Gray Attempt Works Ahead of Presidents Day Races
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Photo: Coady Photography
Gray Attempt works five furlongs under Channing Hill Feb. 10 at Oaklawn Park
Several candidates for Oaklawn Park's Presidents Day stakes tripleheader recorded workouts on a cloudy, damp morning Feb. 10, including Gray Attempt, who breezed five furlongs in advance of the $500,000 Southwest Stakes (G3) for 3-year-olds Feb. 18.
Working just after the renovation break from the five-furlong pole to the regular finish line, Gray Attempt went in 1:00 1/5 under Channing Hill and galloped out to six furlongs in 1:12 3/5 over the muddy, sealed surface. The colt's final quarter-mile went in :23 3/5.
"I was very pleased with the work," said Jinks Fires, who trains Gray Attempt for Dwight Pruett of Texarkana, Ark. "Unfortunately, a couple of horses broke off and then there were two gallopers in our way when we were trying to get ready to break off, so we got a little bit of a late run at the pole. We had to kind of let them clear before we took off. Very happy with him."
The work was the first for the son of Graydar since a frontrunning neck victory in the Jan. 25 Smarty Jones Stakes, Oaklawn's first of four major preps for the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1). The one-mile Smarty Jones, Gray Attempt's first start around two turns, was his third consecutive victory.
Like the Smarty Jones, the 1 1/16-mile Southwest will offer 17 Road to the Kentucky Derby points to the top four finishers on a 10-4-2-1 scale toward a spot in the starting gate on the first Saturday in May.
Fires said regular rider Shaun Bridgmohan will have the mount in the Southwest. Fires won the 2011 Southwest with Archarcharch.
Long Range Toddy and Boldor—second and third, respectively, in the Smarty Jones—worked for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen. Breezing together before the break, the pair covered five furlongs in 1:00 1/5.
Bankit, sixth as the favorite in the Smarty Jones, also worked in company before the break for Asmussen. Bankit and stablemate Laughing Fox, a 3-year-old Union Rags colt who broke his maiden Jan. 25, were both timed in 1:00 4/5.
Post positions for the Southwest will be drawn Feb. 15.