Louisiana Oaks Draws Powerful Group of Fillies

This Saturday’s Louisiana Oaks is an 8.5-furlong test that has drawn a talented field of 3yo fillies; the winner and maybe even others from this race could find her way to Kentucky for the Bluegrass Oaks. The purse is a hefty $400k for this Grade 2 contest.

The fledgling careers of most of these includes a stakes win, and several have already performed well vs. the best in graded stakes races. This is one heck of a field:

BLUSTER was a somewhat close-up 6th in the Young Guns Equinics race at 9f last time out, but appears to lack that “high gear” needed to to win in top company. Trained by seekgold, this Dialed In filly gets another shot at the bigtime here and gets 12/1 odds.

CULTIVATED is a Malibu Moon filly who made a solid stakes debut for mtk2013 last time out at a furlong further than today’s distance. It was also her first try away from Delaware, and with a new rider. Goes off at a punter-friendly 16/1 here; quality filly, but class questions do exist.

ALOUETTE has tried stakes racing twice with little success and gets 16/1 odds. The New York-bred Girolamo filly will need her best run ever to get much done in this group, but trainer wess is thinking about how good she looked in that allowance 2 races back and hopes for more of the same.

HOLY BULB comes in off an impressive Equinics win last time out, and she demonstrated a new game as she came from off the pace to post a 105 speed rating. That win put her squarely in the middle of the “Oaks Watch”, and a win here could make her the Sim’s leading spring classics candidate.  The manofsteal trainee is the 2nd choice in the wagering at 6/1.

DIRTY DENMAN has only tried the dirt twice so far, but her last was a pretty solid allowance win. hewett2 decides to try the ol’ moon shot here with his Denman filly and gets slapped with a 21/1 price, the longest on the board. Should at least be up in the early running, but hanging on may be another story.

HELLAWES was caught near the wire in the Sim Sponsors Equinics race last time out by HOLY BULB and goes a little bit further here. This isn’t normally a recipe for success, especially since that one is here, too. This Giant’s Causeway filly trained by muninn tries to make amends as the 5/1 CPU choice.

AMERICHIP is by 2nd-year Kentucky sire Americain who has proven quite competitive in allowances thus far. The horizons3 trainee might have bitten off a bit more than she can chew here and gets 19/1 odds, but she shows some distance-running tendencies and might be one to reckon with in longer distances later on.

IMPAZIBLE SHAFT has proven consistency, but regressed slightly in her last, a stakes at a furlong further than today’s run. This Mission Impazible filly trained by baffgalileo will need a top effort to make the medal stand here at 13/1.

MOON STARE AWAY started her career in exactly the right way for stoners with four consecutive powerful wins, and her graded-stakes debut was strong, with an excellent 3rd in the Grade 3 Silverbulletbeer Stakes. A scratch-bred, she is by Malibu Moon out of an Unbridled mare. CPU gives her some respect at 8/1.

It wouldn’t be a shock to see ANNA PHALACTIC pull a 10/1 upset here… Hey-ohhhhhhhh!!  Okay, somebody had to do that… Anyway, this Mineshaft filly has blossomed nicely for dundey7 while winning a pair of recent stakes races in fine style and she appears sharp as a tack right now.

TRUE DISCIPLES has only one blemish on her 5-race career record, but it’s a big one… The Street Sense filly finished well back in her one graded-stakes try, the Movieland Starlet. Trainer kewmwa41 gives her a chance to prove that it was a fluke at 9/1.

STORMY LYRIC is an Unbridled’s Song filly that picked off a Grade 3 last time and is just a neck away from being in the undefeated ranks. Trainer gcphantom3 looks to put his filly right in the middle of the “Oaks Watch” at 7/1 and the extra sixteenth could very well be just what the filly wants.

GHOST IN OUR ATTIC had a rough day in her 2014 debut and looks to prove that was a fluke, hopefully returning to the solid form that got the frontyard-trained Ghostzapper filly a fast-closing 3rd in the Movieland Starlet ahead of today’s favorite. Mixed signals at 12/1.

BLUNDSTONE ARENA has a perfect 4-race record with an impressive stakes win in her last. The Tiznow filly looks to join the bigtime for trainer lswan and just might have the stuff to get the job done at 9/1.

Now, I will hand-crank my Commodore VIC-20 up to speed… Loading up handicapping software… (this will take only 30 minutes, trust me!) While we wait, shall we listen to the Benny Hill theme about… 20 times? No?? Oh, okay… The Commodore crashed anyway…

So, I’ll just stick my neck on out here and pick HOLY BULB to use his new-found off the pace style to grab this one.

Upset alert: I’ll go with ANNA PHALACTIC to grab the 2nd spot.

Another upset alert: I’ll play BLUNDSTONE ARENA to take home third.

Good luck at the races!