Discreetness targeting Southwest

Edited Press Release

Multiple stakes winner Discreetness will be pointed for the $500,000 Southwest S. (G3) at 1 1/16 miles on February 15 at Oaklawn Park, trainer Jinks Fires said.

Discreetness just made his sophomore debut a neck victory in Monday’s Smarty Jones S. under Jon Court, the trainer’s son-in-law. The bay colt earned a career-high 92 BRIS Speed Figure and 10 Kentucky Derby (G1) qualifying points for winning the one-mile Smarty Jones, the first major local prep for the $1 million Arkansas Derby (G1) going nine furlongs on April 16.

Fires is no stranger to Oaklawn’s series of Kentucky Derby preps. In 2011 he sent out Archarcharch to finish fourth in the Smarty Jones, win the Southwest, fill the third spot in the Rebel S. (G2) and gut out a close victory at 25-1 in the Arkansas Derby.

Archarcharch would go on to compete in the Kentucky Derby, but exited the 1 1/4-mile classic with a career-ending injury after finishing 15th.

“It’s hard to say,” Fires said, when asked to compare the colts. “But, I think Discreetness probably is close. They’re a little bit different type horse. Discreetness is a longer-striding horse.”

Discreetness set a stakes record in the Smarty Jones – 1:38.05 over a fast track – eclipsing the 1:38.15 set by Liberty Bull in the inaugural running in 2008. He raced third, just behind dueling leaders Toews On Ice and Gordy Florida, before moving four-wide toward the front turning for home. He finally edged past Gordy Florida on the outside in the final sixteenth of a mile.

Fires said Discreetness, tactically, was where he needed to be Monday because eight-furlong races at Oaklawn begin and end at the sixteenth-pole in the stretch.

“You’ve got to be up close going to the three-eighths pole because you don’t have a long run to overcome them down the lane,” Fires said. “If you’ve got a horse that comes from off it, you better be up close and, hopefully, get to them down the stretch.”

Monday was the fourth time in nine runnings of the Smarty Jones that the one-two finishers were separated by a neck at the wire.

Discreetness was coming off a nose victory in the December 13 Springboard Mile S. at Remington Park.

Discreetness photo courtesy of Oaklawn Park/Coady Photography