Hot Springs, AR (SportsNetwork.com) – Don’t Tell Sophia and Kiss Moon are
likely to meet up in the $600,000 Apple Blossom Handicap at Oaklawn Park on
April 10.
Don’t Tell Sophia, trained by Phil Sims, is already at Oaklawn for the
upcoming 2015 meeting while Kiss Moon will join trainer David Vance’s
contingent on Feb. 1.
“She looks great right now,” said Sims, who also co-owns Don’t Tell Sophia.
“She’s all dappled out. We’ll try the series of stakes here again and see how
it goes,
“We’ll take her through the series here, and if she does well, we’ll give her
the summer off and then bring her back for a few races in the fall. That will
be it.”
Don’t Tell Sophia showed great liking to the Oaklawn surface in 2013. She won
the Pippin and Bayakoa Stakes with a second in the Azeri and third in the
Apple Blossom. This year she came back to take both the Pippin and Bayakoa
with a third in the Azeri. She missed this year’s Apple Blossom with a
quarter-crack.
The 6-year-old mare earned $909,597 this year, putting her career earnings
at $1,382,479.
The stakes series for older females begins with the Pippin on Jan. 17 followed
by the $100,000 Bayakoa, Feb. 15; $300,000 Azeri, March 14 and $600,000 Apple
Blossom on April 10.
Kiss Moon will make her 2015 debut in the Apple Blossom Handicap after being
sent to Hermitage Farm in Kentucky in early December.
“That will give me seven, eight, nine weeks to get her ready,” Vance said.
The 3-year-old filly posted a third in the Honeybee Stakes and a second in the
Fantasy Stakes at Oaklawn this year. She then won a pair of grass stakes in
the Hatoof Stakes at Arlington Park and the TaWee Stakes at Indiana Grand.
“She had a great year,” Vance said. “I think Kiss Moon is probably better on
turf, but she had no problem on this surface,”
Owned by breeder Carl Pollard, Kiss Moon won three of 11 starts in 2014 for
$275,716.
