Secret Oath (Arrogate) looked home free after inhaling the longtime runaway pacesetter and striding confidently clear into the Oaklawn stretch, but Clairiere (Curlin) was unleashing a powerful stretch run of her own that saw the Stonestreet homebred just get her nose in front on the wire in a dramatic finish to the GI Apple Blossom H. Saturday in Hot Springs.
Hot and Sultry (Speighster) caught a flyer out of the gate and was some seven lengths in front down the backstretch as she cut out fractions of :24.01 and :47.88 at the head of a strung-out field of four. Secret Oath cut into the pacesetter's advantage around the far turn and stuck her head in front at the top of the lane. Clairiere, who was most recently second behind Secret Oath over this same track and trip in the Mar. 11 GII Azeri S., closed relentlessly down the center of the track to just nab the 3-5 favorite in the shadow of the wire.
“It played out like everybody thought it would,” said trainer Steve Asmussen, who swept both graded stakes–and four races total–on the Oaklawn card Saturday. “I think Joel [Rosario] is fabulous about the theory that I have–races are from point A to point B. If you go from point A to point B as good as you can, you get the best outcome you can, whether it's favorable or not. She's a tremendous mare. She's really good.”
Rosario added, “She responded really well today. I was watching the one horse in front of me [Secret Oath]. She did really great. She really dug in there. I was able to get there in time. She always tries really hard.”
The ultra-consistent Clairiere has been on the board in 15 of 18 lifetime starts, including 12 graded events. Second behind champion Letruska (Super Saver) in last year's Apple Blossom, the bay mare shipped north for the summer and recorded victories over last year's eventual champion older mare Malathaat (Curlin) in the GI Ogden Phipps S. and the GII Shuvee S. Following a rare off-the-board effort when fifth in the Aug. 27 GI Personal Ensign S., she concluded her 2022 campaign with a third-place effort in a dramatic blanket finish with Malathaat and Blue Stripe (Arg) (Equal Stripes {Arg}) in the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff.
Pedigree Notes:
Clairiere is the first foal out of 2015 GI Test S. winner Cavorting, who was purchased as a weanling by Stonestreet for $360,000 at the 2012 Keeneland November sale. The mare's next foal is stakes winner La Crete (Medaglia d'Oro). She has an unraced 3-year-old colt by Curlin and, without foals in 2021 and 2022, she produced a colt by Curlin this year.
Clairiere's second dam, graded stakes winner Promenade Girl, died in 2022, but left behind a now-yearling colt by Into Mischief.
Saturday, Oaklawn Park
APPLE BLOSSOM H.-GI, $1,000,000, Oaklawn, 4-15, 4yo/up,
f/m, 1 1/16m, 1:43.36, ft.
1–CLAIRIERE, 122, m, 5, by Curlin
1st Dam: Cavorting (MGISW, $2,063,000), by Bernardini
2nd Dam: Promenade Girl, by Carson City
3rd Dam: Promenade Colony, by Pleasant Colony
O/B-Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings LLC (KY); T-Steven M.
Asmussen; J-Joel Rosario. $650,000. Lifetime Record: MGISW,
18-7-5-3, $2,831,392. *1/2 to La Crete (Medaglia d'Oro), SW,
$159,460. Werk Nick Rating: A+++. *Triple Plus* Click for the
eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Click for the free
Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Secret Oath, 123, f, 4, by Arrogate
1st Dam: Absinthe Minded (MSW & MGISP, $607,747), by
Quiet American
2nd Dam: Rockford Peach, by Great Above
3rd Dam: Strawberry Skyline, by Hatchet Man
O/B-Briland Farm, Robert Mitchell & Stacy Mitchell (KY); T-D.
Wayne Lukas. $200,000.
3–Hot and Sultry, 117, f, 4, by Speightster
1st Dam: Hot Water, by Medaglia d'Oro
2nd Dam: Elusive Heat, by Elusive Quality
3rd Dam: Xtra Heat, by Dixieland Heat
1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE, 1ST G1 BLACK TYPE. ($475,000 Ylg
'20 KEESEP). O-Alex and JoAnn Lieblong; B-Cobalt Investments,
LLC (KY); T-Norm W. Casse. $100,000.
Margins: NK, 3HF, 18 1/4. Odds: 1.50, 0.70, 4.20.
Also Ran: I Feel the Need.
Click for the Equibase.com chart and the TJCIS.com PPs.
Clairiere and jockey Joel Rosario catch Secret Oath at the wire in the G1 Apple Blossom at Oaklawn Park for trainer Steve Asmussen and owner @StonestreetFarm! 🤩
What a finish! 🏇#TwinSpiresReplay pic.twitter.com/le77d4eZB6
— TwinSpires Racing 🏇 (@TwinSpires) April 15, 2023
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