December Seven can give McGee milestone win

The veteran trainer Paul McGee has been sitting at 999 career wins for a few weeks now. A milestone – 1,000 wins – is right around the corner and could come in the featured seventh race Thursday at Fair Grounds with a very promising prospect named December Seven.

December Seven is one of eight entrants in a second-level allowance race that is also open to $40,000 claimers and carded for 1 1/16 miles on dirt. The 11-race card starts with modest offerings, but races 6 through 11 all are for open maidens or allowance horses.

No one racing Thursday in New Orleans has more potential than December Seven, a 3-year-old Street Sense colt out of the Bernardini mare Date to Remember owned by Jay Em Ess Stable. December Seven didn’t debut until this past summer, a late start, particularly for a horse with pedigree, but McGee said it was merely a series of relatively minor events that delayed December Seven’s career. December Seven was third after breaking from the rail in an Ellis Park sprint first time out but has prospered since being stretched out to two turns and racing with Lasix in three subsequent starts.

He won a maiden dirt race at Churchill in September, then finished third in a first-level Keeneland allowance race where his chances were ruined by a slow break and a troubled trip. Stuck in a pocket near the back of the field into the far turn, December Seven was shuffled back to last before coming home with a race-best 12.01-second final furlong as front-runners dominated that nine-furlong affair.

Bettors were onto his tough luck last month at Churchill Downs, where December Seven crushed a first-level allowance field by more than three lengths, easily staying 1 3/16 miles while eased up the final half-furlong, the outcome having been decided.

“He’s a nice horse. We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, but our long-term goal is to make him a stakes horse,” McGee said.

December Seven has trained just as well at Fair Grounds, McGee said, as he did in Kentucky.

“He had a bullet the other day. Jimmy Graham was on him, and he breezed really well,” McGee said. “I feel like he likes it at Fair Grounds.”

December Seven, with Graham named to ride, is listed as the 5-2 morning-line second choice in the featured seventh – a possible milestone winner for McGee who could reward bettors, too.

Untapped eyes Silverbulletday

Untapped, the 2-year-old full sister to champion Untapable, won her second straight race last Friday at Fair Grounds to run her career record to two wins and a third from three starts.

The odds-on favorite in race 7 last Friday, Untapped pressed a faster-than-par early pace under Florent Geroux, took over at the three-furlong pole, changed leads at the top of the stretch but swapped back to her wrong lead before the eighth pole and came home in a modest time through the homestretch to complete one mile and 70 yards in 1:44.40. The raw time produced a Beyer Speed Figure of 76, a career best for Untapped.

“We were pleased with the result,” said trainer Steve Asmussen. “With her pedigree, you dream big, that’s for sure. She was a little aggressive between horses early, and there was quite a bit of pace early into the first turn. She was set down a long ways out, and I don’t think she needed a hard race right now. I think she’ll get better with time, and I feel good about the race.”

Asmussen said Untapped, if all goes well, will make her next start in the Silverbulletday Stakes on Jan. 21 at Fair Grounds. “This was a nice bridge to that race. I think she’s worthy of it,” he said.

Meanwhile, Gun Runner, who won the Grade 1 Clark Handicap in his most recent start, breezed five furlongs in 1:01.60 on Friday at Fair Grounds, his first drill since the Nov. 24 Clark. “He worked nicely,” Asmussen said.

Gun Runner’s connections, Winchell Thoroughbreds and Three Chimneys Farm, do not currently own a starting slot for the $12 million Pegasus World Cup on Jan. 28 at Gulfstream Park, and Asmussen reiterated Monday “that there are no concrete plans right now.” But he said he gave Gun Runner the work last week to keep him in a position to run in the Pegasus if an opportunity arises.

“Obviously, the Pegasus is an interesting race,” Asmussen said. “I didn’t want him to be eliminated from anything.”

Jockey Patrick Valenzuela is out of action indefinitely after having surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his knee suffered earlier this month at Fair Grounds, according to state steward Roy Wood, who has long known Valenzuela and is familiar with the rider’s situation.

Another Fair Grounds veteran jockey, DeShawn Parker, is out at least another month after fracturing his heel in an offtrack mishap. Agent Bobby Kelly said Parker fell from a ladder when helping his landlord remove holiday decorations from an attic.

And, finally, jockey Andre Worrie has left Fair Grounds for his home in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., according to agent Rob Whitlock.