Sharp Cat Rebounds With Win in Oaks

Minutes after Sharp Cat won the $200,000 Hollywood Oaks, the seventh graded stakes win of her career, Prince Ahmed bin Salman couldn’t contain his enthusiasm.

Besides hugging and kissing everybody in sight in the Hollywood Park winner’s circle late Sunday afternoon, the owner made a bold proclamation about the 3-year-old daughter of Storm Cat.

“She’s the best filly on the planet Earth,” said Salman, who races as the Thoroughbred Corp.

Many might beg to differ, but she was clearly better than her four opponents in the Oaks.

Fifteen days after failing as the favorite in the Mother Goose at Belmont Park, Sharp Cat, after a bit of a tardy start, moved up to take a clear lead under Alex Solis after a quarter of a mile. She set rapid splits and went on to win by three lengths over Freeport Flight in 1:49 3/5 for the 1 1/8 miles.

It was the first win in four tries at nine furlongs for Sharp Cat, the even-money favorite, but it is still questionable whether she really wants to run that far. It took her 14 seconds to negotiate the final eighth of a mile.

But that was considerably faster than Star Of Goshen. Much heralded after beginning her career with three wins by an average margin of nine lengths, she was eased in the stretch as the 2-1 second choice. In her last start, on May 24, she was beaten as the 1-20 favorite in the Edgewood at Churchill Downs after stumbling at the start and losing a shoe.

“I don’t know what happened,” said Mike Puype, Star Of Goshen’s trainer. “Something has to be bothering her. She was far too brilliant in the early part of the year to be like this.

“She looks like she’s in total distress when she’s coming back [after races], so something internally has to be bothering her. You won’t see her at Del Mar. She’ll take a couple of months off and we’ll regroup at Santa Anita.”

Sharp Cap, winner of five of eight this year and nine of 15 overall, also will be getting a breather, trainer Wayne Lukas said.

“She’s been going pretty strong,” he said after his second Oaks victory. “We started with her back in January. We’ve got the best set of credentials of any 3-year-old filly in the country. We just need to sit back now and make sure we finish up [strong] in the fall.

“She’s still a very immature filly. We’re counting on her to get stronger.”

Sitting in for Gary Stevens, who is recuperating from knee surgery, Solis was impressed. He had been aboard for Sharp Cat’s maiden victory last summer at Del Mar.

“She’s a sweetheart,” he said. “I just made sure that I was totally prepared to ride her. I got on my mechanical horse and practiced as much as I could. . . .

“I wanted to make sure I didn’t touch her with the whip because she doesn’t like it. I practiced over and over again, just hand-riding her.”

Freeport Flight, who came from last to win the Princess three weeks earlier, had things set up Sunday but couldn’t get close, despite the slow final furlong. She finished second, 2 1/2 lengths clear of Really Happy.

“[Jockey] Eddie [Delahoussaye] said she was getting short of air during the last part,” trainer Carla Gaines said of the runner-up. “We’ll [check] to make sure she’s healthy and go from there.”

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With owner George Steinbrenner watching, Diligence rebounded from a troubled effort in the Metropolitan Handicap on May 26 with a one-length victory over Royal Haven and five others in the $150,000 Tom Fool Handicap at Belmont Park.

Ridden by Jose Santos for trainer Nick Zito, the 4-year-old son of Miswaki completed the seven furlongs in 1:22 2/5 and paid $9.80.

Successful in the Churchill Downs Handicap on Kentucky Derby Day, Diligence had finished ninth of 10 in the Metropolitan, but bounced back to win for the sixth time in 21 starts.

Favored Elusive Quality weakened to third after making the easiest of leads under Jerry Bailey. It was his fourth consecutive loss as the favorite.

Horse Racing Notes

Longshots Famous Digger and Tomorrows Sunshine were scratched from the Oaks. . . . Jockey Chris McCarron won four times Sunday. He took the second race with Oakhaven Road, the third with Exetera, the fifth with Crowning Meeting and the seventh with Hundred Dollarkiss. . . . Leading rider Alex Solis had two victories.