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Tetradrachm minted as Louisiana Derby hopeful There's a new Badge of Silver in town that is starting to shine in 2012, and this one may be on his way to the $1 million Louisiana Derby at Fair Grounds April 1. That annual Grade 2 centerpiece of the New Orleans meeting will be run for the 99th time on the current session's closing day, and this colt is a homebred son of 2005's New Orleans Handicap winner Badge of Silver. Although the word "tetradrachm" doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, the name for a son of Badge of Silver is actually quite apropos, because the tetradrachm was an ancient Greek silver coin that was in wide circulation from 510 to 38 B.C. and its use as a currency spread with the armies of Alexander the Great. Trained by Paul McGee, Tetradrachm broke his maiden Friday night during Fair Grounds' initial Starlight Racing program this season. The homebred owned by Mrs. Jerry Amerman won by a neck when going 1 1/16 miles over the main track, and although the newly-turned sophomore paid a $29 win mutuel, his victory came as no surprise to his conditioner. "He's been a nice horse for me since I got him and I really expected him to run well the other night," McGee said during training hours Sunday morning. "He really had a lot of trouble in his first three races (as a two-year-old in Kentucky). The comments only show him racing wide, but he had a lot more trouble than wide trips. At least I thought he did. I thought his races up there were a lot better than they showed on paper." The 2012 Louisiana Derby trail begins with Fair Grounds' Grade 3 Lecomte Stakes on Road to the Derby Kickoff Day January 21 and continues with the Grade 2 Risen Star Stakes on Louisiana Derby Preview Day February 25. "Right now, we're hopeful he's going to be the kind of horse that will compete at that level for us," McGee said. "I was very pleased with the way he ran the other night." McGee also had news of Jay Em Ess Stable's Urbanini, a three-year-old filly who finished fourth in the only start of her career December 17. The daughter of Bernardini breezed an easy five furlongs in 1:05 Saturday morning after being scratched earlier in the week. "I had to scratch her the other day because she cut herself slightly just above the eye, but it's a minor cut and she should be able to make her next start shortly," McGee said. "I have high hopes for her. She's out of Urbane, so she's a half-sister to Suave and Worldly (both by A.P. Indy), but Bernardini has been an awfully hot sire lately." Worldly, second by a nose in the Grade 3 Ohio Derby in 2010, won the $100,000 Prairie Meadows Handicap last summer and was most recently fourth in Fair Grounds' $75,000 Buddy Diliberto Memorial 'Cap on December 26. Suave, now a sire, won the Grade 2 Saratoga Breeders' Cup Handicap in 2005 and Arlington's Grade 2 Washington Park Handicap the following summer.
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