Hoppertunity Shipping in for the Rebel

Trainer Bob Baffert is no stranger to the Oaklawn Park winners circle, having sent out three of the last four winners of the GII Rebel S.–Lookin at Lucky (Smart Strike, 2010), The Factor (War Front, 2011) and Secret Circle (Eddington, 2012). The first and third of those horses were campaigned by the wildly successful trio of Mike Pegram, Karl Watson and Paul Weitman, and the triumvirate will be represented in tomorrow’s race by the promising Hoppertunity (Any Given Saturday). 

A half-brother to connections MGISW Executiveprivilege (First Samurai), the $300,000 Keeneland September acquisition was fifth behind his stablemate and TDN Rising Star Bayern (Offlee Wild) in a six-furlong Santa Anita maiden Jan. 4, but successfully stretched out to two turns to graduate by three lengths going a mile Jan. 30. He made the trip to New Orleans for the GII Risen Star S. Feb. 22 and gave a decent account of himself, staying on into fourth after covering ground on the final turn.

“Hoppertunity is a nice colt, who is just developing,” said Jimmy Barnes, assistant to Baffert. “He’s lightly raced. Last time, it was unfortunate that he got shuffled back a little further than we wanted him to be. He was running at the end, but he had so much ground to make that he needed to be another five or six lengths closer than he was. But, he handled it well, and we learned a little bit out of the race. He did show up.” 

Hoppertunity was ridden by Martin Garcia in his two most recent starts, but Hall of Famer Mike Smith has the call in the Rebel.