OPELOUSAS, La. – All three of last Saturday’s stakes winners at Evangeline Downs emerged in good order and likely are headed upstate to Louisiana Downs for Louisiana Cup Day on Aug. 2. There is a small chance, however, that one might be headed out of state instead. “We are obviously looking at the race at Louisiana Downs,” said Ronnie Ward, who trains Joy of the Saints, the winner of the fillies’ division of the $100,000 D.S. “Shine” Young Futurity. “But there is a race at Prairie Meadows in a couple of weeks [the Prairie Gold Lassie]. It’s worth $75,000, compared to $50,000 [the Louisiana Cup Juvenile Fillies]. We’ll sit down and talk about it and decide in a few days.” While purse size definitely does matter, Ward and owner Poindexter Thoroughbreds already have recouped their investment in Joy of the Saints, a modest $5,700 purchase at the Breeders’ Sales Co. of Louisiana yearling sale last fall. The daughter of Saint Afleet has won $75,600 in her 2-for-2 career. When asked why they purchased her, Ward immediately replied, “Family history.” “We have a full sister [Pagini] to her that won the Juvenile Fillies at Louisiana Downs for us last year,” he said. “We acquired that filly privately, and we knew the breeder. We made a couple of trips down to see Joy of the Saints before the sale and liked what we saw.” Trainer Pat Devereux, who sent out the upset winner of the male division of the Shine, Union Builder ($59), is eagerly awaiting the return trip to Louisiana Downs. “We finally get to bring a fresh horse up there,” Devereux said Monday. “I’ve felt that in the past, we have sent some tired horses, and they haven’t run as well as we had hoped.” Devereux said one of the biggest reasons for the freshness angle is that instead of running in a qualifying trial for the Shine as in years past, finalists this year were determined by earnings. “I like the new system,” Devereux said. “You can break your maiden at your own pace instead of having to shoot for a specific date that the trials are run on.” Although Union Builder had to settle for fourth in his only other start, a maiden special weight race June 6, Devereux was high on the Coteau Grove Farms homebred in his first stakes try. “We knew he could run,” Devereux said. “The 4 1/2 furlongs of that maiden race is just not him with all that rushing. Saturday, he broke well and settled real nice just off the pace.” Benwill, the winner of the inaugural running of the Red, White and Blue Stakes on turf against open company Saturday, will stay on that surface for his next start. “The Louisiana Cup Turf looks like a real good spot for him,” trainer Mike Burgess said this week. “Then, if all goes well, they have another turf stakes on Super Derby Day [Sept. 6].” Benwill’s latest victory was his second over the Evangeline turf this season, following a score in the John Henry in April. A troubled third in the Louisiana Legends Turf was sandwiched between the two recent wins. Overall, the 5-year-old son of Leestown has won 5 of 19 starts, but only his last four races have been under Burgess’s care. “I always knew he had ability,” Burgess said. “I followed him earlier in his career, and he showed me enough to know he could compete. He had some issues that we had to take a lot of time with, but he really seems to have responded to our program.”