Chocolate Ride finds sweet spot

At this time the last two years, Chocolate Ride was preparing for the Grade 2 Muniz Memorial. Chocolate Ride won the 2015 Muniz, capping a Fair Grounds season where he rose from a middling first-level allowance runner to serious graded-stakes horse. Last year, he was a solid fourth in the race, beaten three lengths.

But expectations have been scaled back for Chocolate Ride this season, and rather than the Muniz, he runs in an optional claimer at about a mile on turf on a 10-race program unusually strong for a Thursday.

The 7-year-old Chocolate Ride just has not quite been able to put everything together at this meet. He returned from a layoff of more than seven months with a close fourth-place finish Dec. 17 in the Diliberto Memorial. But Chocolate Ride was supposed to move forward in his second race back from his break, the Jan. 21 Col. E.R. Bradley, and he really didn’t, checking in third, beaten almost three lengths by his stablemate Western Reserve.

Chocolate Ride might not have cared for turf in the Bradley that was softer than he prefers, but he should care for the class drop in Thursday’s ninth race. Though the field is a solid one for the class level, Chocolate Ride, who drew the rail, was installed as the 6-5 morning-line favorite. There are six others for turf and two, including the up-and-coming Egyptian, entered for the main track only, though the local forecast suggests Thursday’s races will stay on turf.

With Florent Geroux in Dubai to ride Gun Runner, Shaun Bridgmohan gets a shot on Chocolate Ride, who is trained by Brad Cox for GenStar Thoroughbreds. Chip Leader and Glorious Empire appear to constitute the primary opposition.