Delta Downs: Young trainer David eyes second big payday with Heavy On Themister in $200,000 Championship

Heavy On Themister and his 32-year-old trainer, Shawn David, registered the richest wins of their careers in December, and on Saturday night they will be out to trump themselves in the $200,000 Premier Night Championship at Delta Downs.

The Championship leads a $1 million card of races for Louisiana-breds, six of them stakes and four others starter races. Heavy On Themister should go favored in the main event after rallying for a one-length win in the $150,000 Louisiana Champions Day Classic at Fair Grounds on Dec. 8.

“It was a huge win for him, and for us,” said David, the son of longtime horseman Sam David. “We were proud of the way he was able to settle and finish. That’s always been the plan for him, to develop him into a horse that can be more versatile.”

Heavy On Themister won the $125,000 Evangeline Downs Mile on the front end in August. He then ran third in the $100,000 Gold Cup at Delta Downs in October, one start before the Classic. Heavy On Themister will face nine others in the Championship, a 1 1/16-mile race for 4-year-olds and up that also drew Watch My Smoke and Get in Da House, who were second and third in the Classic; Lovely Vin, winner of the $60,000 Dixie Poker Ace at Fair Grounds in January; and Populist Politics, winner of the $70,000 B Connected at Delta in December.
Heavy On Themister, who races for his breeders, Rebecca Farms and T.J. Dickey, will break from post 3.

“He’s really coming into it good, training well,” David said. “I couldn’t be more pleased with him. My one concern is getting over the track.”
Heavy On Themister will be looking for his first win at Delta, a surface over which he is 0 for 2. Rosie Napravnik, who rode the horse in the Classic, has the mount in the Championship.

Napravnik has the mount on leading contender Ladyzarbridge in the companion race for fillies and mares, the $150,000 Premier Night Distaff. Napravnik was aboard Ladyzarbridge for her last start, when she won the $100,000 Louisiana Champions Day Ladies at Fair Grounds with a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 91. Eddie Johnston trains the mare and also co-owns her with Chuck Zacney.

◗ When last seen at Delta, and last seen racing around two turns, Sittin At the Bar finished a big third to Rose to Gold in the Grade 3, $500,000 Delta Downs Princess on Nov. 17. Since then, Sittin At the Bar has won a pair of Louisiana-bred stakes by a combined margin of 10 lengths. She will be moving back to two turns for the $125,000 Starlet, a seven-furlong race for 3-year-old fillies. Mark Guidry has the mount on Sittin At the Bar for P. Dale Ladner and trainer Brett Brinkman.

◗ The $125,000 Prince is for 3-year-olds at the same two-turn trip of seven-furlongs. Mr. Bandini’s Band is returning to the statebred ranks after finishing first in the $100,000 Big Drama last month at Delta, a race in which he was placed fourth for impeding a rival. Others set to start include Hero Force, winner of the $100,000 Louisiana Champions Day Juvenile at Fair Grounds.

◗ In the $100,000 Sprint at five furlongs, Su Casa G Casa, winner of the $100,000 Louisiana Champions Day Sprint at Fair Grounds, takes on Yonaguska Storm, who moves into stakes competition off an allowance win in New Orleans for which he earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 101.
◗ Wire Me Bessie, a winner of three of her last four starts, seeks her first stakes win in the $100,000 Matron, a five-furlong race for fillies and mares. Kerwin Clark has the mount for Richard Louis Smith.

◗ The Louisiana Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association will award two $1,000 scholarships on Saturday night, with a drawing to be held about 7:40 p.m. Central.