Clairiere Runs Down Secret Oath in Apple Blossom

With an exquisitely timed late run, Stonestreet Stables' Clairiere  caught Briland Farms' Secret Oath  in the final two jumps of the $1 million Apple Blossom (G1) at Oaklawn Park while capturing a grade 1 for the third straight season. 

The four-horse field with two standouts made for a most entertaining race shape from start to finish. Hot and Sultry  and David Cabrera shot out of the gate to open up four lengths on the field before they even crossed under the wire for the first time, one-sixteenth of a mile into the 1 1/16-mile event. Hot and Sultry would maintain a similar advantage through fractions of :24.01 and :47.88 as the rest of the field settled in, with Secret Oath in second, followed a few more lengths by Clairiere. Longshot I feel the Need  trailed in a distant fourth throughout, leaving the foursome caravanning down the backside with daylight between them.

Secret Oath inched closer to Hot and Sultry into the far turn and by the time they were approaching the quarter-pole was clearly going to blow by the leader. Clairiere was still six lengths back but just winding up. As Secret Oath and Tyler Gaffalione spurted away from Hot and Sultry, though, Clairiere straightened out full of run. In midstretch, it looked as if Clairiere had too much left to do.

Joel Rosario, however, knew what he had under him in Clairiere, and in the final sixteenth they gobbled up ground with every stride.  

"She responded really well today," Rosario said. "I was watching the one horse (Secret Oath) in front of me. She really dug in there. I was able to get there in time. She always tries really hard."

Clairiere surged in front just before the wire, stopping the timer in 1:43.36. The official margin was a neck back to Secret Oath, who was 3 1/2 lengths clear of show finisher Hot and Sultry. 

"I thought I had them," Gaffalione said. "The filly ran all the way to the wire. She got run down. (Hot and Sultry) was the lone speed. We let her get out in front and little by little cut into it. She kicked for me. She just got beat."

Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen was effusive in his praise of owner Barbara Banke of Stonestreet for keeping the mare in training this year,  and Rosario, for his patient ride.

"It played out like everybody thought it would," Asmussen said. "I think Joel is fabulous about the theory that I have—races are from point A to point B. If you go from point A to point B as good as you can, you get the best outcome you can, whether it's favorable or not."

The winner paid $5 to win as the second choice in the betting behind Secret Oath.

Clairiere was unable to catch Secret Oath in the March 11 Azeri Stakes (G2), the first start for both since the Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) that ended in an epic three-way photo with Clairiere finishing third by two noses. Secret Oath, the 2022 Kentucky Oaks (G1) winner, was farther back in the Breeders' Cup Distaff, finishing fifth.

"For her to be in training at 5, what a blessing for horse racing," Asmussen said. 

Asmussen frequently, and deservingly, refers to Clairiere as "racing royalty" for her sparkling pedigree, by two-time Horse of the Year Curlin   out of three-time grade 1-winning Bernardini mare Cavorting . Stonestreet owned or co-owned Curlin during a large portion of his career and raced Cavorting for all 13 of her starts. 

Clairiere's previous grade 1 wins were the Cotillion Stakes (G1) at Parx Racing as a 3-year-old and last year's Ogden Phipps Stakes (G1) at Belmont Park at 4.

Video: Apple Blossom H. (G1)