Amazing Results on way up

The trainer Richie Scherer questioned whether Amazing Results could rally in time to win the Feb. 2 Black Gold Stakes at 5 1/2 furlongs over the Fair Grounds grass course. Amazing Results aced that distance exam, winning by a length, but on Saturday at Fair Grounds, Amazing Results will be tested for class when he starts in the $60,000 Grindstone Stakes.

While Saturday's 11-race Fair Grounds card is not going to be confused with Louisiana Derby Day two Saturdays ago, there are five stakes on a solid program. The Grindstone and the Fortin - for older females on grass - are the open races, supported by three Louisiana-bred stakes: the Crescent City Derby, the Crescent City Oaks, and the Lagniappe Sprint. Sunday is the meet's final day.

Amazing Results was bred and is owned by Team Block, and when he raced at Arlington, Hawthorne, and Churchill last year at 2, he was trained by Chris Block, moving to Scherer's barn for the winter. A familiar scenario? Quite. A horse named Mystery Giver used to do the same thing, and he won three straight Fair Grounds Handicaps racing out of Scherer's Fair Grounds barn.

Amazing Results has a long way to go to be compared with the retired millionaire Mystery Giver - but he is on his way. Amazing Results took a tough loss to a decent Todd Pletcher-trained colt named Fire Lookout in his career debut last summer at Arlington, and after a surprising maiden loss in his next start, he joined the ranks of winners Nov. 1. Amazing Results didn't appear to show his best when he finished an even fifth over yielding ground in the Grand Canyon Stakes on Nov. 24 at Churchill Downs, but suggested in his Black Gold win last month that his form is trending up.

The horse to beat in the 1 1/16-mile Grindstone is Boss Laffitte, who won an entry-level allowance race Jan. 26 when a grass race was rained onto dirt, but may in the end prove better suited to turf racing. He won his maiden race on the Fair Grounds grass course in December, and has a last-out allowance win.

A Grade 3 winner over Polytrack last year, Texas Fever's lone career turf start came in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf, where he finished a close sixth despite breaking from post 11 on a tight course and experiencing trouble during the race.