Eagle, Ride On Curlin using Tenacious as stepping-stone

NEW ORLEANS – Eagle, whose trip down the 2015 Triple Crown trail got derailed before it really began, and Ride On Curlin, the second-place finisher in the 2014 Preakness, headline the $60,000 Tenacious, one of six stakes on a 12-race card Saturday at Fair Grounds.

The Tenacious, as is the case with at least four of these stakes, sports a field that ought to be running for a six-figure purse, but the connections of both Eagle and Ride On Curlin hope Saturday’s mile-and-70-yard race can move their horse forward into 2016, when richer pots will be on offer here.

Eagle is one year younger than Ride On Curlin and two races ahead of him in their current form cycles. Injured after finishing seventh in the Lecomte Stakes last January, Eagle made the races again in September, finished a closing and useful sixth in a Churchill Downs sprint comeback, and subsequently won two route races, the first rallying into a fast pace at Keeneland and, more recently, while setting a slow pace at Churchill.

“He’s really done well demeanor-wise since he came back,” said Neil Howard, who trains Eagle, a Candy Ride colt, for owner and breeder Will Farish. “He was a little immature mentally, and that’s been the best part of it. The time off didn’t hurt him. He’s matured so much. He was always a beautiful colt, and he’s filled out some.”

With three pace factors entered – Nates Mineshaft, Supermason, and Witt Six – Eagle and jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. look likely to get a trip similar to their off-the-pace run at Keeneland. And while Eagle had good fortune in both recent two-turn wins, it’s a sign of quality that he could adapt to such tactically diverse circumstances.

Ride On Curlin this weekend is where Eagle was a couple of months ago – one race into a comeback from a long layoff. Taken out of training in May due to cannon-bone bruising, Ride On Curlin returned to action in the six-furlong Thanksgiving Handicap and rallied from eighth, 12 lengths behind the leader, to finish fifth, beaten about five lengths in a fast race.

“I thought he ran a hell of a race,” said trainer Billy Gowan. “He wasn’t really tight for that race. I hadn’t drilled on him that hard. We got two really good, strong works into him since, and he’s a lot fitter. He’s kind of acting like his old self again.”

Ride On Curlin’s peak race was his runner-up finish two springs ago in the Preakness, but he also ran well last winter at Oaklawn Park when second behind the talented Golden Lad while making his second start back from a layoff following another sprint comeback race.

If not Eagle or Ride On Curlin, then probably Freestyler, who had a difficult trip through the slop last out at Gulfstream and has the right running style to capitalize on the likely race shape.

Tough call in Tiffany Lass

The talent gap between Cash Control and her rivals in the $50,000 Tiffany Lass at a mile and 70 yards might not line up properly with the odds gap between the likely favorite and the race’s other contenders, especially since Brad Cox trains Cash Control, and his horses – live or not – have steadily been pounded at the betting windows early at this meet.

Cash Control, who was cross-entered in the Blushing K. D. but will run in this spot, will be favored, and while she can win, she’s unlikely to offer fair value. Cash Control brings the highest string of Beyer Speed Figures into the race, but keep in mind that two of them were earned on turf, and the most recent in a one-turn mile at Churchill in a race that was rained off the turf.

“She won the right way, but I think we beat some grass horses there,” said Cox.

Cash Control did win her only two-turn dirt start, which came at Fair Grounds two race meets ago, and she could work out a nice trip Saturday pressing the rail-drawn My Miss Venezuela, an apparently inferior foe.

Silent Ronin, 10-1 on the morning line, is at least a mildly appealing alternative to the favorite, though trainer Richie Scherer said he would have run the filly in a second-level allowance race here had one been available. Silent Ronin raced on Polytrack and turf through the summer and early autumn at Arlington but awakened when Scherer took her to Indiana Grand to try dirt, winning a maiden race and a first-level allowance there by more than 14 combined lengths.

“She’s training well. I don’t want to jump into stakes company, but my hands are kind of tied,” Scherer said. “She’s got a shot. The horses she was running against at Indiana weren’t this quality, but she was beating them handily. Hopefully, it was the dirt that moved her up and not just that track.”