Brown considering three for Muniz Memorial Classic

The late Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel won the Muniz Memorial Classic (when it was called the Explosive Bid Handicap) two years in a row, in 2008 and 2009. Chad Brown, not late, and a sure future Hall of Famer, used to work for Frankel before launching his own impossibly successful training career and will try to do the same thing on March 21 at Fair Grounds.

Brown won the 2012 Muniz with Casino Host and won it again last year with 2019 Horse of the Year Bricks and Mortar, whose nose victory over the inferior Markitoff in a strangely run race was the closest Bricks and Mortar came to losing a race all season. Brown said Tuesday he could enter as many as three horses for the Muniz when Fair Grounds draws its March 21 card on March 14, with Instilled Regard, Rockemperor, and Devamani all possible runners.

Brown said he’d make a final decision on which horses will ship from Florida to New Orleans after the horses work this weekend. If wet weather forces Brown to move the turf works from Saturday to Sunday, it’s possible he’ll enter all three and make a final call on who runs after the works.

Instilled Regard is the most familiar among this trio, and though he is only 1-1-3 from five turf starts, he has inched closer to Grade 1 class since Brown switched surfaces with the now 5-year-old in December 2018.

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Rockemperor occupies a much different space in American turf ratings, a 4-year-old with only two North American races who hasn’t started since last summer. Bred in France and campaigned there for his first seven starts, Rockemperor finished sixth in the Prix du Jockey Club, the French Derby, before coming to Brown in America. He was third in the Group 1 Belmont Derby and then fell off form, finishing sixth in the Saratoga Derby Invitational on Aug. 4, his most recent start.

“He was just kind of body sore everywhere after that start and we turned him out,” Brown said. “I think he has a chance to be a horse for a race like the Arlington Million.”

Devamani, big picture, looks like the weakest of the trio, but though he’s a 6-year-old, Brown has trained him for only one start, a nose loss in the Grade 3 Tampa Bay Stakes on Feb. 8.

Brown also plans to run Altea in the $100,000 Tom Benson Memorial Stakes.

Factor This and Synchrony, a former Muniz winner, finished first and second in the Fair Grounds Stakes and both are expected to run back in the Muniz.

Royal Act may need new plans

The list of potential starters for the $1 million Louisiana Derby on March 21 remained unchanged since last week as of Wednesday, and if the prospective field holds through entries on Saturday, it looks like talented California-based 3-year-old Royal Act might need to find another race.

Royal Act remains No. 15 on the list of possible runners in the Louisiana Derby, which can accommodate 14 runners. The Fair Grounds racing office said it doesn’t expect trainer Peter Eurton to ship Royal Act if his colt remains stuck on a two-horse also-eligible list. Royal Act has won 1 of 3 starts and most recently finished second to Thousand Words in the Robert Lewis Stakes. Thousand Words returned with a disappointing performance last Saturday in the San Felipe Stakes.

At the top of the list for the Louisiana Derby, contested at 1 3/16 miles this year, are Modernist, who won a division of the Risen Star Stakes, and Enforceable, who was second in the other, faster Risen Star division after winning the Lecomte Stakes. Fair Grounds racing officials also expect Wells Bayou, who got a 96 Beyer Speed Figure after setting the pace and finishing second to Silver Prospector in the Southwest Stakes. Wells Bayou wasn’t entered Wednesday in the Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn, but trainer Brad Cox has not committed the colt to Fair Grounds.

◗ Dominga, who won the Allen “Black Cat” Lacombe stakes last weekend at Fair Grounds, and Quinenos, who won a first-level turf allowance race March 6, are candidates for turf stakes next month at Keeneland. Dominga, a 3-year-old filly, could run in the Appalachian Stakes, and Quinenos, a colt, might start in the Transylvania Stakes, Cox said.