Correas sending live runners for Champions Day

Trainer Ignacio Correas answered his phone Sunday at Tampa Bay Downs, where he has settled in for the winter after a strong fall on the Kentucky circuit. Later the same day, his star mare Dona Bruja raced in the Matriarch at Del Mar. These all are places one might associate with Correas.

Louisiana? Not so much. But Correas has two live chances for Saturday’s Louisiana Champions Day program.

Both horses are slated to race on grass, Pont Du Gard in the $100,000 Champions Day Turf, Viva Vegas in the $100,000 Ladies. The Merriebelle Stable purchased Viva Vegas at Keeneland’s November auction and she’s set to have her first run for Correas. Only once has Viva Vegas shipped to the state of her birth, finishing a below-form fifth March 17 in the Red Camelia Stakes. She didn’t come close to staying 1 1/2 miles at Keeneland in the Oct. 21 Dowager Stakes, but previously finished second, fourth, and fourth in a trio of shorter Grade 3 stakes. A performance of that sort is likely to land the Ladies.

“I wish I had her a few more weeks, but she’s training awesome,” Correas said.

Pont Du Gard, like his new stablemate, has made only one trip to Fair Grounds to take advantage of statebred-restricted competition, winning a first-level turf allowance race in March. Pont Du Gard has been aimed at the Turf for the better part of three months, Correas said, and his best races over the summer, competitive showings in Grade 3’s at Arlington, make him a major player in a substandard renewal of the Turf.

In fact, the Champions Day card – which comprises three Quarter Horse stakes, seven for Thoroughbreds, and 13 races in total – has generally come up light this year. The featured $150,000 Classic drew only a modest field of seven and lacks anything like a standout performer.

There are potential standouts in the Juvenile (Classy John) and the Lassie (Midnight Fantasy). Streaking Monte Man could get a challenge from Givemeaminit in the Sprint, while the Ladies Sprint is strong at the top with Minit to Stardom and Ours to Run.

◗ Thursday’s nine-race program lacks anything resembling a traditional feature. The program highlights are race 6, where the crack starter-allowance mare Havinfunyet tries for her sixth straight win over the Fair Grounds grass course, a streak dating to last December. Race 8, a 2-year-old turf-sprint maiden, has a number of apparently talented entrants and definitely merits at least a glance, if not a wager.