Control Stake has speed edge over Clearly Now

The old house that used to sit between Gentilly Boulevard and the east end of the Fair Grounds racing oval is gone, and now only a parking lot separates the racing surface and the road. If Fair Grounds officials so desired, they could construct a short chute to allow one-turn dirt races longer than six furlongs – but that’s not going to help Clearly Now in the featured ninth race on Saturday.

Clearly Now always seemed like a more natural fit for sprints at about seven furlongs. At age 6, the legs aren’t getting any livelier, and it’s not getting any easier for Clearly Now to get up while going six furlongs. But absent a chute, that’s the longest one-turn trip he’ll get unless he leaves New Orleans, and Clearly Now is tasked with trying to run down Control Stake in a high-end allowance race with a $62,500 claiming option Saturday.

The two horses met in the Thanksgiving Handicap here, and Control Stake made an inside lead, set a hot pace, and won by 1 1/2 lengths. Clearly Now lost ground on the turn and rallied steadily for third, beaten almost two lengths by Control Stake.

On the one hand, the Fair Grounds dirt might have helped inside-speed horses on the Thanksgiving card, but on the other, Control Stake laid down a very strong pace while pressed on the lead and still was going strong at the finish.

“One thing for certain is he’s going to the lead again,” said Tom Amoss, who trains Control Stake for Maggi Moss.

Control Stake and Colby Hernandez look like the controlling speed Saturday, but there is a significant shift in the weights between the top two choices: Control Stake got seven pounds from Clearly Now last time but carries 121 to Clearly Now’s 119 this time.

Clearly Now makes his second start since being privately purchased by the Brittlyn Stable and turned over to trainer Ron Faucheux. A millionaire, he’s accomplished far more than Control Stake, but he breaks for the second straight race from post 1, and Clearly Now doesn’t necessarily love starting on the inside.

Royal Obsession stretches out

The feature goes as race 9, while race 7 spotlights a few potentially high-quality 3-year-old fillies, in particular Royal Obsession, who twice has gone through the auction ring and left a seven-figure purchase. Royal Obsession, by Tapit and out of Rote, by Tiznow, was purchased as a yearling at Saratoga in August 2014 for $1 million by Regis Thoroughbreds. Still unraced, she was part of the Regis dispersal last November at Keeneland, where she fetched $1,150,000 from Stonestreet Stables, remaining in the barn of Steve Asmussen.

Shortly after being sold, Royal Obsession made her career debut at Churchill, rallying steadily and wide from last to win a 7 1/2-furlong maiden race by 1 1/4 lengths. Asmussen feels confident that Royal Obsession will be at home stretching out to two turns in Saturday’s one-mile race, a first-level allowance also open to $50,000 claimers, and said she has trained well for her 3-year-old debut.

“She’s put in very nice works and had a gorgeous work three breezes ago,” Asmussen said.

Royal Obsession has a reputation already, however, and might start at an underlaid price. Three other horses worth considering on the win end are Lemon Drop Belle, Tsunami Girl, and Banner Waving.