Eight seek Super Derby berth in Prelude
A berth into next month’s Grade 2, $400,000 Super Derby is at stake Saturday at Louisiana Downs in the $100,000 Prelude, which has brought together Kentucky shippers Allied Air Raid, Holiday Man, and Lucky Stranger and Louisiana-bred talents The Pickett Factor, Mobile Bay, and Four Leaf Chief.
The Prelude, a 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-olds that will share a card with six divisional statebred stakes making up the annual Louisiana Cup, rewards its winner with a fees-paid berth into the Super Derby. It’s a perk worth $4,000, according to Louisiana Downs racing secretary David Heitzmann.
The Prelude goes as the seventh race on an eight-race card that wraps up with String King attempting to nail down career stakes win No. 12 in the $75,000 Louisiana Cup Turf Classic. The program starts at 3 p.m. Central.
Prelude, Race 7
KEY CONTENDERS
Allied Air Raid (Last 3 Beyers: 88-85-87)
◗ He could go favored off his runner-up finish to Bent On Bourbon in the Grade 3 Iowa Derby on June 27. Allied Air Raid finished three lengths behind the winner in the 1 1/16-mile race at Prairie Meadows.
“It was a big effort,” said trainer Brad Cox. “He was caught kind of wide around the first turn. I thought we were going to go by the winner at the three-eighths pole. We were never really able to get to him. He kind of kept grinding. It was a good effort. He got a good number from the race, and I think anything close to that puts him right there in the Prelude.”
◗ Allied Air Raid, whose two career wins have come in overnight races at Oaklawn, is owned by the Mid-South partnership of Marshall Gramm, Clay Sanders, Mike Pietrangelo, of Memphis, Tenn., and Gary Pitts, of Arkansas. He was a $50,000 auction purchase at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. last year at 2.
“They bought the horse with the purses being so good at Oaklawn to get some of that money, and he did a good job of it,” Cox said. “He paid for himself. He’s been a decent horse all along, and he’s moving forward.”
◗ Richard Eramia has the mount from post 6.
“We’ll probably just sit off of it a little bit,” said Cox. “A tactical spot would be ideal.”
Mobile Bay (Last 3 Beyers: 85-78-78)
◗ He is seeking to win his fourth straight race in the Prelude. Mobile Bay’s streak started in May, when he won a first-level allowance at Evangeline Downs. He proceeded to take the $70,000 Lafayette and the $100,000 Louisiana Legends Cheval, both against statebreds at Evangeline.
“He’s been such a cool horse,” said trainer Victor Arceneaux. “He’s won on a sloppy track. He’s won on a fast track. He’s won on turf. He’s won on the lead, and he’s won coming from way off of it. He’s very versatile.”
◗ Mobile Bay is by Lone Star Special, who was a two-time stakes winner at Louisiana Downs in 2008. Mobile Bay races for his breeder, Irwin Olian.
◗ Jockey Don Simington takes over for regular rider Diego Saenz, who is sidelined by injury. Mobile Bay will break from post 8 in the field of eight.
String King seeks three-peat
String King will be gunning for his third straight win in the Turf Classic when he breaks from the rail in the 1 1/16-mile turf race for 3-year-olds and up bred in Louisiana.
String King won the Turf Classic at 5 and again last year at 6. He will benefit if the race stays on the grass, unlike his last start, when he won the off-the-turf Louisiana Legends Classic at Evangeline Downs. String King is 12 for 25 on grass. Overall, the horse, bred, owned, and trained by Charlie Smith, has won 16 of 36 starts and $890,552.
Eramia has the mount on String King, whose chief rivals include Heavy On Themister and Hail to the Nile.
◗ Heatseeker Sharon has a chance to wire the field in the $75,000 Distaff, a 1 1/16-mile turf race for fillies and mares. She used the same tactics last out to win the $100,000 Louisiana Legends Distaff at Evangeline.
◗ Afternoon Tango could get more pace in the $50,000 Filly and Mare Sprint than she did in her last start, when a closing second in an Evangeline stakes won by the front-running Snappy Girl.
◗ Cajun Conoseir seeks her second straight stakes win in the $50,000 Juvenile Fillies, while the same can be said for Cale’s Gold in the $50,000 Juvenile.
◗ Too Dim shakes Heitai in the $50,000 Sprint, a six-furlong race that also drew horse-for-the-course Top Cat Boogie.