Isn’t He Clever and Heavy Breathing makes it a 12 field Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park
The Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby close out the Oaklawn Park meet on 14 April, 2012, and a 10 field horse was originally expected to run over a distance of 1 1/18 miles over the dirt course of Oaklawn Park, but trainer Todd Pletcher decided to give
the Starlight Stable’s 3-year-old colt a chance to run in the Derby called, Heavy Breathing, and on the other hand trainer Henry Dominguez found a spot for his 3-year-old, Isn’t He Clever, as well.
J. Kirk and Judy Robison owned three-year-old gelding, Isn’t He Clever, is the son of the, Smarty Jones, who managed to land the Arkansas Derby back in 2004.
Out of mare Sharp Minister by Deputy Minister, Isn’t He Clever is exiting a second place finish to Daddy Nose Best in the Grade 3 Sunland Derby, and prior to that the colt kicked off his 2012 campaign with a fourth place finish in the Grade 2 Robert B. Lewis
Stakes.
Both these finishes shot up the colt’s graded stakes earnings to $188,000 dollars, and with that kind of graded earnings, Isn’t He Clever sits at 20th on the Kentucky Derby list, which will determine based on graded stakes earnings that which
horse will find a spot in the Run for the Roses.
“We’re just hoping he runs a similar race to the Sunland Derby, but maybe wait a little longer this time,” said trainer Henry Dominguez. “It’s his style (to be near the front) and we’re not going to try and change him.”
Isn’t He Clever raced four times in 2011, and he has run three times this year and has downed 4 races with two second place finishes.
“We’ve kind of thrown that race out,” said Dominquez. “It was his first race of the year and he was fresh. That’s not his style. He’s done well since then and really matured.”
The Kentucky bred son of Giant’s Causeway, Heavy Breathing is exiting a third place finish in the Grade 3 Spiral Stakes, on the back of two back to back wins including a maiden special weight race and an allowance test.
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