Chocolate Ride steps up in class for Muniz Memorial

NEW ORLEANS – After claiming the gelding Chocolate Ride for $40,000 in November at Churchill Downs, trainer Brad Cox sent him to Oaklawn Park.

Cox said his initial hope was to win a first-level allowance race there with him, but it didn’t take long for Cox to see that Chocolate Ride was uncomfortable running on dirt.

“Dirt really bothers his feet,” Cox said. So, he shipped Chocolate Ride to Fair Grounds, where he could race on turf.

As a 5-year-old, Chocolate Ride has blossomed on grass in New Orleans. He won the Grade 3 Fair Grounds Handicap decisively and will run Saturday in the Grade 2 Mervin H. Muniz Memorial Handicap as a serious local contender. The last Fair Grounds-based horse to win the Muniz was Mystery Giver in 2004.

The $300,000 race for 4-year-olds and up at about 1 1/8 miles drew seven horses.

Three shippers from Florida – Slumber (trained by Chad Brown), Divine Oath (Todd Pletcher), and Coalport (Mike Maker) – bring graded-stakes credentials, but Cox and his local assistant, Ricky Giannini, are confident in their local runner.

“I think it’s a step up, but I think it was a pretty good group of horses he ran against last time,” Cox said. “The good thing is when he galloped out, those horses were never getting to him.”

Giannini added: “He’s going in the right direction. That’s the bottom line.”

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Key contenders

Chocolate Ride (Last 3 Beyers: 99-87-49)

* Chocolate Ride, breaking from the rail, and Coalport, on the outside, appear to be the possible pacesetters in a field without much early speed. Chocolate Ride was a stalker in the early running in a sharp allowance victory, and he set the pace in the Fair Grounds Handicap.

* In each of those races, both at the Muniz distance, he ran the final furlong in 11 seconds and change. In the Fair Grounds Handicap, he ran the final three-eighths of a mile in 35.58 seconds.

* As a yearling, Chocolate Ride, a son of Candy Ride, sold for $260,000 at the Keeneland September sale in 2011.

“We just got him at a discount,” Giannini said.

Slumber (Last 3 Beyers: 99-86-97)

* A 7-year-old whose career began in England, Slumber hasn’t won since 2013 but has been competing in solid company. Seven of his last eight starts have come in graded races, and he has had three in-the-money finishes in those graded races.

* In his last race, he finished second in the Grade 1 Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap on Feb. 7. Slumber made a strong late run, but Mshawish edged him by a nose.

Divine Oath (Last 3 Beyers: 95-97-88)

* The late-running Divine Oath is coming off a fifth-place performance at Gulfstream Park in the 1 3/8-mile, Grade 2 Mac Diarmida, which was won by the champion Main Sequence.

* Two starts back, Divine Oath won the 1 1/2-mile, Grade 3 W.L. McKnight Handicap at Gulfstream.

* Last year, he scored two Grade 3 wins against 3-year-olds in the Kent Stakes at Delaware Park and the American Derby at Arlington.

Coalport (Last 3 Beyers: 102-91-98)

* Coalport, who has won his last four races, dominated lesser opposition in a front-running victory in the Grade 3 John B. Connally Turf Cup on Jan. 24 at Sam Houston in his only race this year.