Alamo Heights targets Super Derby following Prelude win

Alamo Heights is one of at least three horses from the Super Derby Prelude Stakes last Saturday at Louisiana Downs to target next month’s Grade 2, $400,000 Super Derby. Alamo Heights earned a fees-paid berth into the Sept. 6 race for his 1 1/4-length win over favored Ide Be Cool, another Super Derby candidate, along with the fourth-place finisher Gold Appointment.

The Super Derby, at 1 1/8 miles on the main track, is the richest race at Louisiana Downs, and it anchors a program of seven stakes worth $825,000.

Alamo Heights won for the third time in his six-race career in the $100,000 Prelude, a race in which he rallied from next to last to catch the previously undefeated Ide Be Cool. The winner earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 70.

“He certainly appears to have come back fine so far, and the Super Derby is the plan,” said Danny Pish, who trains Alamo Heights for a partnership that includes Joe Straus.

Alamo Heights is based at Louisiana Downs, and earlier in the meet, he won a turf allowance that set him up for a start in a turf stakes, the $75,000 English Channel at Gulfstream on June 14. Alamo Heights finished fourth that day after a troubled trip.

“He encountered some pretty good brushing and bumping back and forth at about the half-mile pole,” Pish said. “It was pretty significant contact.”

When Alamo Heights returned home to Louisiana Downs, Pish told the partners he believed the horse could run just as well on the main track, which was worth considering with the Super Derby in their backyard.

“We said, ‘Let’s just give it a whirl,’ and that’s what we did,” Pish said of the Prelude.

Leading rider Richard Eramia was aboard for the win, one of three stakes victories he had on the card. Overall, he won four races Saturday at Louisiana Downs.

Ide Be Cool healing

Ide Be Cool grabbed a quarter coming out of the gate in the Prelude in suffering a hoof injury his trainer, Ray Dunn, called compromising. The horse dueled for the lead early before being overtaken late. Ide Be Cool was recuperating from the gash Tuesday at his Louisiana Downs base.

“He’s responding real well to therapy and treatment,” Dunn said Tuesday. “We’re optimistic we’ll be back on the track a week from today, and if we are, we’ll go ahead with plans for the Super Derby.”

Ide Be Cool is the reigning Louisiana-bred horse of the year, and he was undefeated in seven starts heading into the Prelude.

Gold Appointment was scratched from the West Virginia Derby last Saturday to err on the safe side of a new medication policy in that state that extends the recommended withdrawal time for Clenbuterol, which he had received for a minor illness in advance of traveling to West Virginia. His connections rerouted him back home to Louisiana for the Prelude. Gold Appointment attended the lead early and was beaten just two lengths by Alamo Heights.

“He ran a heck of a race for what he went through,” said Robert Rockwell, who owns and trains Gold Appointment.

Rockwell said the horse would remain at Louisiana Downs and point for the Super Derby. Gold Appointment won the $75,000 Crescent City Derby at Fair Grounds in March.

The connections of Louies Flower, who was third in the Prelude, will take a wait-and-see approach to the Super Derby, said his trainer, Bret Calhoun.

“We’re going to see who’s going,” Calhoun said. “We’re there. We’re prepared to run there. It will all be based on the caliber of the competition.”

Louies Flower registered the biggest win of his career in last year’s $250,000 Springboard Mile at Remington Park.

Options for Our Quista

Plans for Our Quista, an 11 3/4-length winner Saturday of the $150,000 Elge Rasberry for 3-year-old fillies bred in Louisiana, are to be determined, said her trainer, Al Cates. She picked up the first stakes win of her career in the off-the-turf race and earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 78.

Cates said he is discussing the next start for Our Quista with her Arkansas-based owners, Ron Ball and Eugenia Thompson. One possibility is the $75,000 River Cities on the undercard of the Super Derby.

“We’ve kind of got that one maybe in the back of our mind,” Cates said. “We wouldn’t have to leave where we’re at.”

Our Quista is based at Louisiana Downs.