Honeybee Tops Oaklawn Saturday Card

There are two stakes races on Oaklawn Park’s Saturday card, which is a prelude to one of their major days of racing next week. The $150,000 Hot Springs Stakes goes as race seven, while the $200,000 Honeybee Stakes (G3) goes as race nine.

Ten three-year-old fillies have entered the Honeybee, with #2 Motion Emotion (3-1) the morning line choice. The daughter of Take Charge Indy will be ridden by Jon Court, and is undefeated over this surface, has won over this 1 1/16 mile trip, and has won her last two starts. A $55,000 yearling purchase, Motion Emotion has already won back almost twice that. She goes for Thomas Van Berg.

#6 Power Gal (9-2) is a Japanese-bred daughter of Empire Maker who races for trainer Mark Casse. She won the local prep, the Martha Washington Stakes, here on February 2, and has had a recent bullet workout over five panels. In her stakes win she defeated #9 Marathon Queen (6-1), who had broken her maiden at the Fair Grounds just six weeks before and was facing winners for the first time. 

#7 Raintree Starlet (6-1) has won three in a row, including two here, such as the Dixie Belle Stakes sprinting on February 16. She has never stretched out past six furlongs, but the daughter of Get Stormy has the pedigree to at least get a mile. #3 Sunset Wish (6-1) is the other stakes winner in the field, the Godolphin runner took the Take Charge Brandi at Delta Downs January 4. She has won three of six starts. #5 Chocolate Kisses (4-1) is the other Mark Casse runner; she is coming off a win on the turf going a mile at the Fair Grounds, and was fourth on the dirt in a grade 1 at Keeneland last fall.

The Hot Springs Stakes is a six-furlong race for older males, and features the comebacker #1 Whitmore (even), who is six for nine over this strip and never worse than third. The popular local runner is exiting the Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1), where he was second beaten 3 ¼ lengths. He won this race the last two years, and has passed the $2 million mark in earnings. This race will be the Ron Moquette trainee’s 25^thstart.