Cooptado seems ready to rebound

Cooptado was born in Argentina, has raced extensively in Dubai and Singapore, and has an English trainer and jockey in his corner. He’s an 8-year-old gelding with a rich history – and a chance to win the featured seventh race Sunday at Fair Grounds.

Cooptado is one of nine entrants in a one mile and 70-yard dirt race with multiple high-end allowance conditions and an $80,000 claiming option. Cooptado won the Tenacious Stakes by a nose in December at Fair Grounds, and Sunday’s race looks at least as challenging as the Tenacious.

Cooptado returned from the Tenacious to finish sixth in the Louisiana Stakes, after which England-born trainer Tom Morley gave him a freshening, and Cooptado, who will have jockey Adam Beschizza in the saddle for the first time, could easily bounce back. A Group 1 winner in Argentina in 2013, Cooptado spent the winter of 2014-15 in Dubai, where he won a minor stakes race, before moving on to Singapore, where he raced in 2015, 2016, and part of 2017 before being shipped to America. Cooptado has spent the bulk of his career racing on turf, but has five wins and a second from eight dirt starts.

The horse he nipped in the Tenacious, Shut the Box, is among his rivals Sunday, but the pick to win is Rich Daddy, who figures to take a step forward after returning from a layoff last month in the Grade 3 Mineshaft Handicap, a race dominated by The Player.