Cinco Charlie using Sugar Bowl as litmus test
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
The Sugar Bowl is a $50,000 stakes, but Cinco Charlie is no $50,000 horse, and he will be bet accordingly on Saturday at Fair Grounds.
A four-time winner of nearly $240,000, Cinco Charlie enters the Sugar Bowl after sharply winning the $100,000 James F. Lewis at Laurel and finishing a close third behind the high-class juvenile Blofeld in the Grade 2 Futurity at Belmont. He is one of just five horses in the field and figures to be heavily favored over the obvious second choice, Control Stake.
The Sugar Bowl, a six-furlong overnight race, shares top billing on the card with the $50,000 Letellier Memorial for 2-year-old fillies. The 12-race program has an early first post of noon Central, and with rain in the forecast during the day and night on Friday, grass racing could be abandoned.
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The Sugar Bowl is an audition of sorts for Cinco Charlie: If he looks good racing over the Fair Grounds strip, it’s possible he will point for the Lecomte Stakes next month there. The 2013 Sugar Bowl winner, Albano, returned to finish a good second in the Lecomte. Whether it’s in New Orleans or elsewhere, Cinco Charlie has shown a strong enough combination of talent and stamina to get a look at two turns.
“If everything goes according to plan, I think we’d like to stretch him out in one of the mile races coming up,” said Steve Asmussen, who trains Cinco Charlie for owners Corrine and Bill Heiligbrodt.
SUGAR BOWL STAKES (RACE 1)
KEY CONTENDERS
Cinco Charlie (Last 3 Beyers: 91-91-82)
◗ As dominant as his form looks on paper, it might not truly reflect Cinco Charlie’s performance level. Asmussen isn’t sure Cinco Charlie was at his best at Saratoga, where he finished third in the Sanford and fifth in the Saratoga Special. “I don’t think Saratoga is for everybody,” he said.
◗ Ideally drawn in post 5, Cinco Charlie has logged three works since shipping to Fair Grounds, and has trained well at the track. “He has been very straightforward,” said Asmussen. “He’s fun to be around, a very nice racehorse.”
Control Stake (Last 3 Beyers: 86-74-77)
◗ He won his last two sprints by a combined 11 3/4 lengths, including a recent optional-claiming romp at Fair Grounds. Sandwiched between those two wins was a fading second-place finish in a one-mile Delta Downs stakes, a showing that suggested to trainer Tom Amoss that Control Stake would be best suited to sprinting. “I think we learned that when we ran him at Delta,” Amoss said.
LETELLIER STAKES (RACE 8)
After three races, Promise Me Silver is unbeaten and basically untested, but despite a short field, she should get at least a modestly sterner test in the $50,000 Letellier.
Promise Me Silver easily won her Texas-bred debut in May at Lone Star, then cruised to victory in the June 21 Debutante at Churchill. Her trainer, Bret Calhoun, had to shop around to find a comeback spot when Promise Me Silver returned to racing in November, eventually shipping the filly to Retama Park, where she won a Texas Stallion Stakes race by 7 1/4 lengths at odds of 1-5.
The opposition Saturday is headed by I’m a Looker, Carolina Jasmine, and True to You, though Promise Me Silver should be favored.
KEY CONTENDERS
Promise Me Silver (Last 3 Beyers: 77-69-70)
◗ Bettors contemplating taking a short price on Promise Me Silver should realize her five-month layoff came because the filly was bleeding during strenuous exercise following her win in the Debutante. “We intended to take her to Saratoga, but she was having some bleeding issues,” Calhoun said. “I really don’t know why, but we decided to stop on her, turn her out, and give her time, and it seems to have done her a lot of good. It has not been an issue since she’s come back, but I guess something like that is always in the back of your mind.”
◗ Promise Me Silver was a precocious filly, professional when some of her peers were barely figuring out basic racing lessons. It’s possible much of the class has caught up. “You wonder that, but the way she ran last time and has breezed, I have a lot of confidence in her,” said Calhoun.
I’m a Looker (Beyers: 78-73)
◗ This sharp debut winner was well beaten in a first-level optional-claiming race last out at Churchill, but she had little chance to win, as the pacesetter in that race ran her last furlong in just over 12 seconds, giving a stalker like I’m a Looker little chance to make up ground.