Sporting Chance Works Toward 3-Year-Old Debut

Grade 1 winner Sporting Chance, in his most serious work to date at Oaklawn Park, breezed six furlongs from the gate in 1:13 4/5 the morning of Feb. 4 in advance of his scheduled 3-year-old debut in the $500,000 Southwest Stakes (G3) Feb. 19.

Sporting Chance, unraced since he won the Hopeful Stakes (G1) Sept. 4 at Saratoga Race Course for Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas, worked with stablemate Hill Bent, a 3-year-old Creative Cause  colt who finished seventh in his debut at Churchill Downs in November.

HAMMONDS: Sporting Chance Bolts, Hangs on in Hopeful

The Tiznow  colt recorded splits of :23 4/5, :36, and :49 through a half-mile, according to Oaklawn clocker Jim Hamilton.

Sporting Chance and Hill Bent worked as a team down the backstretch and through most of the turn before the grade 1 winner began to pull away approaching the quarter pole.

Hill Bent was credited with six furlongs in 1:15 3/5.

Sunday's work was the fifth recorded at Oaklawn since Jan. 9 for Sporting Chance, who races for Robert Baker and William Mack.

Lukas said Luis Saez will ride Sporting Chance in the 1 1/16-mile Southwest, which will be his first start around two turns.

Also Sunday, trainer Donnie Von Hemel said that the status of potential Southwest candidate Higher Power is "a bit up in the air" after he missed a few days of training because of a temperature. He was an entry-level optional-claiming allowance winner at a mile in his 3-year-old debut Jan. 13.

"We'll see how things progress the next few weeks," Von Hemel said.