Fair Grounds: Absence of Ide Be Cool leaves Crescent City Derby wide open
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NEW ORLEANS – With owner and trainer Ray Dunn’s decision to have the undefeated Ide Be Cool, a winner of six races, including four stakes, sit out the Crescent City Derby, the look of the race has changed.
Dunn said Tuesday he’s waiting to run Ide Be Cool in the Louisiana Legends Cheval on turf in May at Evangeline Downs. Without the gelding, who would have been an odds-on favorite, the $75,000, 1 1/16-mile race Saturday for Louisiana-bred 3-year-olds appears quite contentious.
“It’s a pretty open race,” said Ray Sibille, the trainer of Montbrooks Miracle, who is coming off a 1 3/4-length victory in a first-level optional-claiming race in his first start around two turns. “With Louisiana-breds, anything can happen.”
A full field of 14 horses, plus two also-eligibles, adds to the uncertainty. Montbrooks Miracle is among three stakes winners in the group. The others, both from this meet, are B and B’s Pulpit, who won the Gentilly on turf, and Dixie Beat, who won the Louisiana Futurity.
Louisiana-breds will be racing in two other stakes on the Louisiana Derby undercard – the $75,000 Crescent City Oaks for 3-year-old fillies running a mile and 70 yards and the $60,000 Dixie Poker Ace for 4-year-olds and older horses running about a mile on turf.
Montbrooks Miracle broke his maiden in the John Franks Memorial Sales Stakes in September at Evangeline Downs in his second start, then finished second, six lengths behind Ide Be Cool, in an allowance race in November at Delta Downs.
“After that race at Delta, we found some pressure in that [right] knee,” Sibille said. “We gave him about two months. Now we’re ready to go.”
Montbrooks Miracle finished third in an open optional-claiming sprint Feb. 16 in his return to competition before leading all the way when stretching out to a mile and 70 yards March 8 in his return to Louisiana-bred company. The next three finishers in that race – Clueless Rusty, trained by Richie Scherer; Youve Got a Friend, trained by Louie Roussel III; and B and B’s Pulpit, trained by Merrill Scherer – will get another crack Saturday at Montbrooks Miracle.
“He’s won two races and never missed a check,” Merrill Scherer said of Montbrooks Miracle. “To me, he’s the horse to beat.”
The Crescent City Oaks drew eight fillies. Closing Report, a Bret Calhoun trainee who won the Louisiana Premier Night Starlet and the Azalea Stakes at Delta Downs in her only races against Louisiana-breds, likely will draw strong betting support.
Designer Legs, trained by Dallas Stewart, hasn’t raced since finishing a distant seventh Nov. 2 in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. She won the Grade 2 Adirondack at Saratoga last year on a disqualification. This will be her first start against Louisiana-breds.
Another stakes winner in the field is All Woman, trained by Velton Vidrine. She won the Louisiana Jewel last year at Delta Downs.
Eight older horses will be running in the Dixie Poker Ace. Andy Leggio trains the 4-year-old gelding Skip the Pinot, a pace threat in sharp form but untested on turf. He ran six furlongs in 1:10.24 to run away with an optional-claiming race in his last start. Before that, he finished second to the fast sprinter Heitai in the Costa Rising and was third, 1 1/2 lengths behind the victorious Sunbean, in the Champions Day Classic.
Populist Politics, a 6-year-old with career earnings of $587,416 in 29 starts, has raced once on turf, finishing second in the Gentilly Stakes in 2011.