Stakes Advance - Lake Hamilton & Bachelor 2025
By Robert Yates
$200,000 Lake Hamilton Stakes
Happy Is a Choice was headed to the $200,000 Lake Hamilton Stakes before trainer John Ortiz eventually rerouted his standout sprinter to Kentucky.
That’s the Skelly effect.
“That’s a freaking racehorse,” Ortiz said April 12, a day after Skelly roared to a front-running blowout victory in his
season debut, a six-furlong allowance race at Oaklawn. “Kudos to that horse. I thought he definitely looked like a monster yesterday. On a slow track, he runs 1:09, galloping. That’s freaky scary.”
Skelly has become a freak show, particularly at Oaklawn, where he’s won his last nine starts (all at six furlongs), including five stakes, with a devastating early turn of foot. No horse has won 10 consecutive races at Oaklawn. Skelly will have that opportunity in Friday’s Lake Hamilton, a race he’s won the last two years for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen and Texas owner Chris Hicks (Red Lane Thoroughbreds).
The Lake Hamilton and $175,000 Bachelor Stakes headline a 12-race card that begins at noon (Central). Probable post time for the Lake Hamilton, the eighth race, is 3:50 p.m.
Skelly, the 2-5 program favorite, is scheduled to face five rivals in the Lake Hamilton, including accomplished stablemate Ryvit.
Skelly has won his nine consecutive races at Oaklawn by a combined 26 ½ lengths. The last victory (April 11) was the easiest to date. Making his first start since the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1) Nov. 2 at Del Mar, Skelly broke sharp from the rail and quickly opened a clear advantage under regular rider Ricardo Santana Jr. The lead snowballed to seven lengths through a :44.75 half-mile and eight lengths in midstretch before Skelly, who was never asked for his best, coasted home to win by 5 ¼ lengths. Skelly’s final time of 1:09.27 produced a career-high 107 Beyer Speed Figure.
“Still freak fast, isn’t he?” Asmussen said. “And he loves him some Oaklawn. I was concerned off the layoff in the 1 hole and he was away beautifully for him.”
Skelly has a 9-1-0 record from 11 career starts at Oaklawn and earnings of $1,187,263. In addition to the Lake Hamilton, Skelly won Oaklawn’s $500,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap (G3) in 2023 and 2024 and its $150,000 King Cotton Stakes last year.
As an agent for Red Lane Thoroughbreds, Frank Alosa, Hicks’ longtime racing and bloodstock manager, purchased Skelly for $250,000 at Fasig-Tipton’s Selected Yearling Showcase Sale in 2020. A 6-year-old son of Practical Joke, Skelly was bred in Kentucky by Allen Poindexter, one of the leading owners in Oaklawn history.
Skelly’s career took off at the 2022-2023 Oaklawn meeting after he was gelded and equipped with blinkers. Skelly wears an extension blinker (the blinker cup almost completely covers his right eye) because of his history of drifting out in races.
After breaking from the rail in his season debut, Skelly drew the extreme outside, post 6, for the Lake Hamilton.
“I’m really excited about Skelly for 2025,” Santana said. “He’s more mature, more professional. The other day, as soon as I got on top of him, I could feel he was different. Even in the gate, he always liked to play around. The other day, he just stood there. When the gates opened, I was really impressed with how he broke. I said: ‘Oh, we’re in good shape.’ He was much the best in the race.”
Overall, Skelly has 11 victories and seven seconds from 20 starts and earnings of $1,855,763. Skelly is a six-time stakes winner.
$175,000 Bachelor Stakes
Kale’s Angel can become the second three-time stakes winner this season at Oaklawn in the six-furlong $175,000 Bachelor Stakes for 3-year-olds.
Probable post time for the Bachelor, the 11th race, is 5:40 p.m.
Trained by Southern California-based Peter Miller, Kale’s Angel is the 8-5 program favorite for the Bachelor, which drew a field of nine.
Kale’s Angel opened the 2024-2025 Oaklawn meeting with a victory in the $150,000 Advent Stakes at 5 ½ furlongs Dec. 6 and added its $150,000 Renaissance Stakes at six furlongs Jan. 18.
Freshened after the Renaissance, Kale’s Angel resurfaced in the $250,000 Animal Kingdom Stakes at six furlongs March 22 at Turfway Park and scored a 3 ¾-length victory in his debut over a synthetic surface.
Kale’s Angel completed major preparations for the Bachelor with a half-mile workout in :49.60 last Saturday morning at Oaklawn. Ramon Vazquez, who has ridden Kale’s Angel to his three stakes victories, has the mount from post 2.
“It should be a good spot,” Miller said. “He likes the track, the timing is good, the distance is good. Everything is positive going into the race.”
The 3-1 second choice in the program is Max Got Excited, who broke his maiden sprinting March 15 at Oaklawn for trainer Brett Creighton. Max Got Excited, in his last start, finished fourth behind Preakness-bound Clever Again in the one-mile $200,000 Hot Springs Stakes March 30. Frost Free ran second in last year’s Bachelor for Creighton after finishing third in the Hot Springs.
Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen entered supplemental nominees Raise the Bar (20-1) and Bye Bye Miles (12-1) in search of a record-extending 10th Bachelor victory and third consecutive.
Raise the Bar hasn’t started since a 12th-place finish in the $250,000 Indian Summer Stakes at 5 ½ furlongs on the turf Oct. 6 at Keeneland. Bye Bye Miles exits a front-running 3 ½-length maiden victory April 13 at Oaklawn.
Wildncrazynight (15-1) adds blinkers for trainer Dan Ward and owner Staton Flurry of Hot Springs after finishing fourth in a first-level allowance sprint April 11 at Oaklawn. Wildncrazynight finished a troubled fourth, beaten a half-length by Kale’s Angel, in the Renaissance.
“He seems like he’s up and back and back in and out here,” Ward said. “He really worked good with the blinkers. I think he’s going to like blinkers, No. 1. No. 2, I think we’re going to stretch him out eventually. I think he’ll like that.”
Wildncrazynight will be making his third start for Flurry after he privately purchased the Midnight Lute gelding earlier this year from his breeder, New Jersey-based New Farm, which has ceased operations. Flurry was Oaklawn’s leading owner last season.
Booth is the only three-time stakes winner this season at Oaklawn.
