Expect more from Major Gain second time back
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
The Monday card at Fair Grounds starts off a bit slowly but hits its stride with a nice sequence in races 5-7. The fifth is a second-level optional $20,000 claiming race on turf for Louisiana-breds, the sixth is a first-level allowance for fillies and mares, and the seventh is a second-level optional $40,000 claiming turf sprint.
The Fair Grounds racing schedule is a little confusing this week. This is the first Monday card of the racing season. Fair Grounds will be dark Tuesday, but then race on Wednesday for the only time this meet Dec. 31. Racing will continue daily through Sunday. Monday racing will also be held Jan. 12, 19, and 26.
The 10-horse turf sprint in race 7 will rematch the second- through fifth-place finishers from a similar race on Dec. 6. Petey Cramer led all the way that day to win as the 6-5 favorite. Forest Elf rallied willingly to be second by a neck over Billy Two Hats, who stalked the winner early but lacked the needed kick. Hawk’s Image challenged inside the winner in upper stretch but flattened out late. It’s a difficult group to separate.
The most interesting horse coming out of that race is the old pro Major Gain. Soon to turn 7, he was returning from the second layoff of more than a year in his career. Although his past-performance line looks even, he made a mild bid along the inside into the stretch before being outfinished. In all likelihood, he needed that outing. Expect him to show more spark Monday.
Major Gain was a promising runner early in his career for owners Gary and Mary West and trainer Wayne Catalano. He has been owned and trained by Louie Roussel III since the fall of 2012.
As a 2-year-old of 2010, Major Gain won the Arlington-Washington Futurity and finished a close third in the Kentucky Jockey Club. His first long absence from the races was from January 2011 to July 2012. Prior to his Dec. 6 start, he had been off since October 2013. Florent Geroux takes over the reins Monday.
FORMULATOR FACT: In the past five years, Roussel is 32 for 158 (20 percent) with a return on investment of $1.67 with horses making their second start following a layoff.
Another serious player in this race is Reflector, who with eight starts is the most lightly raced horse in the field. In his last two starts, both for Patrick Devereux Jr., Reflector won a first-level turf sprint allowance at Indiana Grand on Sept. 30 and finished second behind the extremely fast Zee Bros over yielding turf at Keeneland in mid-October. Zee Bros came out of that race to win the De Francis Dash at Laurel Park.
Voodoo Spell won a first-level turf sprint for trainer Hugh Robertson in his first start of the meet and also is dangerous. Robertson was 2 for 5 at Fair Grounds as of Friday morning with all of his runners at the meet finishing third or better.
◗ In the fifth race, for statebreds, Tiger Run is the horse to beat off his 35-1 runner-up effort to String King in the Louisiana Classics Day Turf on Dec. 13. Tiger Run will be making the third start of his form cycle for trainer Gary Scherer on Monday.
Entered for the main track only is Popular Politics, once one of the leaders of the Louisiana-bred stakes ranks. If he starts, it will be for the $20,000 claiming option, the lowest price of his career. Populist Politics’s last win came eight starts back in the Louisiana Legends Classic at Evangeline in July 2013.
◗ Premura looks like the filly to beat in a wide-open race 6. She won a maiden race last out while making both her turf debut and her first start for trainer Mike Stidham, who returns her to the main track here.