Brothers have big plans for filly

NEW ORLEANS - Trainer Keith Desormeaux named his brother Kent to ride Miss Atlantic City for the first time in the $300,000 Delta Princess at Delta Downs Dec. 1. A talented 2-year-old, Miss Atlantic City showed her heels to a strong group that included Grade 1 winners Appealing Zophie and Meadow Breeze. Now Keith is preparing Miss Atlantic City on the Fair Grounds backstretch for her 3-year-old campaign.

"We're pointing her for the 3-year-old fillies series of races at the Fair Grounds," he said. "It's a good series with nice spacing."

The first stop is the $100,000 Tiffany Lass at a mile Jan. 13, followed by the Grade 3 Silverbulletday on Feb. 10 at 1 1/16 miles, and the Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks on March 10 at 1 1/16 miles.

"We're just playing it by ear," said Keith Desormeaux. "We may not go in every race. There are no definitive plans right now."

One definite plan is for brother Kent to ride Miss Atlantic City again.

"It's a foregone conclusion that he'll be there for the race," said Keith. "It's too much time between drinks for us. This is a very nice horse, and we have high expectations for her. Having the family connection makes it a lot of fun."

The track was closed for training Friday morning, and only a few horses worked in the deluge Thursday, but none of that affected Miss Atlantic City.

"I haven't really intensified her training at this point in preparation for the Tiffany Lass," said Keith Desormeaux. "Walking her a few days in the shed makes no difference."

Wilson wins on first day

Emma-Jayne Wilson, the 2005 Eclipse Award winner as North America's best apprentice jockey, began riding at Fair Grounds on Friday and won the fourth race aboard Trion Georgia with a well-timed rally down the center of the track. Wilson, 25, was the leading rider at Woodbine the last two years and has won the last two Sovereign Awards for leading apprentice in Canada.

"It was great," said Wilson of her first day as part of the New Orleans jockey colony. "It brought back old memories. I used to ride the schooling races here the last year they had them."

A native of Brampton, Ontario, Wilson became the first female jockey to win a Woodbine riding title, setting a record for victories there, with 175 from 1,096 mounts in 2005. A racing fan since her childhood, she grew up 20 minutes away from Woodbine and studied equine management at Guelph University in Ontario. She started riding in the summer of 2004 and scored her first victory aboard Aliolah at Fort Erie that summer.

Though this is her first season riding at Fair Grounds, Wilson worked on the backstretch for trainer Mark Frostad for several years.

"I galloped horses for Mark Frostad," she said. "I rode 30 schooling races here before I was ever licensed. It was the first chance I got to get a leg up on a horse, so to be able to come back here, it put a smile on my face."