HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Innovator will be a strong favorite to win his maiden in the $150,000 Advent on Friday’s opening-day card at Oaklawn Park after his tussle with $3.2 million purchase Barnes.
The pair was separated by a head in a maiden special weight sprint Nov. 27 at Churchill Downs. Innovator set the pace as Barnes rallied from well off the rail to catch the leader on the wire in an effort that made Barnes the 13-1 second choice in the second Kentucky Derby Future Wager pool led by the field at 9-5. Innovator’s effort earned him a Beyer Speed Figure of 87, which is the best career number in the Advent.
“That was a wonderful run he made the other day,” Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas said of Innovator. “You know, it took $3,200,000 to beat us. But I think if those horses would have been closer together, side by side, I think that we’d have had an excellent chance to maybe win it.”
Innovator is part of a field of six for the Advent, a 5 1/2-furlong race for 2-year-olds. The group includes Three Echoes, the third-place finisher in the Grade 3 Sanford at Saratoga, and Kale’s Angel, who tries dirt after racing on turf in Southern California.
Innovator was fifth in the Grade 1 Hopeful on Sept. 2 at Saratoga before returning to action in the maiden race at Churchill. The son of Authentic was a $900,000 yearling purchase at Keeneland September in 2023 and races for BC Stables. Lukas said he long has had the Advent in mind for Innovator, a horse of physical substance who is one of his top young prospects at Oaklawn.
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“This is the race I had targeted in the first place,” Lukas said. “I would have preferred an easier prep than what we ended up with against that good horse. But you know, nine days out, normally if I were going to run in the stakes, I would have worked him five-eighths anyhow.
“So he worked five and a half in that race and it was more than I would have probably normally done. But, having said that, it might tighten us up. You never know, that might be the thing that helps us. But he’s very sharp right now off of that race and so I see no reason why he wouldn’t put another one just like that together.”
Cristian Torres, winner of the last two riding titles at Oaklawn, has the mount from post 5.
Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen, who has won a record 13 titles at Oaklawn, will counter with Three Echoes and Perfect Magic.
“I think they kind of complement each other,” Asmussen said. “Three Echoes, at his best, is a closing sprinter, and Perfect Magic, obviously, has a lot of gate speed.”
Keith James Asmussen will be aboard Three Echoes from post 2, and apprentice Erik Asmussen has the mount on Churchill maiden winner Perfect Magic from post 4.
The first card of the “Fifth Season” of the year, which refers to the Oaklawn meet, also brings the $55,000 Trail’s Beginning, a new $10,000 starter allowance to be run over 1 3/16 miles. It closes the 10-race opener that has a first post of 12:30 p.m. Central.
The 65-date meet runs through May 3.
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