Great Notion Looks To Validate Southwest Victory In Oaklawn's Rebel
By: John Gaver III

(Mar. 21, 2003) - Five colts and one gelding will have to catch the free-running colt Great Notion to beat him - despite his wide post draw - in the 43 running of the $125,000 Rebel Stakes, which will be contested at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark. on Saturday, Mar. 22. The mile and a sixteenth Rebel is the final local prep for the nine-furlong $500,000 Arkansas Derby (GII), Oaklawn's marquee event for 3-year-olds, on Apr. 12.

Silverton Hills Farm's Great Notion, a bay son of Elusive Quality, shot out to a clear three length lead just after the break in the $75,000 Southwest Stakes on Mar. 1 in his 3-year-old and two-turn debut, was allowed to set a comfortable pace under jockey Terry Thompson and drew off in the stretch to win by nine lengths over Alke and Comic Truth, the two primary contenders who will hook the colt again in the Rebel.

Great Notion's trainer, Darrin Miller, has made it known that he doesn't want to change the colt's natural running style, so he expects his colt to be on the front-end on Saturday despite the colt breaking from post position seven.

"I don't want to hinder him in any way, and change up what he's the happiest doing and the most comfortable doing," Miller told Daily Racing Form. "So, if that's being out on the front end, then so be it."

Great Notion came out of his win in the Southwest with minor bruising on the soles of his heels and earlier the week of Mar. 17, Miller had considered bypassing the Rebel and training the colt up to the Arkansas Derby. After the colt came out of a sharp five-furlong drill in 1:01 flat on Mar. 16 at Oaklawn, Miller deemed his charge fit to run Saturday.

"Do I think that it's going to compromise him? No, and if I did, I absolutely would not run him," said Miller.

Great Notion has won three of four starts lifetime, his only loss being a nose decision to the multiple stakes winner Champali, second choice on the morning line for Saturday's Grade II Lane's End Stakes at Turfway Park.

Kenneth English and Alan Braun's Alke, second to Great Notion in the Southwest, is back to try that rival again in the Rebel for trainer Bob Holthus. A well-regarded chestnut son of Lion Cavern, Alke is Grade III stakes-placed, as he finished a length and a quarter, off Champali in Churchill Downs' Iroquois Stakes last fall. Alke figures to be tighter making his second start off an extended layoff and is sitting on a sharp five-furlong breeze in :59 4/5 on Mar. 19.

Kalarikkal & Vilasini Jayaraman's Comic Truth posted a solid middle move but flatted out in the stretch drive as the favorite in the Southwest Stakes, though he's another Rebel entrant who figures to move forward the with the benefit of a start under his belt for trainer Cole Norman. The Florida-bred son of Proudest Romeo is a two-time stakes winner and has finished in the money in eight-of-10 starts lifetime.

Sir Cherokee will stretch to a distance he handles well in the Rebel, and the son of Cherokee Run hails from the barn of Michael Tomlisnon, whose charges are winning at a 44 percent clip at the current meeting in Hot Springs.

The field for the 43rd Rebel Stakes, in post position order with riders and weights, is Antsy, Otto Thorwarth, 112; Crowned King, Chandra Rennie, 114; Alke, Jon Court, 112; Power Lion, Greta Kuntzweiler, 112; Sir Cherokee, James Lopez, 114; Comic Truth, Jamie Theriot, 114 and Great Notion, Terry Thompson, 119.

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