Calhoun pair could be tough in Louisiana Futurity

Trainer Bret Calhoun stands a decent chance of winning the $96,970 colts-and-geldings division of the Louisiana Futurity on Thursday at Fair Grounds, but while that seems clear, it’s difficult to say which of Calhoun’s two entrants rates higher.

G’s Josh finished a tough-trip sixth of 14 when less than ideally prepared for the $100,000 Louisiana Champions Day Juvenile on Dec. 12, and he has run well enough in the past to win Thursday. But on talent alone, he might have nothing on Blue Tizzy, who looked good in winning his only start, a two-turn maiden sprint at Delta Downs.

Those two are among nine entered in the six-furlong colts-and-geldings division of the Louisiana Futurity, the last of 10 races Thursday on a very strong weekday card. Race 7 is the fillies division of the Louisiana Futurity, and the program also includes a two-turn 2-year-old maiden race that might have future stakes horses and a bevy of the kind of large, competitive fields for which bettors regularly clamor.

Calhoun said he would have run Blue Tizzy in the Champions Day Juvenile had the colt not gotten an upper respiratory infection following his Nov. 18 debut score at Delta. Calhoun had wavered on starting off Blue Tizzy at Fair Grounds or Delta, though he knew he didn’t want to run the colt five furlongs at Delta first out, and a look at the way Blue Tizzy goes tells you why. By Tiz the One, a son of Tiznow, Blue Tizzy has scope and a long stride and runs more like a miler or a route horse than a pure sprinter. He easily kept up with the leader and won comfortably at Delta, and though he’s likely to fall farther off the pace Thursday, that might not be a bad thing.

“I like the way he’s gone,” Calhoun said. “He looks like he’s improved every single day to me.”

G’s Josh, meanwhile, broke 13th from post 11 and went evenly from there to finish sixth on Champions Day, but Calhoun believes G’s Josh still was feeling the effects of a rough run in a Delta stakes race three weeks earlier.

“He hit the gate really hard and took a big chunk out of his eye,” Calhoun said. “He came out of that Delta race pretty banged up, it was a quick turnaround to Champions Day, and nothing really went right. I look for a big race out of him.”

The third-, fourth-, and fifth-place Champions Day Juvenile finishers – Icy Gentleman, John’s Luck, and Chatanoogan – all return for the Futurity. None can be ruled out, but the twice-started Chatanoogan has some upside and a potentially favorable outside draw.

Rita’s Fifty Seven to try again

Rita’s Fifty Seven did everything right in her career debut in a Louisiana-bred maiden race on Champions Day except close the deal. She broke alertly, showed good tactical pace, put away the pacesetting Sunny Oak in midstretch, and was on the way to victory – until she ran out of gas in the last half-furlong. Sunny Oak stayed on, and Rita’s Fifty Seven settled for second.

But with that race and the fitness it probably conferred behind her, Rita’s Fifty Seven might finish the job when she runs back Thursday in the $96,970 fillies division of the Louisiana Futurity. She has eight rivals in the six-furlong dirt race and ought to be a fair price under apprentice rider Erica Murray.

Thegoodwitch, another second-time starter, might be favored for trainer Al Stall and leading rider Colby Hernandez. She won her debut Nov. 20 at Fair Grounds by two lengths, but that Louisiana-bred maiden special weight race has yielded no subsequent winners beyond a pair of fillies who won $25,000 and $12,500 maiden claimers.

** With still more rain in soggy New Orleans’s forecast Tuesday night, Thursday’s races could be rained off the turf for the fourth race day in a row, and that would be too bad because there are some excellent grass races on the card. Race 2 is a meaty Louisiana-bred maiden sprint. Race 4, a route for $10,000 claimers or $5,000 starter-allowance horses, has as deep a field as could be imagined for the class level. The same could be said of race 8, a higher-priced claimer also open to starter-allowance horses. Race 6 is a second-level turf-sprint allowance also open to $40,000 claimers that lured a full field of 12.

On dirt, race 9 matches the promising 2-year-olds Mason County and Creator in a two-turn maiden race. Even race 5, an older first-level, two-turn allowance, has some substance.