A rematch is on Feb. 19 between the top four finishers in the Jan. 12 Fifth Season Stakes at Oaklawn Park.
Sonneteer, Futile, Far Right, and Untrapped will meet again in Monday's $500,000 Razorback Handicap (G3), the second of four major two-turn races for older horses run at the Arkansas track.
Calumet Farm's homebred Sonneteer closed six-wide, with an all-out run, and got up in time to upset the 1 1/16-mile Fifth Season by three-quarters of a length for trainer Keith Desormeaux at odds of 29-1. It was a second win from 18 starts for the 4-year-old Midnight Lute runner, and his first since breaking his maiden in July of 2017 at Del Mar. Sonneteer ran in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1) as a maiden, where he finished 16th.
While C.J. McMahon was the winning rider in the Fifth Season, the trainer's brother gets the call in the 1 1/8-mile Razorback, as Sonneteer is set to depart post 6 in a field of 11 with Hall of Fame rider Kent Desormeaux in the irons as part of a 116-pound assignment.
Futile, a Broken Vow gelding on a string of runner-up efforts for Jackie Rojas and Chris Wilkins, got a race in between the Fifth Season and Monday's challenge when he finished second to grade 3 winner and fellow Razorback runner Rated R Superstar in a Jan. 27 optional-claiming allowance going 1 1/16 miles.
Far Right, co-owned by Robert LaPenta and Harry Rosenblum, was the top locally-based 3-year-old at the 2015 Oaklawn meeting, where he won the $150,000 Smarty Jones Stakes and $300,000 Southwest Stakes (G3) before finishing runner up to eventual Triple Crown winner American Pharoah in the $1 million Arkansas Derby (G1).
The Notional ridgling has bankrolled $542,100 of his $757,456 in earnings at Oaklawn, but is trying to snap a nine-race losing streak. He made his 2018 debut in the Fifth Season, where he finished three-quarters of a length behind Futile.
Far Right's last victory came in a February 2016 allowance race at Oaklawn.
"He likes this racetrack," said trainer Wayne Catalano. "We know it's going to be a tough race. Mr. Harry says he likes the track, so we're taking a chance."
Starting highweight in the Razorback at 117 pounds will be Michael Langford's Untrapped, after Hall of Famer Bob Baffert did not enter multiple grade 1 winner Hoppertunity, assigned 122 pounds. A run in the Dubai World Cup Presented by Emirates Airline (G1) or the Santa Anita Handicap (G1) are still on the table for Hoppertunity, Baffert said.
Untrapped won the 2017 Oklahoma Derby (G3) for trainer Steve Asmussen and earlier last year ran 12th in the Kentucky Derby. He made his season debut in the Fifth Season, after a second in the Nov. 22 Zia Park Derby.
Albaugh Family Stable and Bobby Flay entered J Boys Echo for his first race of the year. The Mineshaft colt was runner-up in allowance company at Gulfstream Park in November and December after he went to the sideline for a while following a ninth in the Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets (G1). J Boys Echo also ran in the Kentucky Derby for trainer Dale Romans, where he finished 15th. He won the Gotham Stakes (G3) in early 2017.
Completing the field are grade 3 winner Shotgun Kowboy, seventh in the Fifth Season, but a five-length winner of a Feb. 3 allowance at Oaklawn; 2017 Razorback runner-up Hawaakom; and allowance winners Rocking the Boat, The Lieutenant, and Leofric.
Oaklawn Park, Monday, February 19, 2018, Race 8Entries: Razorback H. (G3)
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 1Untrapped (KY) Ricardo Santana, Jr. 117 Steven M. Asmussen 9/2 2 2Far Right (KY) Gary L. Stevens 114 Wayne M. Catalano 12/1 3 3Hawaakom (KY) Corey J. Lanerie 114 Wesley E. Hawley 10/1 4 4J Boys Echo (KY) Robby Albarado 114 Dale L. Romans 5/1 5 5Leofric (KY) Luis Saez 113 Brad H. Cox 9/2 6 6Sonneteer (KY) Kent J. Desormeaux 116 J. Keith Desormeaux 4/1 7 7Shotgun Kowboy (OK) Luis S. Quinonez 115 C. R. Trout 12/1 8 8Rated R Superstar (KY) Channing Hill 114 Kenneth G. McPeek 12/1 9 9Rocking the Boat (KY) Fernando De La Cruz 112 Kellyn Gorder 20/1 10 10Futile (KY) Luis Contreras 115 Chris A. Hartman 6/1 11 11The Lieutenant (KY) Drayden Van Dyke 112 Michael W. McCarthy 15/1
