Airoforce to make 3-year-old debut in Risen Star Stakes

Trainer Mark Casse on Sunday confirmed that Airoforce, an Eclipse Award finalist for champion 2-year-old male of 2015, will ship from south Florida to New Orleans next week to make his 3-year-old debut Feb. 20 in the Grade 2, $400,000 Risen Star Stakes.

He’ll have plenty of company. Fair Grounds assistant racing secretary Scott Jones on Monday listed 15 horses as possible Risen Star runners, an overflow field that would leave one horse on the also-eligible list. That horse, if the field stayed like this, would be Tom’s Ready, who was stuck on the also-eligible list but drew into the Lecomte Stakes.

The issue with Tom’s Ready is that he, like Lecomte winner and Risen Star runner Mo Tom, is owned by Gayle Benson’s GMB Racing, and under what appears to be state law, horses with common ownership are the first excluded – even behind maidens – in stakes races.

Airoforce is not the only prominent Florida-based 3-year-old who could come for the Risen Star: The promising Gift Box also is being considered for the race, though he is only a possible starter right now, trainer Chad Brown said. Gift Box raced three times as a 2-year-old, finishing third behind the highly regarded Mohaymen in the Remsen Stakes when last seen in 2015.

The other horses possible for the Risen Star, which will be drawn Friday, are Gun Runner, who was fourth in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes behind Airoforce, Mor Spirit, and Mo Tom in his most recent start; Uncle Walter, third in the Lecomte; Destin, fourth in that Lecomte; Dolphus and Candy My Boy, two-turn allowance winners last out at Fair Grounds; California shippers Bistraya and Laoban; Gulfstream Park maiden winner It’s all Relevant; Fair Grounds maiden winner Zapperini; In Equality, who was third in the Jerome Stakes and already has shipped in from New York; and American Dubai, who could be cross-entered in the Southwest Stakes at his Oaklawn Park base.

Airoforce made his first three starts on turf, finishing second by a neck in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf before winning his dirt debut over a sloppy track in the Kentucky Jockey Club last fall. Initial plans had called for Airoforce to race for the first time this year in the Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs this Saturday, but Airoforce came out of a Jan. 31 workout at Palm Meadows with mucus in his upper-respiratory system, causing his connections to abandon the Sam F. Davis start. But Airoforce, going in company, worked five furlongs in 59.75 seconds last Saturday at Palm Meadows, galloping out in about 1:12, Casse said, and coming out of this work with no health issues.

“He worked much better yesterday, came out of it good, and it would appear [the Risen Star] is where we’re going,” Casse said. “We’ll just fly him in. Julien [Leparoux] will come ride him.”

Airoforce walked the shed row at Palm Meadows for one month following the Kentucky Jockey Club before resuming steady training. Casse said that about three weeks ago, Airoforce “was sick with a little temp.”

“He missed a few days of training there, and I talked to [owner John] Oxley, and we decided we wouldn’t do the Sam Davis unless everything was perfect,” Casse said. “Last week wasn’t a big deal, but it was enough that we said, ‘Let’s not do it.’ ”