Blackout Time Fires Bullet Work at Oaklawn Ahead of Arkansas Derby

Blackout Time answered a disappointing Rebel Stakes with the sharpest workout on the Oaklawn Park tab Saturday, covering four furlongs in :47.00 under retired jockey Robby Albarado to post the fastest of 90 works at the distance that morning.

Clockers caught the Kenny McPeek trainee in :24.20 through the opening quarter-mile, then galloping out five furlongs in :59.60 and six furlongs in 1:13.40. The colt worked alongside stablemate Gould's Gold, a multiple graded-placed stakes winner entered in the $500,000 Essex Handicap (G3) on March 21.

"Everything is still on track for the Arkansas Derby," co-owner Lance Gasaway said in a text message to Oaklawn's media office Sunday morning.

The son of Not This Time needs the momentum. In his 3-year-old debut on March 1, Blackout Time finished a distant fourth in the $1 million Rebel Stakes (G2), beaten 8 lengths over 1 1/16 miles. The result came after a five-month layoff following his runner-up effort behind champion Ted Noffey in the Oct. 4 GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity at Keeneland. Gasaway was clear-eyed about what the connections walked into that day. "We knew he wouldn't be 100%," he said. "We thought, maybe, 85, 90%. He should have gotten a lot out of that. He drank a lot of water afterwards. Hey, regroup, right? We've just got to regroup and go again."

The regrouping has included a familiar face. Albarado, a two-time Oaklawn leading rider who regularly worked the colt last fall in Kentucky, has been reinstalled as Blackout Time's daily exercise partner at Oaklawn. The colt had been based this winter at Fair Grounds Race Course and Slots in Louisiana but will remain at Hot Springs to prepare for the March 28 race. "He'll be here the whole time," Gasaway said of Albarado. "He will breeze him, he will gallop him, he will be on him every day."

Blackout Time currently sits 29th on the official Churchill Downs leaderboard with 15 qualifying points, well short of a guaranteed Kentucky Derby spot. The $1.5 million Arkansas Derby distributes 200 points across its top five finishers on a 100-50-25-15-10 scale, making it the richest points opportunity remaining on Oaklawn's schedule. Entries and post-position draw are set for March 21.

McPeek is chasing his first Arkansas Derby victory. He finished third in the 2024 running with Mystik Dan, another Gasaway-owned horse, who then won the Kentucky Derby in his very next start. Blackout Time earned his own early credentials with a 9 3/4-length maiden victory at Ellis Park last August that earned him TDN Rising Star recognition, and the Claiborne Breeders' Futurity placed him among the better juveniles of his crop. A bullet work topping 90 horses at Oaklawn suggests Saturday may have been the reset both horse and connections were looking for.

Other locally based horses pointed toward the March 28 race include Silent Tactic for trainer Mark Casse, Litmus Test for trainer Bob Baffert, and Taptastic, who broke his maiden by a wide margin in his March 8 debut at one mile and has been nominated to the Arkansas Derby, according to Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen.