Compiled by Robert Yates

Kale’s Angel bids to become the first two-time stakes winner this season at Oaklawn in Saturday’s $150,000 Renaissance for 3-year-olds at 6 furlongs.

Probable post time for the third running of the Renaissance is 4:25 p.m. (Central). It goes as the ninth of 10 races. Racing begins at 12:25 p.m.

Kale’s Angel, the 3-5 program favorite for trainer Peter Miller, returns to sprinting after a third-place finish as the favorite in the $250,000 Smarty Jones Stakes Jan. 4, a 1 1/16-mile event that was Oaklawn’s first of four Kentucky Derby qualifying races.

Kale’s Angel broke from the rail in the Smarty Jones and shadowed front-running Coal Battle much of the race before losing ground in the stretch and being beaten 4 ¼ lengths. Coal Battle won the Smarty Jones by four lengths over Mo Quality.

Miller said he believes the distance cutback will benefit Kale’s Angel, who completed his 2-year-old campaign with a powerful 5 ¾-length victory in the $150,000 Advent Stakes at 5 ½ furlongs Dec. 6 at Oaklawn. He earned a career-high 93 Beyer Speed Figure in his dirt debut.

“Going into the Smarty Jones, I don’t think this was really in the plans,” Miller said, referring to the two-week turnaround to the Renaissance. “But he came out of the race so well and with the way the race shaped up and the fact that people haven’t been able to train much over there, I think he might have a little bit of a conditioning edge, hopefully. But it’s a horse race. There’s no such thing as a cinch.”

Oaklawn lost eight days of training (Jan. 6-7 and Jan. 9-14) to severe winter weather following the Smarty Jones.

Ramon Vazquez has the return call on Kale’s Angel, who is scheduled to break from post 4 and carry top weight of 124 pounds. The projected seven-horse Renaissance field includes Perfect Magic and Three Echoes, both unraced since finishing third and fourth, respectively, in the Advent for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen.

Kale’s Angel is the only stakes winner entered in the Renaissance.

“I think he may have a little edge on the conditioning,” said Miller, who trains Kale’s Angel for Tom Kagele and Ernest Marchosky. “Hopefully, he’s got an edge on just class and talent, more than anything. But like I said, it’s a horse race. I never take the competition lightly.”

The Renaissance was run on New Year’s Eve the previous two seasons as part of the first two cards in Oaklawn history exclusively for 2-year-olds. But with New Year’s Eve falling on Tuesday in 2024 – Tuesday is now a dark day for Oaklawn – the Renaissance was rebranded on the 2024-2025 stakes schedule.