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Palace Malice fires bullet for Risen Star
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| Palace Malice will get the opportunity to stretch out to two turns
(NYRA/Adam Coglianese Photography) |
Dogwood Stable's Palace Malice breezed a co-bullet five furlongs in 1:00 1/5
at South Florida's Palm Meadows Training Center Sunday morning in preparation
for his upcoming appearance in Saturday's Grade 2 Risen Star Stakes at Fair
Grounds. The Todd Pletcher trainee worked in company with highly-regarded
stablemate Violence, who posted the exact same time ahead of Saturday's Grade 2
Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream Park.
Palace Malice's move has Dogwood President Cot Campbell looking ebulliently
forward to the final local prep for the 100th running of the Grade 2, $1 million
Louisiana Derby March 30.
"I'm a New Orleans boy -- I was born there and it's going to be great coming
back there," said Campbell, speaking from his South Carolina headquarters. "I
also came back there in the early '50s to work for an advertising agency there,
but I haven't been back for a few years now. We'll have about seven people in
our party besides me and we'll be getting in Friday morning. It's a wonderful
town with a wonderful race track and a lot of wonderful people live there.
"We're starting to get into a very exciting time of year," Campbell said.
"With all the Kentucky Derby preps coming up around the country everybody in the
nation starts to get interested in horse racing and I think that's a wonderful
thing for our sport.
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"(Palace Malice) worked quite well this morning and he's been doing well
lately. I know Todd seemed very pleased with the work, so the horse appears to
be very much on target for this race. He'll have to be if we're going to have
the points we need to continue on the Derby trail.
"This will be his first quest at a mile and a sixteenth," Campbell added. "In
his last race at Gulfstream he caught a sloppy track, and the horse that beat us
was quite a speed horse (Fountain of Youth-bound Majestic Hussar), but (Palace
Malice) galloped out well that day, and he looks to me like a horse that wants
to go long.
"Lastly, of course, I should say that we're tickled to death to have Rosie (Napravnik) to
ride him," Campbell concluded in reference to Fair Grounds' current leading
rider and two-time defending jockey champion. "How far in front is she in the
rider standings now, anyway? Yes, I can say we're definitely looking forward to
our trip down there this weekend."
Normandy Invasion, the near-misser in last fall's Grade 2 Remsen, likewise
completed his Risen Star preparations at Palm Meadows Sunday. The Chad Brown
pupil zipped a half-mile in :47 4/5, tying with older stablemate Hyper for the
second-fastest of 74 trials the trip. Hyper will also make the trip to New
Orleans for Saturday's Grade 3 Fair Grounds Handicap at about 1 1/8 miles on
turf.
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| He's Had Enough and fellow SoCal runner Code West are likely to ship in for the Risen Star
(Breeders' Cup Ltd.) |
Bob Baffert's Risen Star runner, Code West, worked at his Santa Anita base on
Sunday, covering four furlongs in :48 2/5.Also expected to ship in from Southern California is the Doug O'Neill-trained
He's Had Enough, most recently third to Flashback in the Grade 2 Robert B. Lewis
at Santa Anita.
Three Risen Star candidates appeared on the Fair Grounds worktab on Saturday.
Ive Struck a Nerve, fourth in the Grade 3 Lecomte Stakes, breezed five
furlongs in 1:00 2/5 for trainer Keith Desormeaux, and trainer Al Stall Jr.'s duo
of Departing and Sunbean each went a half-mile in :48 2/5.
Others likely to line up in the Risen Star are Lecomte romper Oxbow (trained
by D. Wayne Lukas), Lecomte runner-up Golden Soul (Dallas Stewart), Agent (Amy McAnally), Bethel (Gennadi Dorochenko), Circle Unbroken (Garry Simms), Mylute (Tom
Amoss) and Proud Strike (Steve Asmussen).
The companion race for three-year-old fillies on Saturday, the Grade 3 Rachel
Alexandra, will probably attract unbeaten Grade 2 Demoiselle winner Unlimited
Budget from the Pletcher barn. Her rivals are projected to be Touch Magic (Pat
Devereux Jr.) and Gal About Town (Bret Calhoun), the respective top two from the
Silverbulletday; Alluring Lady (Ronny Werner); Blue Violet and Dancinginthecircle from
the Larry Jones barn; Every Way (Mike Stidham); Finding More (Kellyn
Gorder); Midnight Ballet (Tom Proctor); Neith (Lukas); and Promise Me More (Wes
Hawley).
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At Fair Grounds on Sunday, Grade 2 winner Mark Valeski, runner-up in last year's Risen Star
and Louisiana Derby, breezed a bullet five furlongs in :59 in preparation for
Saturday's Grade 3 Mineshaft Handicap. The Jones trainee, who was second
in his comeback in the Louisiana Handicap, posted by far the fastest of 64 works
at the distance.
Also probable for the 1 1/16-mile Mineshaft are Nehro (Asmussen), Golden
Ticket (Ken McPeek), Infrattini (Paul McGee), Cool Street (Bernie Flint), Hero
of Order (Dorochenko), Macho Bull (Dorochenko) and Raison d'Etat (Lukas).
Trainer Gary Thomas will cross-enter Golden Yank to the Mineshaft and the
grassy Fair Grounds 'Cap.
The turf test is likely to feature Optimizer (Lukas), Two Months
Rent (Jimmy Toner), Bim Bam (Asmussen), Cavalero (Wayne Catalano), Strike
Impact (Pat Dupuy), Twinspired (Mike Maker) and Willcox Inn (Stidham).
Grade 2 veteran Willcox Inn, third in the Grade 3 John B. Connally Turf Cup
last out, went five panels in 1:03 4/5 at Fair Grounds Sunday.
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