Far Right Works Toward Southwest

Far Right Works Toward Southwest
Photo: Coady Photography

Far Right will make his next start in the $300,000 Southwest Stakes (G3) Feb. 16 at Oaklawn, trainer Ron Moquett said Saturday morning. The trainer also added that Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith will again ride the 3-year-old son of Notional, who scored a 1 ¾-length victory in the $150,000 Smarty Jones Stakes Jan. 19.

 
Far Right, in his first work since the one-mile Smarty Jones, breezed five furlongs in 1:02.20 just after the track opened for training Saturday morning. The Southwest is 1 1/16 miles.
 
“Right now, we’re headed to the Southwest,” co-owner Harry Rosenblum said. “Ron was elated with his work.”
 
Rosenblum, a Little Rock, Ark., businessman owns Far Right in partnership with Robert LaPenta, who enjoyed a long, successful association with Hall of Fame trainer Nick Zito. Rosenblum and LaPenta were also partners in Truman’s Commander, who ran in the 2011 Arkansas Derby. 
 
Rosenblum said LaPenta bought a one-third interest in Far Right following the colt’s troubled third-place finish in the $1 million Delta Jackpot Stakes (G3) Nov. 22 at Delta Downs.
 
“Someone else had tried to buy two-thirds of the horse,” Rosenblum said. “I told them, ‘No.’ He’s a friend of mine, Bob. Bob’s a great guy. We’ve had a business relationship outside of horse racing.”
 
Rosenblum said Far Right will continue to alternate silks during his racing schedule (the colt wore LaPenta’s familiar burgundy and gold colors in the Smarty Jones). The exception, Rosenblum said, is Far Right would carry the Arkansas owner's silks in the Arkansas Derby, if the colt runs in the April 11 race.
 
“If we go to the Kentucky Derby, we’ll flip a coin,” Rosenblum said. “We’ll have to have a ceremony.”
 

LaPenta, a Connecticut resident, has campaigned, among others, War Pass, the country’s champion 2-year-old male of 2007, and The Cliff’s Edge, program favorite for the 2004 Kentucky Derby.

 

Bonus Baby
A.P. Brannigan became the first horse to earn Oaklawn’s new Lasix incentive bonus in Friday’s second race, a sprint for Arkansas-bred $12,500 maiden-claimers.
 
Oaklawn announced last September that horses who win without the bleeder medication during the 2015 meeting would receive a 10-percent bonus to the winner’s share. Lasix-free incentives range from $1,080 for the track’s minimum purse of $18,000 up to $60,000 for the $1 million Arkansas Derby (G1). 
 
Trained by Kelly Von Hemel, A.P. Brannigan earned an additional $1,080 from the original $18,000 purse, on top of the $10,800 to the winner, for his two-length victory. A.P. Brannigan, a 4-year-old People’s Choice gelding owned by Tony and Helen Williams of Branson, Mo., ran eighth in his Jan. 19 career debut at Oaklawn.
 
“We hadn’t had any (bleeding) problems,” Von Hemel said. “I’m sure sometime he’ll be on Lasix, but yesterday it paid off.”
 
There were five Lasix-free winners at the 2014 meet: Mufajaah (twice) for trainer Dan Peitz, All Call and Discipline for trainer Chris Richard and Almighty Storm for trainer Otto Draper.
 

Bonus money paid for Lasix-free winners at the meeting comes from Oaklawn and is separate from the horsemen’s purse account. The total potential bonus supplement entering the scheduled 57-day season was $1.4 million.

Source: Oaklawn Barn Notes

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