If March comes in like a lion, Sunday’s month-opening card at Oaklawn Park will roar. The $1 million Grade 2 Rebel tops the 12-race program that includes the Grade 3 Honeybee. Both are part of the late pick 5 sequence boasting field sizes of 9x10x11x10x14 before scratches.

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Let’s get to work.

Oaklawn Race 8: Maiden Special Weight

#2 Munnings Challenge debuts for Brad Cox and if he’s half as good at Oaklawn as his super sprint dam Amy’s Challenge was in her heyday, lookout. A bullet workout at Fair Grounds and a strong tab indicate this one should come out running under Irad Ortiz Jr. #6 Silver Syndicate showed excellent speed in his debut and would be no surprise to carry it wire-to-wire with Flavien Prat. #3 Fancy Fairlane’s debut second to next-out Lecomte winner Golden Tempo obviously is a race that can be very competitive if he takes to Oaklawn as well. John Velazquez rides as the trio of power jockeys here are all very live.

Oaklawn Race 9: Honeybee Stakes

#4 Newtown Pike is the value play after a longshot runner-up in the Martha Washington in which she was hung wide and now draws better. I’m not convinced #9 Explora, who will be odds-on, is a lock at the distance after a 28-second final quarter in losing the Las Virgenes at a mile while a 4-5 chalk. But she’s obviously a player. I’ll also use Martha Washington winner #6 Search Party as Mark Casse continued to dominate the local stakes this week with a ninth such win Friday.

Oaklawn Race 10: Maiden Special Weight

#2 Gethsemane’s mid-pack finish last out was an improvement on the stretch-out and note winner Reagan’s Honor came back to obliterate older allowance horses next out at Fair Grounds. This Brad Cox trainee draws beautifully in post 2 and should be running late. The counter to him would be to take some early pace. I wasn’t impressed by the race Feb. 6 won by Crupper in which many of these exit. #11 Dragones has early foot and will be hard-used from the outside. This $1.7 million blueblood for Steve Asmussen may have caught an easier field.

Oaklawn Race 11: Rebel Stakes

I’m all-in on a pair of prices in the Rebel, #3 Class President (10-1 morning line) off a Swale runner-up in which he could have caved and didn’t vs. an elite 3YO sprinter. He’ll like the stretch-out and Pletcher won this race with Malagacy off similar Florida sprint form. The other 10-1 ML shot to fear is #10 Soldier N Diplomat, wide but trusted in the Southwest and I love that he was back on the workout tab 10 days after and got 2 drills since that race vs. 1 for the others. There’s new-found fear of #2 Litmus Test. I thought he was decent at 2, but overrated. He missed the Southwest after a dull work, but has trained better since. The kicker is Bob Baffert’s ridiculous performance Friday by 3YO maiden Cherokee Nation, a total outlier of a massive race in his sixth career start. When the Bafferts do things like that, often many of them follow.

Oaklawn Race 12: Maiden Special Weight

#11 Breaker Wave was the only closer to make a dent in a similar Feb. 8 race as speed held first, third and fourth. Her runner-up by a neck may have suffered from an earlier move that left her a tiny bit flat late. If Israel Hernandez times it up right, she could graduate. Using her with logical #7 Like a Diamond, who gets Lasix and should be more forward off 2 good tries.

The Ticket

2,6,3 With 4,9,6 With 2,11 With 3,10,2 With 11,7 = $54 for 50 cents