Anita Cauley’s homebred On Fire Baby tuned up for the May 4 Kentucky Oaks (gr. I) with a seven-furlong breeze in 1:27 at Churchill Downs April 27.
With regular jockey Joe Johnson aboard for trainer Gary Hartlage, the Smoke Glacken filly posted fractional times of :24 4/5, :37 3/5, :50 2/5, 1:02 4/5, and 1:14 4/5 for six furlongs. She galloped out a mile in 1:40 3/5.
The work was the third for the filly since she won the Honeybee Stakes (gr. II) at Oaklawn Park in impressive fashion March 20.
Cauley opted not to run On Fire Baby in either of Oaklawn Park’s top 3-year-old races—the Fantasy Stakes (gr. II) for fillies or the Arkansas Derby (gr. I), in which she would have faced males—and have Hartlage train the filly up to the Oaks.
Based at Churchill, On Fire Baby last fall won the Pocahantas and Golden Rod, both grade II stakes at the Louisville track, and began her 2012 campaign with a third-place finish against males in the Smarty Jones Stakes at Oaklawn.
