Helen Alexander & Helen Groves’ homebred SELVA (Forest Wildcat) showed speed
from the start and was never seriously threatened in the $60,000
Mardi
Gras S., taking the Fat Tuesday feature at Fair Grounds by a 1 3/4-length
margin. With Robby Albarado in the saddle, the David Carroll-trained sophomore
filly established splits of :22, :46 3/5 and :58 1/5 en route to completing the
about 5 1/2-furlong affair in 1:04 3/5 over the firm turf.
Winner of the Sorority S. at Monmouth Park and Glorious Song S. at Woodbine
during her unbeaten juvenile season, Selva finished second when stretching out
to a mile in her 2009 debut, the January 10 Tiffany Lass S. at Fair Grounds. She
cut back to a more favorable sprint distance and made her turf debut on Tuesday,
improving her career mark to 5-4-1-0, $221,649, with the wire-to-wire score.
Favored at 4-5 over seven rivals, the dark bay returned $3.80, $2.80 and $2.20.
Stablemate Fleet Streak (More Than Ready), a debut winner at Fair Grounds for
Carroll, rallied late for runner-up honors at 8-1 and gave back $5.20 and $3. It
was a neck back to On the Menu (Canadian Frontier), who paid $3.20 for third as
the 7-2 second choice. The exacta yielded $25.80, the trifecta $101.60 and the
2-7-6-8 superfecta, with 21-1 Wives Tale (Tale of the Cat) in fourth, totaled
$766.60. A Day for Dancing (Dance Master), Truly Lucky (Truluck), Mullins Beach
(Speightstown) and Queen Ernestine (Forest Camp) rounded out the order of
finish. She’s Extreme (Unbridled’s Song) was scratched.
The first foal to race out of the winning Bayou Mist (Silver Deputy), the
Kentucky-bred winner has a juvenile half-brother named Styner (Stephen Got Even)
and an unnamed yearling half-brother by Chapel Royal. This is the female family
of English and French champion *Monade (*Klairon) and Grade 1 winner Too Chic
(Blushing Groom [Fr]), dam of 1991 champion older mare Queena (Mr. Prospector) and
Grade 1 winner Chic Shirine (Mr. Prospector).