Wet Paint Proves a Master of Her Craft in Fantasy

Two things are for certain in the story of Wet Paint —she has an affinity for Oaklawn Park, and a spot in the May 5 Kentucky Oaks (G1) starting gate at Churchill Downs.

Adding another 100 qualifying points to the Oaks to bring her overall tally to 170, the Godolphin homebred completed a full sweep of the Hot Springs oval's Oaks preps with a back-to-front move April 1 in the $600,000 Fantasy Stakes (G3).

With the Blame   filly's last two starts and subsequent wins coming over a wet track, the 1 1/16-mile Fantasy provided her first opportunity to prove that she is a true master of her craft no matter the state of the surface.

As the signature blue Godolphin silks worn by jockey Flavien Prat flashed from the gate, they stayed steady as the French-born rider bided his time with the filly to sit well off the pace in last over the fast dirt track. In the meantime, Grand Love  and Condensation  fired off to first and second respectively for a quarter in :22.98 and a half in :47.08. Striking the three-quarters pole in 1:12.76 with the stretch run looming, Prat edged the filly up to eighth and continued to push to round the field from the outside. Going five horses wide, the Brad Cox trainee opened her stride and took the lead with leisure after a mile in 1:37.94. She passed the finish 2 1/2 lengths ahead in 1:44.08.

Rallying from in midpack was 33-1 longshot Taxed , who finished asecond to earn 40 points (now with 48 overall), while 50-1 Olivia Twist  came in third to grab 30 (32 overall). Fourth went to Condensation (20 points, 40 overall), and the fifth-place finisher was early leader Grand Love (10 points, 28 overall).

With the win, Wet Paint ($3.20) is 3-for-3 at Oaklawn and is back at the top of the Oaks leaderboard after wins in the Jan. 28 Martha Washington Stakes and a romp in the Feb. 25 Honeybee Stakes (G3). Her overall record improved to 4-1-0 from six starts and her earnings increased to $689,000.

"(It's been) really amazing," Cox said. "It was the week of the Martha Washington, she was a late entry. I had her on the synthetic at Turfway and she broke her maiden on a wet track at Indiana last fall. But the lack of speed she showed in her races, we wanted to get her on the grass. We thought it would put her into the race a little more.

"But she comes running and obviously she's able to win nice races and graded stakes and she doesn't need to be involved in the race early. Flavien came back and said, 'Wow, her turn of foot is really devastating.' She's kind of like a grass horse. When you ask her to go, she really, really accelerates."

Wet Paint 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 the filly will ship out to Churchill Downs in the coming week to begin preparation for the big race. Along with Wet Paint, the trainer has several other Oaks hopefuls.

"We've got a good group," he said. "Obviously this filly, Punch Bowl, Botanical , Flashy Gem , The Alys Look . I'm not sure they'll all run, but I think we're going to have a couple anyhow."

Video: Fantasy S. (G3)