Distance should make difference for Ms Zibby

David Anderson is the type of common American name you might imagine you’ve seen around the horse racing game for decades. When it comes to Nebraska racing, you’re not imagining.

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David Anderson is a 14-time trainer of the year at Fonner Park and a member of the Nebraska Racing Hall of Fame. He got himself suspended for three years, 2009 to 2012, for medication violations (that he denied committing even after serving his time), but for the most part picked up where he left off when returning to racing in 2013. Anderson had 26 winners last year at Fonner Park and is right in the thick of things again this season with 14 trips to the winner’s circle entering the Monday-through-Wednesday racing week spanning April 13-15. Anderson has horses entered in four of Monday’s nine races (1, 2, 8, and 9) and can finish off the late pick four and the day’s final pick three with a filly named Ms Zibby in race 9.

Ms Zibby is listed at 8-1 on the morning line, and while she’s likely to be a shorter price than that in the win pool, she’d still give a solid boost to horizontal exotic wagers closing out the card.

Anderson had this filly ready to run early in the Fonner meet, starting her Feb. 29 under Nebraska-bred allowance conditions in a half-mile dash in which she finished a close third. She was back in a $5,000 beaten claimer about a month later, closing good late ground for third in another four-furlong race that just looked a little too sharp for her natural proclivities. Anderson, accordingly, stretches Ms Zibby out to a two-turn, six-furlong start Monday, and that move could make all the difference. A year ago, Ms Zibby turned in one of her peak performances third race off the layoff while racing six furlongs against Nebraska-bred allowance foes at Fonner, and while this is an open claimer, she’s not in too tough.

Maybe Racey Reecey in race 8 can provide a bridge to Ms Zibby in race 9. Racey Reecey is trained by James Compton, who has been coming around Fonner for just about as long as David Anderson. Compton doesn’t start as many horses nor win as many Fonner races as Anderson, but he definitely appears to know the deep permutations of this small bullring oval that has come to prominence during the coronavirus pandemic. Racey Reecey hasn’t started since Sept. 28, but that isn’t a bad thing. Compton over the last five years at Fonner has a record of 21-7-1-4 ($1.99 return on investment) with horses returning from a layoff of 100 to 200 days. She’s posted one half-mile work in a bullet 49 seconds at Fonner, suggesting she’s been legging up for this return somewhere off the track and is ready to roll Monday from post 1.