Tom Pedulla is interviewing prominent owners, trainers and jockeys as they travel the Road to the 148th Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve on May 7 at Churchill Downs.

Robert and Stacy Mitchell, who bred Secret Oath at their Briland Farm in Lexington and retained ownership of her, are featured this week. The chestnut daughter of Arrogate has dominated her last three starts, all at Oaklawn Park, by a combined 23 lengths for legendary trainer D. Wayne Lukas.

She romped by 8 ¼ lengths in a Dec. 31 allowance, coasted by 7 ¼ lengths in the Jan. 29 Martha Washington and controlled the Feb. 26 Honeybee Stakes by 7 ½ lengths for regular rider Luis Contreras.

Secret Oath is preparing for a massive challenge, when she opposes males for the first time in the $1.25 million Arkansas Derby on April 2 at Oaklawn Park. With 60 qualifying points, she has already secured a place in the May 6 Longines Kentucky Oaks, the premier race for 3-year-old fillies, at Churchill Downs. The 1 1/8-mile Arkansas Derby offers 170 Kentucky Derby qualifying points, with points awarded to the top four finishers on a 100-40-20-10 basis.

The Mitchells participated in a question-and-answer session conducted on behalf of America’s Best Racing:

PEDULLA: I understand you got involved in the Thoroughbred industry with a $1 mare. How did that happen?

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ROBERT MITCHELL: That is correct. Chao Praya was her name. She produced two graded stakes winners. We had sold them. They raced for other people. But I still remember that a friend of mine told me I wasted a dollar when I got into the horse business.

PEDULLA: Why did she only cost a dollar?

ROBERT MITCHELL: She was on another farm. She never raced. It looked like she had an injury to her foot. Her pedigree was about average. They were just trying to close out and cull down and get rid of her. They were tired of feeding her, I think. She had never been bred.

PEDULLA: With the cost of care and feeding, why did you want her?

ROBERT MITCHELL: We had bought a farm and we have 90 acres, and we had bought an old Quarter Horse for my wife to ride and a friend of mine said, ‘You know, horses are social animals. They don’t like being alone. You don’t want one horse out in the field by themselves.’ So, we kind of got this mare with no intention of really getting into the business per se. Then maybe it was the same friend who said, ‘You have her. Why don’t you breed her and learn a little bit about the business?’  

PEDULLA: How many horses do you have on the farm now?

STACY MITCHELL: Fifteen. Three are retired racehorses that we bred and raced and they’re going to live here until they die.

Secret Oath galloping at Oaklawn. (Coady Photography)

PEDULLA: Stacy, it sounds as if you feel strongly about Thoroughbred aftercare.

STACY MITCHELL: Absolutely. Thank goodness I’ve never gotten that call that one of mine are headed to the kill pen. But if I ever did, I’d be sending a van. 

PEDULLA: How did you get involved on the racing side?

ROBERT MITCHELL: We’ve never bought a racehorse, ever. We only race horses that have been born on our farm. We learned very quickly that, if you’re in the breeding business, you’re in the racing business somewhat by default.

PEDULLA: I know you pulled Secret Oath from a sale. Please tell me about that.

ROBERT MITCHELL: She didn’t have what I would call the most commercial look. They keep a list of who looks at your horses. It didn’t seem she was getting many looks at Keeneland. So, I just pulled her out and I said, ‘I’ll just race her myself.’

STACY MITCHELL: She was just a big, tall, narrow mare.

PEDULLA: To some degree, was your gut telling you ‘I want to see what we have here?’

ROBERT MITCHELL: Yes, absolutely. No question about it. I go with my gut a lot. I’m often wrong, though. I’m often wrong but never in doubt. I really liked her. I did.

PEDULLA: When did you start to think you had something special?

STACY MITCHELL: It was pretty exciting when she broke her maiden on Halloween. But, after all these years, we’ve heard, ‘This horse is going to be really good’ and then you get a bad ride or you get a rainy day or the rider drops their crop. I didn’t want to get my hopes up.

ROBERT MITCHELL: I was not a believer until later. Wayne liked her. Wayne kept telling me, ‘She could be special. She could be special.’ Even when she won an allowance race on New Year’s Eve, Wayne said, ‘She’s going to be special.’ I said, ‘Wayne, I need to see one more to be a believer.’ We’re cautious.   

PEDULLA: Was it a hard decision to run her in the Arkansas Derby?

Secret Oath (Coady Photography)

ROBERT MITCHELL: I wasn’t thinking about it definitively before her last race. As the days passed after that, I thought ‘She’s already a Grade 3 winner. The Fantasy Stakes also is a Grade 3. We have enough points to get into the Oaks, almost certainly. If we run in the Arkansas Derby, we have a few things going for us. Number one, she likes the track and we’re staying there. We walk her right out of her own stall onto the track. We’ll have the same jockey and we’re running in a Grade 1, which could potentially help someone who is in the breeding business. It isn’t lost on me that the purse for the Arkansas Derby is more than double the purse for the Fantasy. So, you add all of those things together.

STACY MITCHELL: She’s never been stretched out further than a mile and a sixteenth. The Oaks is a mile and an eighth and this is a mile and an eighth.

PEDULLA: I know you need to see how the Arkansas Derby plays out. Is the door open to running in the Kentucky Derby, at least a crack?

ROBERT MITCHELL: I don’t think we would close any door. But we’re also not committed to anything yet, one way or the other.

STACY MITCHELL: The same. We’ve discussed it multiple times and we feel the same.