The Thanksgiving Handicap, for older horses at six furlongs, tops a 10-race
Thursday will also mark the debut of the Black Gold 5, a new daily jackpot
The Black Gold 5 ends with the Thanksgiving Handicap, carded as the 9TH race
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Among Mambo Galliano’s chief competitors is the 2010 Kenner winner and
2009-2010 Fair Grounds champion sprinter, Cash Refund, also coming back from an
extended layoff.
A pair of three-year-olds stand out as intriguing alternatives to the more
accomplished favorites. Trubs won the $100,000 Prelude Stakes at Louisiana Downs
in August and cuts back in distance for his first try against older horses. Joe
Hollywood, from the 6,000-win barn of Steve Asmussen, comes off a pair of
dominant allowance wins at Monmouth Park.
The Mr. Sulu was moved to a high-profile spot on opening day because it
traditionally attracts a large and competitive field of quality turf runners.
That form held true again this year, as 11 older Louisiana-breds entered, six of
which are Fair Grounds stakes winners.
Three-year-old Populist Politics, third in the Grade 2 Super Derby at
Louisiana Downs, will likely vie for favoritism with Snakebite Kit, who was
six-for-nine as a four-year-old but hasn’t raced since winning the $100,000
Louisiana Champions Day Turf here last December. Although off for nearly a year,
Snakebite Kit has fired off a series of bullet workouts in the mornings for
trainer Eddie Johnston.
Other rich Louisiana-breds to consider, both with past success over the
Stall-Wilson turf course, include Kissimmee Kyle, winner of the 5 1/2-furlong
Bayou St. John Stakes here in March last time out, and Tensas Cat, the 2010
Gentilly Stakes winner going two turns as a three-year-old.
During the 84-day Thoroughbred racing season, Fair Grounds will offer a total
of 60 stakes cumulatively worth $7.54 million, including six Claiming Crown
stakes worth $500,000. The Claiming Crown will be hosted in New Orleans for the
first time December 3. A regular fixture at Fair Grounds, Louisiana Champions
Day, is set for December 10.
The 99th renewal of the Grade 2, $1 million Louisiana Derby will be run April
1, anchoring seven stakes on the season’s final day. For the first time since
2004, Fair Grounds’ signature race is set for a Sunday, which will be the day
between Saturday night’s NCAA Men’s Basketball Semifinals and Monday night’s
Finals at the nearby Louisiana Superdome.
The Louisiana Derby, contested at 1 1/8 miles over Fair Grounds’ storied main
track, is among the nation’s premier events for three-year-olds preparing to
make their next start in the the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs.
Louisiana Derby Week will also feature Starlight Racing under the lights on
March 30 and 31. The latter program will have four stakes for fillies and mares,
anchored by the Grade 2, $500,000 Fair Grounds Oaks, the richest prep for the
Kentucky Oaks.
To build up to the meet’s crescendo, Fair Grounds will stage Road to the
Derby Kickoff Day on January 21 and Louisiana Derby Preview Day on February 25.
Each program features six stakes. Kickoff Day is highlighted by the Grade 3
Lecomte for Derby hopefuls, the Silverbulletday for Oaks candidates, the
Louisiana Handicap for older horses and the Grade 3 Col. E.R. Bradley for older
turf horses.
Preview Day features four graded stakes, all preps for the major races on
Derby weekend. The Grade 2 Risen Star serves as the final tune-up for the
Louisiana Derby, with the Grade 3 Rachel Alexandra a prep for the Oaks, the
Grade 3 Fair Grounds Handicap an audition for the Grade 2 Mervin H. Muniz Jr.
Memorial Handicap and the Grade 3 Mineshaft Handicap a stepping stone to the
Grade 2 New Orleans Handicap.
Fair Grounds has made several enhancements to the stakes calendar. Every
open-company stakes event will now be worth at least $75,000 and four six-figure
stakes also received sizable bumps. In addition, seven stakes that have been run
with unacceptable field sizes in recent years have been eliminated.
“The adjustments to this stakes schedule have been made to reward the best
horses in our strongest divisions,” Racing Secretary Jason Boulet said when the
stakes schedule was announced back in June. “We’re out to attract the highest
quality horses we can, and the most straightforward way to do that is to offer
them more money.”
The races to receive the largest purse hikes from last season are the Lecomte
($100,000 to $175,000); the Silverbulletday; ($100,000 to $125,000); the Rachel
Alexandra ($150,000 to $200,000); and the Louisiana Handicap ($60,000 to
$100,000).
The 15 open-company stakes that went from $60,000 last season to $75,000 this
season are the Thanksgiving, Friday’s Woodchopper; Saturday’s Pago Hop; the
Blushing K.D. Handicap and Tenacious Handicap on December 17; the December 26
Buddy Diliberto Memorial Handicap; the January 14 Marie G. Krantz Memorial
Handicap; the Pan Zareta and the F.W. Gaudin Memorial on January 21’s Kickoff
Day; the February 11 Tiffany Lass; the February 21 Mardi Gras Handicap; the
Colonel Power on February 25’s Preview Day; the Allen Lacombe Memorial Handicap
and the Black Gold on March 10; and the March 24 Happy Ticket.
Seven stakes that appeared on last season’s schedule have been discontinued
because recent editions produced small fields, although a few of the most
prominent race names were assigned new conditions. The discontinued stakes names
are the Bienville, the Grindstone, the John E. Jackson Memorial, the Dr. A.B.
Leggio Memorial, the Letellier Memorial, the Pelleteri and the Sugar Bowl.
Stakes to be run under different conditions are the Black Gold (now for
three-year-olds at about 7 1/2 furlongs on turf), the Happy Ticket (older
females at about 5 1/2 furlongs on turf), the Allen Lacombe Memorial
(three-year-old fillies at about 7 1/2 furlongs on turf), the Mardi Gras (older
females at about 1 1/16 miles on turf), the Pan Zareta (older females at about 5
1/2 furlongs on turf) and the Tiffany Lass (older females at 1 1/16 miles).
For more information, visit
fairgroundsracecourse.com.