Photo:

Lauren King / Gulfstream Park

Trainer Chris Davis keeps horses in Kentucky and Florida, but his biggest race this weekend is in Arkansas.

Lightly raced Mo Quality will try to give Davis his first career Oaklawn victory in Saturday’s $250,000 Smarty Jones for 3-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles. The Smarty Jones will award 21 total points, 10-5-3-2-1, respectively, to the top five finishers toward starting eligibility for the Kentucky Derby. It is Oaklawn’s first of four Kentucky Derby qualifying races.

Probable post time for the Smarty Jones, the ninth of 10 races, is 5:22 p.m. EST. Racing begins at 1:30 p.m. EST.

Davis has started seven horses at Oaklawn, all in allowance or stakes company, since he began training in 2016. His best finishes have been a trio of thirds by Moonlit Garden, one coming in the $200,000 Bayakoa Stakes (G3) for older fillies and mares in 2019. Davis also ran sixth in the $125,000 King Cotton Stakes for older sprinters in 2020 at Oaklawn with Tringale.

“It’s hard to win stakes races,” Davis said with a laugh. “If I shipped some claimers in there, it might be a little bit easier. When you’re coming to Oaklawn and you’re running against stakes-caliber horses – Brad (Cox) is always going to have something, Steve (Asmussen), Kenny (McPeek) – those top guys are always going to have something in there that’s really good. We’re trying to get our first win at that track the hard way, I guess. But we’re always competitive, it seems like, with the horse that we bring there. Hopefully, this one will be no different.”

Owned by Gary Broad’s Walmac Farm, Mo Quality will be making his stakes debut and two-turn debut in the Smarty Jones, which drew a field of eight. The Smarty Jones will be Mo Quality’s third lifetime start.

Mo Quality, 5-1 on the morning line, didn’t break sharply in his Oct. 23 debut at Keeneland and was last of 11 early before rallying to finish second. Resurfacing a month later at Churchill Downs, Mo Quality broke his maiden by 1 1/2 lengths after racing much closer to the early pace. Both races were 6 1/2 furlongs.

Davis said he’s optimistic Mo Quality can be equally effective around two turns. His sire, Mo Town, was a Grade 2 winner at 1 1/8 miles on the dirt at 2, winning the 2016 Remsen. The 2017 Hollywood Derby (G1) made him a Grade 1 winner at 1 1/8 miles on the grass at 3.

“We wanted to stretch him right after that race,” Davis said, referring to Mo Quality’s maiden victory. “That was kind of the goal. A horse that goes 6 1/2 twice, and his gallop outs and his size, just his efficiency with his action, stride length, everything about him says he wants to go two turns. He’s just nice enough to sprint, so it’s a good steppingstone. There’s a reason why I ran him 6 1/2 twice, instead of going three-quarters or 5 1/2 with him. He’s just a horse that the farther he goes, seems like he just gets better.”

Davis said he chose the Smarty Jones because it offers a hefty purse and Kentucky Derby qualifying points. Mo Quality was also nominated to the one-mile $165,000 Mucho Macho Man Stakes Saturday at Gulfstream Park. Mo Quality is based at Turfway Park in northern Kentucky.

“I want to see how he goes two turns and then how he handles Oaklawn,” Davis said. “Horses that typically handle Churchill handle Oaklawn very well. It’s going to be the big test going two turns. I have horses in south Florida. I could have gone to the Mucho Macho Man and gone that route, but he’s training at Turfway. He’s acclimated to the cold weather very well. I’d like to kind of keep him in the cooler temperatures before kind of giving him a culture shock, going from 30 degrees to 90.”