Adrianne G faces onslaught in Battle of New Orleans

The $50,000 Battle of New Orleans Stakes for fillies and mares over about 5 1/2 furlongs on turf is the featured race Saturday at Fair Grounds, but there are other appealing nuggets packed into a good 10-race card, including two turf-sprint allowance races with deep, competitive fields.

The Battle of New Orleans goes early, race 5, with a scheduled post time of 3:23 p.m. Central, and the 10-horse field includes the first two finishers from last year’s edition, Adrianne G and Tesalina. But top to bottom, the 2016 Battle of New Orleans looks considerably stronger than the race a year ago, and a surplus of front-running fillies and mares could make things rough on Adrianne G.

Adrianne G managed to set a strong pace and hold on to win last year, but that performance was the high-water mark of her entire career, and she figures to be taken on early by speedy types like Calyspo Run, Manille, Touch of Bling, and Full Tap. Touch of Bling is cross-entered in the Holiday Inaugural at Turfway Park.

Among that front-running group, Full Tap holds the most interest coming off the best race of her 11-start career, a close fourth in the Grade 3 Franklin County last out at Keeneland, and two subsequent bullet works over the Fair Grounds main track. Full Tap is drawn on the far outside and might be able to work out a clear-running trip, though she risks losing ground around the turn.

Mike Stidham trains Full Tap, and if Stidham can’t take win the Battle of New Orleans with a frontal assault, he also has a later-attacking chance in Rapid Rhythm, the 7-2 morning-line favorite. Rapid Rhythm is 3 for 3 over the Fair Grounds course, and while her Saturday rivals are better than the horses she beat in those races, so is Rapid Rhythm. She last was seen racing at Laurel, where she handled Virginia-breds as an odds-on favorite, a start that came just two weeks after Rapid Rhythm finished a fine second in the $278,000 Kentucky Downs Ladies Sprint.

Boom Bam Bing was fifth in the Franklin County just behind Full Tap after being caught wide on the turn, and she can get a better trip Saturday after breaking from the rail. Boom Bam Bing had won five turf sprints in a row before making her stakes debut at Keeneland for trainer Karl Broberg.

Regarding turf sprinters on winning streaks, Small Fortune will be worth a bet at anything close to his 6-1 morning-line odds in race 7, a second-level turf-sprint allowance also open to $40,000 claimers. The 3-year-old Scott Becker-trained Munnings gelding has been a revelation since making his turf debut over the summer at Arlington. Displaying a high cruising speed and an ability to negotiate diverse course conditions, Small Fortune comes into Saturday’s race after winning two conditioned claimers and a first-level allowance by more than 13 lengths combined, a lot of distance for races over short trips.

Race 3 is a first-level, filly-and-mare turf-sprint allowance where Tizahandful could offer value. The Neil Pessin-trained filly has run poorly in her two turf-route races and well in her pair of grass sprints, both of which came over the Fair Grounds course.

There are two other allowance races as well as a 2-year-old maiden special weight dirt route among the offerings on a card that begins at 1:25.