Champions Day Ladies Sprint features high-class rematch

It’s not every year you get a rematch of Saratoga’s Grade 2 Honorable Miss Stakes in the $100,000 Louisiana Champions Day Ladies Sprint at Fair Grounds.

Check that – it’s not any year you see that happening. Not until this year, at least, when Minit to Stardom, who upset the Honorable Miss at odds of 20-1, faces Ours to Run, the Honorable Miss third, in the six-furlong Ladies Sprint.

There’s more to this field, even, than those two high-level sprinters. Midnight Fantasy won the Champions Day Lassie by more than three lengths on this card a year ago and remains a developing 3-year-old who, like the Honorable Miss pair, returns to Louisiana-bred racing after facing open stakes competition during the summer. Neither are there any true no-hopers among the other five in the race, but the elite segment of the field seems likely to deliver a victory Saturday.

Ours to Run won the 2018 Ladies Sprint by five lengths, easily handling second-place Minit to Stardom and doing so again two months later at Delta Downs. Minit to Stardom was her better at Saratoga in August, but Ours to Run drew favorably outside Minit to Stardom for Saturday’s race and has been posting sharp works for trainer Larry Jones at Fair Grounds, where she has three wins from four starts.

Minit to Stardom followed up on her Honorable Miss win with a fine second to high-class sprinter Come Dancing in the Grade 2 Gallant Bloom and a win in a no-conditions Laurel Park allowance race on Nov. 8. Ours to Run, meanwhile, has gotten a brief freshening since a creditable fourth-place finish in the Grade 3 Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes at Keeneland in October and is the mild choice to defeat Minit to Stardom and Midnight Fantasy and take down her second straight Ladies Sprint.

Champions Day Juvenile, Lassie

The Louisiana-bred 2-year-old filly Vacherie Girl scored an eye-catching debut victory in the third race on Nov. 28, opening day at Fair Grounds. In race 5, the Louisiana-bred 2-year-old gelding Binding Agreement outdid her, winning his career debut by running more than one second faster over 5 1/2 furlongs.

Both horses return Saturday for the second start of their respective careers, Vacherie Girl with a good chance to win the $100,000 Louisiana Champion Day Lassie, Binding Agreement to capture the $100,000 Champions Day Juvenile.

Binding Agreement might prove a playable price despite dashing off to a 7 3/4-length win in that Nov. 28 race. That’s because Chimney Rock also is entered in the Juvenile, dropping in class from a fine second-place finish behind Four Wheel Drive in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint.

The key word in that race name is “turf,” and Chimney Rock hasn’t started in a dirt race since he finished third, beaten more than five lengths, racing over a sloppy track making his career debut at Saratoga. Chimney Rock wasn’t even supposed to be on dirt that day, his intended turf start rained onto the main track, and it’s a reasonable guess he won’t be able to produce his top grass form on the Fair Grounds main track.

Binding Agreement, trained by Al Stall, broke from the rail facing 11 foes first time out. He showed speed, failed to make the lead, raced in hand and in the bridle, and quickly stormed to the front. Binding Agreement’s connections had the Juvenile in mind even before that performance, and Binding Agreement has been handled accordingly.

Vacherie Girl, meanwhile, benefits from landing in a softer spot than Binding Agreement. The Lassie, the first Thoroughbred stakes on the card, has only seven other entrants, none of whom won quite as impressively as Vacherie Girl, who rated near the back of the pack before swooping to the front in one strong burst. Royal Priority earned a 72 Beyer Speed Figure for her debut win compared to Vacherie Girl’s 57, but Royal Priority raced over five furlongs at short-stretch Delta Downs and will be asked to deploy at least a slightly different skill set on Fair Grounds’s full-sized oval.

◗ In the Navy is the tepid selection to beat Ninety One Assault and nine other rivals in the $100,000 Champions Day Turf.