Blackberry Wine earns shot at Risen Star

NEW ORLEANS – On the Beyer Speed Figure scale, Blackberry Wine was the fastest 3-year-old Saturday at Fair Grounds. Beating favored Digital by one length in a first-level allowance, Blackberry Wine ran 1 1/16 miles in 1:43.22, earning a 94 Beyer.

Blackberry Wine now is 6-2-0-3, his wins coming in his only two dirt routes. Last fall, Blackberry Wine led all the way in a sloppy-track maiden route at Churchill. In his start before Saturday’s, he ran third in an allowance race on yielding turf at Fair Grounds.

Joe Sharp, who trains the son of Oxbow and the A.P. Indy mare Classicism for Calumet Farm, said Blackberry Wine runs next in the Risen Star on Feb. 15 at Fair Grounds.

“We were flirting with the Lecomte, but we wanted to get his confidence back and target the Risen Star if he did well,” Sharp said. “We definitely have something to look forward to in February.”