Streamline Out to Defend Home Turf in Azeri Stakes

There are horses for courses. Then there is the reigning queen of Oaklawn Park that is multiple graded stakes winner Streamline.

When the 6-year-old daughter of Straight Line starts in the $350,000 Azeri Stakes (G2) March 17, it will mark her 11th consecutive start in Oaklawn's two-turn series of stakes races for older fillies and mares. Never worse than third in any of those first 10 races, Streamline can become a millionaire with a repeat victory in the Azeri, the final major local prep for the $700,000 Apple Blossom Handicap (G1) April 13.

Streamline raced for a claiming tag and made her first seven starts on a synthetic surface or turf before trainer Brian Williamson decided to try on her dirt in an allowance race at Hawthorne Racecourse in December of 2015. The 1 1/16-mile race, which was restricted to Illinois-breds, was Streamline's audition to follow Williamson to Arkansas for the 2016 Oaklawn meeting.

Though her dam, Love Handles, was "more of a turf horse," Williamson said, Streamline was a 15 3/4-length winner in her dirt debut. In her subsequent first stakes try and first start over the Oaklawn track, the dark bay mare captured the 2016 Pippin Stakes and set the stage for her exceptional run of consistency in Hot Springs.

"We were thinking Streamline was going to be more of a turf horse," Williamson said. "That was (the) thing of whether I'd bring her down here or not. She won by like 15 or something and the rest is history. She's been a fun horse to have—great personality."

Since that victory in her 4-year-old debut, Streamline went on to capture the 2017 Azeri Stakes and placed in a trio of grade 1 contests. In her most recent outing, she rallied from the back of a six-horse field to best fellow Oaklawn fixture Terra Promessa by 1 1/4-lengths in the Feb. 17 Bayakoa Stakes (G3).

BLOODHORSE STAFF: Streamline Turns Back Terra Promessa for Bayakoa Score

Overall, Streamline has eight wins from 21 starts and earnings of $793,166. She boasts a 3-2-5 record from 10 starts at Oaklawn, bankrolling $635,000.

Williamson said 2018 will "probably" be Streamline's last year to race before she's retired to become a broodmare for her breeder, Nancy Vanier, and Cartwright Thoroughbreds.

Among those joining Streamline in the gate for the 1 1/16-mile Azeri is recent graded stakes winner Martini Glass. The 5-year-old mare was under consideration for the Hillsborough Stakes (G2T) at Tampa Bay Downs, before co-owner/trainer Keith Nations opted to see if his charge could duplicate the run that propelled her to victory in the Feb. 19 Royal Delta Stakes (G3) at Gulfstream Park.

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"The dirt versus turf obviously mattered," Nations said. "The Hillsborough came up really tough. There's just not one or two horses. There's four or five horses that can really run in there. Not that there won't be in the Azeri, but it is a surface that I think she's a little better on."

Claimed out of her debut victory for $16,000 in February of 2016 at Tampa Bay, Martini Glass finished second to champion Songbird in last year's Delaware Handicap (G1) and second in the Juddmonte Spinster Stakes (G1) last year at Keeneland.

Multiple graded stakes winner Farrell captured the Pippin Stakes in her seasonal debut Jan. 13 but came in sixth last time out in the Bayakoa. Fellow graded stakes winner Actress is another looking to move forward, having finished second during her 2018 debut to Tiger Moth in the Houston Ladies Classic Stakes (G3) Jan. 28, while Blue Prize will make her first start since winning the Falls City Handicap (G2) Nov. 23.

Entries: Azeri S. (G2)

Oaklawn Park, Saturday, March 17, 2018, Race 9

• Grade II
• 1 1/16m
• Dirt
• $350,000
• 4 yo's & up Fillies and Mares
• 5:32 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Actress (KY)	Jose L. Ortiz	119	Jason Servis	3/1
2	2Farrell (KY)	Channing Hill	119	Wayne M. Catalano	8/1
3	3Terra Promessa (KY)	Ricardo Santana, Jr.	117	Steven M. Asmussen	8/1
4	4Tiger Moth (KY)	Florent Geroux	119	Brad H. Cox	5/1
5	5Sandy's Surprise (KY)	Flavien Prat	119	Doug F. O'Neill	12/1
6	6Streamline (IL)	Gary L. Stevens	119	Brian Williamson	6/1
7	7Martini Glass (KY)	Paco Lopez	122	Keith Nations	4/1
8	8Blue Prize (ARG)	James Graham	119	Ignacio Correas, IV	7/2