Strategic Threat drew clear in early stretch and cruised to a 4 1/2-length rating within the $250,000 Smarty Jones Stakes Jan. 3 at Oaklawn Park.
With Saturday’s win within the 1/16-mile stakes race for 3-year-olds, Strategic Threat claimed 10 qualifying factors on the Street to the Kentucky Derby offered by Woodford Reserve. Strategic Threat’s stablemate Silent Tactic completed second and pocketed 5 qualifying factors.
The winner and runner-up are owned by John Oxley and skilled by Mark Casse. The end result marks a return to the Kentucky Derby path at Oaklawn Park for Casse, who saddled Sandman to victory in final 12 months’s Grade 1 Arkansas Derby. Oxley captured the 2001 Kentucky Derby with Monarchos.
Longshot Scar Ship led the sphere by means of 1 / 4 mile in :24.48 and half mile in :49.72 with Strategic Threat monitoring in second beneath jockey Javier Castellano. Strategic Threat then launched a sustained rally into the far flip that will see him seize the lead close to the quarter pole and draw clear on the prime of the stretch.
The highest two finishers have been adopted house by longshot Baytown Dreamer in third (three factors), Sleepingonfreedom in fourth (two factors), and Rancho Santa Fe in fifth (one level). Universe, who was favored at 2.30-1 off a runner-up end within the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Membership Stakes at Churchill Downs, was final away and by no means factored when ending seventh of eight.
The victory noticed Strategic Threat earn his first stakes win towards open firm after closing his juvenile season with an attention-grabbing nine-length rating over different Florida-breds within the $300,000 FTBOA Florida Sire In Actuality Stakes Nov. 29 at Gulfstream Park. With Saturday’s win, the son of Noble Hen secured his second win in as many begins at two activates filth.
