Chris Ho/Oaklawn Park
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – An accomplished maiden, BC Stables’ Innovator will have another chance to break his maiden in another stakes race Friday at Oaklawn.
Innovator is the even-money program favorite for the $150,000 Advent, a 5 ½-furlong event for 2-year-olds that anchors Oaklawn’s opening-day 10-race program.
Probable post time for the Advent, the ninth race, is 4:14 p.m. (CST). Racing begins at 12:30 p.m. The Advent is the first of a single-season Oaklawn record 57 stakes races scheduled to be run in 2024-2025. The scheduled 65-day season ends May 3.
Innovator is being wheeled back by Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas after a narrow runner-up finish in a 5 ½-furlong maiden special weight event Nov. 27 at Churchill Downs. Innovator, making his fifth career start, grabbed the early lead and hugged the rail through the stretch before being tackled late on the outside by heavily favored Barnes, a $3.2 million Into Mischief colt for Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert. Despite drifting out in the stretch, Barnes prevailed by a head in his career debut.
“I think if (Innovator) would have been closer to the other horse, we would have had a chance to beat him,” Lukas said. “The other horse was so far out there on the racetrack. I don’t think either one of them were competitive when they were finishing. But I think they would have been better head-to-head. I would have liked to have seen what would have happened.”
The winning time over a fast track was a sharp 1:02.97. Both horses received a preliminary Beyer Speed Figure of 87, which was a career high for Innovator. It was 10 ½ lengths farther back to the third-place finisher.
HOW DID HE GET THERE?!?!
— FanDuel Racing (@FanDuel_Racing) November 27, 2024
BARNES ($2.68) was lost in the sauce in the lane but Martin Garcia managed to get him up to nip a game Innovator on the wire in the 7th at @ChurchillDowns. @BobBaffert trained the debuting son of Into Mischief (@spendthriftfarm) for @ZedanRacing. pic.twitter.com/R3jxNoYN7e
From the first crop of 2020 Horse of the Year and Kentucky Derby winner Authentic, Innovator was exiting a fifth-place finish in the seven-furlong $300,000 Hopeful Stakes (G1) Sept. 2 at Saratoga.
Lukas said he was already pointing Innovator, a $900,000 Keeneland September Yearling Sale graduate, to the Advent before the Nov. 27 allowance race.
“I wish that race had been a little softer,” said Lukas, who won the $400,000 Honeybee Stakes (G3) last season at Oaklawn with a maiden, Lemon Muffin. “I didn’t expect Bob to put in a $3 million one in there. I wished the race would have been easier, but I wanted to use it as a prep for this one and I did. How that will turn out, I don’t know. But he bounced back well and everything, so I think he’ll be fine.”
Innovator has finished second two other times while competing against some of the country’s most promising 2-year-olds at Churchill Downs and Saratoga, including Chancer McPatrick, Ferocious, Tough Catch, Owen Almighty and Sandman.
“I’ve sharpened him up for these (5 ½-furlong races),” Lukas said. “I hope that he will be able to carry that speed, his natural speed, over two turns. I’ve got high hopes for him to be a two-turn horse.”
Innovator is scheduled to break from post 5 in the projected six-horse Advent field under two-time defending Oaklawn riding champion Cristian Torres. The 5-2 second choice in the program is Kale’s Angel, who will be making his dirt debut for Southern California-based trainer Peter Miller.
Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen, who won last season’s Advent with Valentine Candy, is scheduled to start Three Echoes and Perfect Magic.
