Excess Magic should fire following layoff

A pair of second-level turf allowance races – a turf sprint for males and a turf route for females – highlight a nine-race program Friday at Fair Grounds.

Race 8, the sprint, carded at about 5 1/2 furlongs and also open to $40,000 claimers, drew a number of talented horses, but the pick – presumably at a price – is Excess Magic.

Excess Magic hasn’t started since February, but his trainer, Bret Calhoun, long ago proved he can have a long-layoff comebacker ready to hit its pre-break baseline. And Excess Magic, who has raced only six times, still has ample room to grow.

Excess Magic’s best races have come at one mile, but this colt has plenty of speed to keep up in a sprint race and finished first, though he was disqualified, turf-sprinting in his career debut. His Remington Park maiden win came by a wide margin (and included trouble not really noted in the official chart), and before finishing second by a nose in the $200,000 Texas Turf Mile, Excess Magic was a sharp Fair Grounds winner in a short turf route.

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The co-featured sixth, the filly-and-mare route, looks just as competitive as the later race, but with less talented entrants. The tepid selection is Princess Theorem, one of two entrants, along with Vividly, trained by Brendan Walsh.

Forgive Princess Theorem’s most recent start, an 11th-place finish in the Grade 3 Valley View over the tricky Keeneland grass course and look to her Aug. 9 restricted-stakes win over the Colonial turf as a marker of her suitability to this spot. Princess Theorem finished fifth last meet in her lone try on the Fair Grounds lawn but was hurt that afternoon by a stark lack of pace at which to run.