Awesome Saturday stepping up in turf mile

The horses who finished fourth, sixth, seventh, 10th, and 12th in the Grade 3 Fair Grounds Handicap on Feb. 17 are back in a high-end turf-mile allowance, the feature Sunday at Fair Grounds. That is all well and good, but the most interesting horse in the race is not among that quintet.

Awesome Saturday showed plenty of dirt talent last year as a 3-year-old, and his Jan. 25 comeback race following an extended layoff demonstrated he could run on turf, too. Awesome Saturday won that second-level allowance, a turf sprint, with a flashy late run. In Sunday’s eighth race, Awesome Saturday is up a level in class while stretching out to a route, but might be talented enough to repeat.

Awesome Saturday is one of 12 entrants in the third-level allowance, also open to $80,000 claimers, but four horses are entered for the main track only, and the local forecast suggests that quartet will be staying in their barns Sunday.

The five horses exiting the Fair Grounds Handicap are High Noon Rider (fourth), Applicator (sixth), One Mean Man (seventh), Galton (10th), and Great Wide Open (12th). High Noon Rider, who resides in the stable of leading trainer Brad Cox, won a race at this class level before a respectable showing in the Fair Grounds Handicap. But Sunday’s race comes just 15 days after his last start, and it would be imprudent to expect High Noon Rider to do any better than hold his recent form. Maybe that’s good enough, maybe not.

Awesome Saturday has upside. He ran four good races last spring and summer in Kentucky before going over the top in the Indiana Derby, his last start at age 3. His first-level allowance win came around two turns, which suggests Sunday’s stretch-out might not stop him from a second straight win.

Also worth considering is December Seven, who makes his turf debut following very poor showings in his two most recent starts, the first last summer before a layoff, the second Jan. 13 in the Louisiana Stakes. December Seven has back form plenty good enough for this class level and is by Street Sense, whose progeny often act on grass.

The feature is the last of three consecutive allowance races on a solid nine-race card. Race 6 is a high-end Louisiana-bred turf sprint, and race 7 is a second-level allowance with a $40,000 claiming option carded for six furlongs on dirt and restricted to fillies and mares. That race will have last-out winner Sister Kan as a defined favorite.