Fair Grounds: Treasured Up well rested for seasonal debut

Tom Keyser

Treasured Up has made four consecutive starts in graded stakes but will make her 2013 debut in an allowance race Thursday.

Some horses get the winter off to recover from injuries or ailments, but in the case of Treasured Up, her time off was “pure vacation,” said trainer Al Stall Jr.

“The filly went straight from Keeneland to Spendthrift Farm and got 60-plus days of R and R,” said Stall.

Treasured Up, owned by the Spendthrift Farm of B. Wayne Hughes, was good enough to finish a close-up fourth in the Grade 3 Pucker Up Stakes at Arlington Park in September, earning an invitation to the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland the following month. Those credentials should be sufficient to make the 4-year-old filly the horse to beat when she drops in for a second-level allowance condition Thursday at Fair Grounds.

“She’s acting great, matured properly; everything looks good,” Stall said. “We’re getting her set for the rest of the season. We’re hoping the race stays on the turf and she gets a good run in. Everything is on go for her.”

Treasured Up, with leading jockey Rosie Napravnik to ride, was assigned the outside post in the fifth of nine races Thursday at the New Orleans track, a $49,000 allowance scheduled for “about” a mile on turf. One main-track-only entrant, Silver Ami, would start to her outside if the race is switched to dirt.

First post Thursday is 1 p.m. Central.

◗ The final Starlight Racing program of the season is set for Friday, with first post at 5 p.m. Central. There is no real feature, as the richest of 10 races is for maidens.

Saturday will showcase a pair of $75,000 turf sprints: the Colonel Power, for older male horses, and the Happy Ticket, its female counterpart.