Tommy Town Thoroughbreds' steadily improving 'TDN Rising Star' It Tiz Well (Arch) emerged from her victory in Saturday's GIII Honeybee S. at Oaklawn Park in good order and could return to Hot Springs for the GII Fantasy S. Apr. 14. Making her two turn debut, the dark bay tracked the pace and rallied to grind out a hard-fought one-length victory over Benner Island to notch her first graded stakes success.
“I think we might try to look at [the Fantasy],” Hollendorfer told the Oaklawn notes team late Saturday. “That might come up a little tougher, but at least she handled the track and she did what we wanted her to do on this trip.”
Hollendorfer is in the enviable position of having numerous viable GI Kentucky Oaks contenders in his barn this year, including Don Alberto Stable's immensely talented 'Rising Star' Unique Bella (Tapit), who recently captured her third consecutive graded stakes race in the Feb. 4 GIII Santa Ysabel S. The gray is expected to make her next start in the GI Santa Anita Oaks Apr. 8.
“We've got several good fillies and thought this race fit It Tiz Well the best,” the Hall of Fame trainer commented.
Hollendorfer has previously won the Fantasy with champion Blind Luck (Pollard's Vision) in 2010 and Lite Light in 1991.
Meanwhile, trainer Brad Cox confirmed that Benner Island would also return to the Fantasy.
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