mile and an eighth. The Fantasy would be the logical race moving forward. We'll see how things work out over the next few weeks."