Leading females getting ready for Oaklawn meet

By: SPORTS NETWORK

Hot Springs, AR (SportsNetwork.com) - Don't Tell Sophia and Kiss Moon are likely to meet up in the $600,000 Apple Blossom Handicap at Oaklawn Park on April 10.

Don't Tell Sophia, trained by Phil Sims, is already at Oaklawn for the upcoming 2015 meeting while Kiss Moon will join trainer David Vance's contingent on Feb. 1.

"She looks great right now," said Sims, who also co-owns Don't Tell Sophia. "She's all dappled out. We'll try the series of stakes here again and see how it goes,

"We'll take her through the series here, and if she does well, we'll give her the summer off and then bring her back for a few races in the fall. That will be it."

Don't Tell Sophia showed great liking to the Oaklawn surface in 2013. She won the Pippin and Bayakoa Stakes with a second in the Azeri and third in the Apple Blossom. This year she came back to take both the Pippin and Bayakoa with a third in the Azeri. She missed this year's Apple Blossom with a quarter-crack.

The 6-year-old mare earned $909,597 this year, putting her career earnings at $1,382,479.

The stakes series for older females begins with the Pippin on Jan. 17 followed by the $100,000 Bayakoa, Feb. 15; $300,000 Azeri, March 14 and $600,000 Apple Blossom on April 10.

Kiss Moon will make her 2015 debut in the Apple Blossom Handicap after being sent to Hermitage Farm in Kentucky in early December.

"That will give me seven, eight, nine weeks to get her ready," Vance said.

The 3-year-old filly posted a third in the Honeybee Stakes and a second in the Fantasy Stakes at Oaklawn this year. She then won a pair of grass stakes in the Hatoof Stakes at Arlington Park and the TaWee Stakes at Indiana Grand.

"She had a great year," Vance said. "I think Kiss Moon is probably better on turf, but she had no problem on this surface,"

Owned by breeder Carl Pollard, Kiss Moon won three of 11 starts in 2014 for $275,716.