Star filly Secret Oath adds luster to Arkansas Derby
Mar 13, 2022
Oaklawn Park’s Road to the Kentucky Derby has lacked a standout this season, but the Hot Springs trail will heat up with star filly Secret Oath taking on the boys in the Apr. 2 Arkansas Derby (G1).
Trainer D. Wayne Lukas gave fellow Hall of Famer Gary Stevens the scoop Saturday, and the retired riding legend broke the news later that afternoon on Fox Sports’ “America’s Day at the Races.” Stevens rode two of Lukas’s four Kentucky Derby winners, Thunder Gulch (1995) and Winning Colors (1988), the most recent filly to wear the roses.
“I just said (to Stevens), ‘Here, I’ll give you something you can do today,’” Lukas recounted to Oaklawn publicity. “He was thrilled that I was turning him loose. I thought that would be as good a place as any. We have coffee most mornings. He’s a close friend.”
Lukas has won the Arkansas Derby with a filly in the past – champion Althea (1984) – and Secret Oath could be the one to beat in this year’s renewal. She’s been dominating fillies while the Kentucky Derby scoring races at Oaklawn have come up relatively light.
The day after the Arrogate filly crushed an allowance by 8 1/4 lengths, racking up a 95 Brisnet Speed rating, Dash Attack won the Smarty Jones S. by posting a 91. Secret Oath waltzed in the Jan. 29 Martha Washington S. with a 91, while on the same card, a workmanlike Newgrange took the Southwest (G3) with a 94.
But Secret Oath turned in an even stronger performance on the clock in the Feb. 26 Honeybee (G3), drawing off to register a 97 Speed figure. Later in the day, Newgrange and Dash Attack were well beaten in the Rebel (G2) by 75-1 shot Un Ojo, who recorded a 92. The tough-beat second in the Rebel, Ethereal Road, is trained by Lukas.
As that summary indicates, Secret Oath has the measure of Oaklawn’s three-year-old stakes class, male and female alike. Given her affinity for the track, it makes sense to go for the big prize in the Arkansas Derby rather than play it safe in her own division in the Fantasy (G3), also on Apr. 2.
Secret Oath is a homebred for Robert and Stacy Mitchell’s Briland Farm, and her owners have been mulling this target for their Triple Crown-nominated filly.
“Wayne and I talked about it before the Honeybee,” Robert Mitchell said. “We wanted to see what her performance looked like in the Honeybee, and we wanted to see what the Rebel looked like, and then we wanted to see kind of how she did in her first workout after the Honeybee. We feel like we ought to give her a chance to run against the boys and see how that goes. That’s kind of how we thought about it.”
“We don’t make these decisions, meaning the owners and myself, we don’t make these decisions easily,” Lukas said. “We consider all the things.
“First of all, you want to absolutely think that you are as good as any of the other three-year-olds that might show up, and you don’t really know who is going to show up. And then second, you consider that she’s here at home. If you’re going to step out of the box, that’s probably a good spot to do it. She’s been successful on this racetrack.
“The third thing is, $1,250,000 is probably the most attractive purse she’ll ever run for. I was thinking the other day that it will be hard to imagine she’s going to run for a bigger one, except in the Breeders’ Cup. So, we factored that in.”
Moreover, Secret Oath would not jeopardize a spot in the Kentucky Oaks (G1) by venturing outside her own division. She currently sits atop the Oaks leaderboard with 60, more than sufficient to make the starting gate on the first Friday in May.
At the moment, Lukas intends to revert to fillies’ company in the Kentucky Oaks, not pursue the Kentucky Derby.
“I’ve got the Oaks, anyhow,” Lukas said. “That’s where I’m going. We have no plan to run in the (Kentucky) Derby now. That’s not chiseled in stone, either, but that’s the way the Mitchells feel. They don’t want to run in a 20-horse field. They feel like the Oaks is every bit as prestigious.”
Ethereal Road will not take on stablemate Secret Oath in the Arkansas Derby. Instead, the Aaron Sones colorbearer will seek more Kentucky Derby points in the Apr. 9 Blue Grass (G1) at Keeneland.
Secret Oath’s primary competition will likely come from a fellow new shooter to the Oaklawn series. Aside from the yet-to-be-determined shippers, the most intriguing colt on the premises is We the People, who’s romped in both starts for trainer Rodolphe Brisset. The son of Constitution posted Brisnet Speed figures of 89 and 92, respectively in his Feb. 12 debut and Mar. 12 allowance conquests, and he projects further improvement.
Connections are exploring all of their options for major Kentucky Derby preps, so We the People is not yet confirmed for the Arkansas Derby. But as an interesting factoid, he hails from the family of Arkansas Derby winners Graeme Hall (2000) and Magnum Moon (2018).
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