Fair Grounds notes: Same Cross looking good in feature

Barbara D. Livingston

Trainer All Stall said Bind would be nominated to the March 9 Duncan Kenner Stakes, but was by no means a certain starter.

Larry Jones the trainer and Brereton Jones the owner-breeder have the horse to beat, Same Cross, in the featured eighth race on Thursday at Fair Grounds, a first-level sprint allowance race carded for turf but almost certain to be moved to the main track because of wet conditions.

Same Cross – so named because she has the same pedigree cross, by Proud Citizen and out of a Langfuhr mare, as the Jones-bred champion Proud Spell – made her career debut as a 4-year-old Jan. 20 at Fair Grounds. She won impressively, closing from the back of a nine-horse field for a 4 1/2-length victory. Same Cross was favored at about 8-5, and Larry Jones said her performance was far from flukey.

“She didn’t surprise us at all,” he said. “We’d been waiting on her a long, long time. We had her ready to run at one point last year at Churchill. She’s a pretty nice filly.”

Stall still plotting next for Bind

Bind ran six furlongs in 1:09.86 winning a second-level allowance race Saturday, a raw time that produced a 100 Beyer Speed Figure. But in considering where Bind might next start, trainer Al Stall was quick to point out that Delaunay earned a 110 Beyer Figure winning the Jan. 26 Gaudin Memorial at Fair Grounds.

Delaunay is a likely runner in the March 9 Duncan Kenner Stakes. Stall said Bind, who beat 2011 Louisiana Derby winner Hero of Order by a half-length Saturday, would be nominated to the Kenner, but was by no means a certain starter.

“I don’t really know where he’ll run next,” Stall said. “He came back fine, and I thought it was all right for his second race back after 19 months off.”