NEW ORLEANS – In the two turf stakes Saturday at Fair Grounds, trainer Brad Cox, as he often does in grass races here, will be playing a strong hand. For the $125,000, Grade 3 Fair Grounds Handicap, Cox will saddle the 6-year-old gelding Chocolate Ride, who undoubtedly will be the favorite. Nine horses ages 4 and up will run about 1 1/8 miles. With victories in 2015 in the Fair Grounds Handicap and Grade 2 Mervin Muniz Memorial, Chocolate Ride was the leading turf horse here last season. Having won both of his starts at this meet, his latest win coming Jan. 16 in the Grade 3 Col. E.R. Bradley Handicap, Chocolate Ride has continued his run of excellence on the local course. For the $60,000 Daisy Devine Stakes, Cox will saddle morning-line favorite Street of Gold, coming off a victory in the Marie Krantz Memorial on Jan. 16, and Cash Control, who defeated third-level optional-claiming rivals at Churchill Downs the last time she raced on turf. Ten females ages 4 and up will run about 1 1/16 miles. This season at Fair Grounds, Cox has won with 16 of 36 turf starters (44 percent), and his in-the-money rate on grass is nearly 64 percent. Cox has 450 wins in a training career that began in 2004, but through 2013, he had never won more than three turf races in a year. In 2014, Cox won 13 turf races from 53 starts, and last year, he won 26 turf races from 100 starts. “There’s no real secret or anything at all,” he said. “Over the last few years, we’ve claimed more grass horses.” The reason, he said, was a commitment to increasing his numbers at Fair Grounds. Since Oaklawn Park, Cox’s other winter base, doesn’t have a turf course, his grass runners go to New Orleans. Cox said his Fair Grounds stable has grown from four to six horses four years ago to about 30 horses now. Chocolate Ride was claimed for $40,000 in November 2014 at Churchill Downs. Cox said he intended to run him at Oaklawn, but Chocolate Ride was uncomfortable on the dirt there. “That’s why he ended up at Fair Grounds,” Cox said. In the Bradley, Chocolate Ride led all the way, but he showed in an optional-claiming win two starts back that “he can settle off horses,” Cox said. Four other horses who ran in the Bradley, including runner-up Roman Approval and third-place finisher Blarp, will challenge Chocolate Ride again Saturday. Roman Approval, who started his career in Puerto Rico, was claimed by Three Diamonds Farm for $25,000 in 2014 at Saratoga and sent to trainer Mike Maker. “When we first ran him, he wasn’t a very good gate horse,” Maker said. “There were times he’d blow his race at the gate.” But Roman Approval has adjusted nicely to American racing, Maker said. Earning his third U.S. graded placing in the Bradley, Roman Approval finished three-quarters of a length behind Chocolate Ride. Departing, whose most productive season was 2013, when he won three graded stakes for 3-year-olds, is a newcomer to the local turf. He has run in three turf races, all graded, winning the Grade 2 Firecracker last year at Churchill Downs. “Departing without a doubt is the new competition we have to watch,” Cox said. Al Stall Jr. trains Departing, who is coming off a second-place finish in the Fifth Season on Jan. 16 at Oaklawn. “He hasn’t won a race on the dirt since April 2014,” Stall said. “He won a Grade 2 on the turf. We wanted to give him a chance around two turns on the turf.” The Daisy Devine appears to be wide open, with seven runners having single-digit morning-line odds. The late-running Street of Gold, who moved into Cox’s barn for this meet, finished second in the Blushing K.D. before winning the Marie Krantz Memorial by a half-length over Mizz Money. “She’s really moved forward since we got her,” Cox said, noting that jockey Robby Albarado fits her extremely well. “She certainly hasn’t regressed since her race.” Instead of giving Mizz Money a dirt workout before the Daisy Devine, trainer Bernie Flint opted to use the Mardi Gras Stakes as her final tune-up. She closed strongly in that about 5 1/2-furlong sprint. “I don’t like doing that but couldn’t [work] on the grass,” Flint said. “This way, I guarantee that she’ll be fit.” Co-second choices on the morning line are invaders from Florida: Faufiler, a Graham Motion trainee who twice was Group 3-placed in France; Pink Poppy, who finished third in the Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Turf for trainer Ronny Werner; and Notte d’Oro, a Christophe Clement trainee who won the Krantz last year when based here with Mike Stidham.