Delta Downs: 'Amberpro' the class

Prized Amberpro continues to reinvent herself. Once a claimer, she is now a multiple stakes winner. And once considered a sprinter, she comes into the $75,000 Camelia for statebreds at Delta Downs in Vinton, La., on Saturday night on the heels of a dominating win around two turns in the $100,000 Louisiana Champions Day Ladies at Fair Grounds.

Such an ability to adapt makes Prized Amberpro the one to beat in the Camelia, a 6 1/2-furlong race that will be run around two turns. The field of eight fillies and mares also includes Fuse It, a stakes winner earlier this meet at Delta, and the improving Light Fling, who has won her last two starts.

Prized Amberpro comes into the Camelia in top form. She has won her last three starts - all statebred stakes - by a combined 11 3/4 lengths. She also just completed the best year of her career, having won 8 of 16 starts as a 5-year-old for purse earnings of $291,778.

For the Camelia, Prized Amberpro will shorten up in distance from 1 1/16 miles, and last week she sharpened her skills for the task by working a bullet three furlongs in 36.40. John Gelner, who trains the mare for Linda Patch and Joseph Thomas, has given the mount to C.J. Woodley.

Fuse It will be a force from the rail. She makes the move to two turns after closing for third last out in a six-furlong open-company allowance at Fair Grounds. Before that race, she won the $50,000 Gardenia for statebreds, which was held at five furlongs at Delta on Dec. 14.

Guy Smith has the mount on Fuse It for trainer Samuel Breaux.