Kentucky Oaks

The Kentucky Derby is the main event, but it's possible the week's dominant star turn could come in Friday's Kentucky Oaks. Untapable is an overwhelming 4-5 favorite in the $600,000 stakes for fillies, and the question around Churchill Downs hasn't been if she'll win but by how much. Her trainer, Steve Asmussen, has been here before. In 2009, he watched his filly, Rachel Alexandra, burst onto the national scene with a 20-length victory in the Oaks. Two weeks later, she beat the boys in the Preakness on her way to Horse of the Year honors.

LOUISVILLE, KY. -- Heavy favorite Untapable blazed to victory in the Kentucky Oaks Friday, a triumph for jockey Rosie Napravnik and controversial trainer Steve Asmussen . Napravnik kept Untapable a few paces off the lead for much of the run, then pulled away to win by 41/2 lengths. The performance didn't quite match Rachel Alexandra's 20-length win in 2009, but the even-money favorite lived up to high expectations. "She is magnificent," said Napravnik, who was plenty good herself in winning a second Oaks.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The red-headed girl who shocked Maryland horse racing with her daring debut in 2005 was coronated as an elite jockey Friday at Churchill Downs. Rosie Napravnik won the Kentucky Oaks on Believe You Can. She is the first woman to win the most important race for 3-year-old fillies in its 138-year history, and she did so in front of a crowd of 112,552. "This is how it feels to have your dreams come true," Napravnik said. Believe You Can convincingly won a late duel with Napravnik, a former Hereford student and top jockey in Maryland, extending her fist in celebration as she crossed the finish line.

The Kentucky Derby is the main event, but it's possible the week's dominant star turn could come in Friday's Kentucky Oaks. Untapable is an overwhelming 4-5 favorite in the $600,000 stakes for fillies, and the question around Churchill Downs hasn't been if she'll win but by how much. Her trainer, Steve Asmussen, has been here before. In 2009, he watched his filly, Rachel Alexandra, burst onto the national scene with a 20-length victory in the Oaks. Two weeks later, she beat the boys in the Preakness on her way to Horse of the Year honors.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Unlike the Kentucky Derby, today's $500,000 Kentucky Oaks for 3-year-old fillies drew a small field of six runners, including My Flag, last year's winner of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies.My Flag has won her last two starts, including the Ashland Stakes at Keeneland two weeks ago. She is the 7-5 morning-line favorite of the Churchill oddsmaker, Mike Battaglia."She's been doing well here, but this is a competitive race," her trainer, Shug McGaughey, said yesterday. "When they say the Kentucky Oaks and put up $500,000, they're not going to give it away."

The Pimlico Oaks offered a $200,000 purse yesterday, but it apparently wasn't enough to entice an invader of quality to take on the Maryland queen, Wide Country.So the filly did what she has been doing for several months: She won as she pleased, then returned to the winner's circle looking for tougher company.Trainer Bob Camac said the filly would not go to Churchill Downs for the May 3 Kentucky Oaks -- "It's too far from home," he said -- and will run next against Maryland-breds in the $75,000 Caesar's Wish Stakes at Pimlico Race Course on April 28.Then, it's the $250,000 Black Eyed Susan Stakes at Pimlico on May 17. That could finally provide the opposition that owner Tommy Tanner has been seeking.

Rachel Alexandra changed stalls at Churchill Downs in Louisville early Thursday morning, and the reverberations blew through the Preakness Stakes posthaste. No sooner had Stonestreet Stables purchased the precocious 3-year-old filly than new owner Jess Jackson was fielding questions about a possible run at the $1 million Preakness on May 16. Jackson was noncommittal after moving Rachel Alexandra into trainer Steve Asmussen's barn. The ambiguity left Chip Woolley, trainer for the Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird, wondering whether he needed a jockey for the second leg of the Triple Crown.

Now, the racing gets serious.Blushing K.D., who has dominated this year's 3-year-old filly crop, returns to the track today as a heavy favorite in the Grade II, $200,000 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes at Pimlico.The daughter of 1989 Pimlico Special winner Blushing John will take on six rivals over 1 1/8 miles in an event that looks much softer for her than the Kentucky Oaks on Derby Day.Blushing K.D. won the Oaks -- her seventh victory in eight lifetime starts -- by 2 1/4 lengths and pushed her earnings to $713,040, sixth highest in the country.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- There will be no Kentucky Oaks-Kentucky Derby double of horses owned by high-profile people affiliated with the New York Yankees. Sis City, owned in part by Yankees manager Joe Torre, finished fourth as the 3-5 favorite in the $500,000 Kentucky Oaks for 3-year-old fillies yesterday at Churchill Downs. Today, Bellamy Road, owned by George Steinbrenner, the Yankees' owner, competes in the Kentucky Derby. Summerly captured the Oaks by hustling to the lead and then repelling Sis City's final-turn challenge.

Lite Light, who stamped herself as the nation's top 3-year-old filly when she won the Kentucky Oaks by 10 lengths, will race next in the June 8 Belmont Stakes, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said yesterday.Hollendorfer said the decision was made Monday night in a meeting with Lite Light's owners, the family of rap star M.C. Hammer. They'll have to pay a $50,000 supplemental entry fee.It was the owners who suggested the Belmont following Lite Ligh's victory in the 1 1/2 -mile Kentucky Oaks.

The racing gods obviously got their signals crossed, choosing to grace Pimlico with a glorious afternoon to enjoy the first jewel of the Triple Crown on Saturday while the 19 horses in the Kentucky Derby slogged through the mud at Churchill Downs. So the 5,749 race fans at Old Hilltop truly got the best of both worlds, kicking off the two-week run-up to the Preakness with a full card of live racing and the opportunity to place their bets and try to choose the horse that will come to Baltimore with hope still alive for horse racing's biggest prize.

Todd Pletcher 's 38-1 long shot Princess of Sylmar won the $1 million Kentucky Oaks on Friday, giving the trainer a chance to become the first since Ben Jones in 1952 to win the top race for 3-year-old fillies and the Kentucky Derby in the same year. Pletcher, who has five horses entered in the Derby, had four in the Oaks. Dreaming of Julia was the favorite but could not recover from a rowdy start to the race. "She got creamed coming out of [the gate] and it is hard to overcome that sort of thing," Pletcher said.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Todd Pletcher knew there were rumors. He even figured some of them impugned his horses. When you're one of the winningest trainers in the game who just happens to condition a quarter of the Kentucky Derby field, that, he said, "is part of the deal. " Upon hearing the specific rumor concerning Verrazano, the 4-1 second choice on the morning line for Saturday's race, the man worrying about five Derby horses - plus four in the ultra-competitive Kentucky Oaks field Friday - found a reason to smile.

Jockey Rosie Napravnik (Hereford) closed out a career-best season Dec. 31, securing the highest spot ever for a female jockey on the North American leader board. Finishing the year with $12,451,713 in purse earnings and 193 wins with 191 seconds and 167 thirds in 1,200 starts, Napravnik finished eighth among the top jockeys in the nation in the year-end standings. Hall of Fame jockey Julie Krone set the record in 1988 when she finished the year with a ninth-place finish. She finished ninth again in 1992, and the record stood for the past 20 years.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The red-headed girl who shocked Maryland horse racing with her daring debut in 2005 was coronated as an elite jockey Friday at Churchill Downs. Rosie Napravnik won the Kentucky Oaks on Believe You Can. She is the first woman to win the most important race for 3-year-old fillies in its 138-year history, and she did so in front of a crowd of 112,552. "This is how it feels to have your dreams come true," Napravnik said. Believe You Can convincingly won a late duel with Napravnik, a former Hereford student and top jockey in Maryland, extending her fist in celebration as she crossed the finish line.

— Rachel Alexandra, winner of the 2009 Kentucky Oaks and the 2009 Preakness, was hoping to return to form in Friday's $400,000 La Troienne Stakes at Churchill Downs, the site of her most impressive victory. When she ran here a year ago and won by 201/4 lengths, it seemed as if she were untouchable and possibly the best 3-year-old in the world. But Rachel's 4-year-old campaign has been a different story. Despite going off as a 1-5 favorite, she didn't look like the super horse we saw a year ago, getting beaten by a head by Unrivaled Belle after a spirited battle.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Once the field turned for home in yesterday's $318,900 Kentucky Oaks, it became obvious no one could touch Lite Light.The 3-year-old filly, owned by the family of rap musician M.C. ("U Can't Touch This") Hammer, cruised to a 10-length victory over Withallprobability in Churchill Downs' annual 3-year-old filly race.Corey Nakatani rode Lite Light, who is owned by the Oaktown Stable of Lewis Burrell Sr., Hammer's father. Oaktown bought the filly privately this year. She paid $3.80 to win as favorite in a field of 10.Burrell said he may want to try Lite Light against colts in the Belmont Stakes on June 8.Lite Light set a stakes record in the 117th Kentucky Oaks, running the 1 1/8 -mile distance in 1 minute, 48 4/5 seconds over a fast track.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Joe Orseno has been in this position before. Last year in Baltimore, the trainer brought Red Bullet into the Preakness to knock off the seemingly invincible Fusaichi Pegasus. Tomorrow in the Kentucky Derby, Orseno will saddle Thunder Blitz in hopes of upsetting another heavy favorite, Point Given. "I don't think Point Given is the superstar everybody's making him out to be," Orseno said. "He's beatable. He's been beaten. I just think the racing industry is so hungry for a Triple Crown winner that everyone's anointing him before we run the races."

Typically, the biggest race at Churchill Downs other than the Kentucky Derby is the Kentucky Oaks, which is held the Friday before the Derby and features the best 3-year-old fillies in the country. Rachel Alexandra won the Oaks by more than 20 lengths a year ago, a performance that persuaded her new owners to enter her in the Preakness two weeks later. This year, the Oaks is still a big draw, but Rachel Alexandra's presence in the La Troienne, a race held hours before the Oaks, is threatening to be the most exciting race before the Derby.

Rachel Alexandra changed stalls at Churchill Downs in Louisville early Thursday morning, and the reverberations blew through the Preakness Stakes posthaste. No sooner had Stonestreet Stables purchased the precocious 3-year-old filly than new owner Jess Jackson was fielding questions about a possible run at the $1 million Preakness on May 16. Jackson was noncommittal after moving Rachel Alexandra into trainer Steve Asmussen's barn. The ambiguity left Chip Woolley, trainer for the Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird, wondering whether he needed a jockey for the second leg of the Triple Crown.