Another Mystery continues family's Fair Grounds love
Another Mystery’s narrow win over favored Pixelate on Nov. 27 in the Bob Wright Memorial Stakes continued a family fondness for the Fair Grounds grass course.
Another Mystery’s name refers to Mystery Giver, a Team Block homebred who three times won the Fair Grounds Breeders’ Cup Handicap and in 2004 landed Fair Grounds’s biggest turf prize, the Grade 2 Mervin Muniz Handicap (now the Muniz Memorial Stakes). Another Mystery’s dam, Ioya Too, is Mystery Giver’s sister, a fine racehorse in her own right and an outstanding broodmare. Another Mystery is her 10th foal to race and fifth stakes winner, the first of which was Amazing Results, who himself won a pair of Fair Grounds grass stakes.
“The family just has a lot of good grass horses, and the grass at Fair Grounds, with the long stretch, seems to suit their style,” trainer Chris Block said. “We’ve done well with them there.”
Five-year-old Another Mystery was a late bloomer, only really hitting his stride during 2020. For the Wright, Block cut him back from marathon turf starts to a middle distance and got a first open stakes win from the horse.
“I don’t think distance is an issue for him if you get him that clean trip,” said Block.
Jareth Loveberry, spending his first season at Fair Grounds, gave Another Mystery a perfect ride in the Wright.
Block said he’d wait a week before deciding whether Another Mystery comes back in the Buddy Diliberto Memorial on Dec. 26 or awaits the Col. E.R. Bradley on Jan. 22.
Another live Stall juvenile
Trainer Al Stall won a pair of 2-year-old maiden special weight races opening week of the Fair Grounds meet. Trafalgar, a Stall-trained 2-year-old, cleared the maiden ranks Oct. 2 at Churchill with a smart 2 1/2-length score in a one-turn mile, and Trafalgar can get onto the Louisiana Derby trail with continued progress in Thursday’s featured seventh race.
The race, a first-level dirt-route allowance with a $50,000 claiming option, went with six entrants, and Trafalgar is the 4-5 morning-line favorite. Trafalgar, from Lord Nelson’s first crop of runners, debuted with a second-place finish behind Classic Causeway, who finished second this past Saturday in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes, before breaking through with an eye-catching victory. He’ll try two turns for the first time Thursday and likely has Naval Aviator and We All See It as chief rivals.
Stall’s two maiden winners were the filly Fanny and Freddie, who won a dirt route with a 74 Beyer Speed Figure, and the colt Underhill’s Tab, who got a 77 Beyer for a debut dirt sprint win.