Fair Grounds: Cozze Up Lady joins Mardi Gras party just in time

Cozze Up Lady hadn’t raced since she won the Chicago Handicap last June at Arlington. She never had started on dirt, and was running on a supremely sloppy track Tuesday when persistent rain forced the $60,000 Mardi Gras Stakes to be moved from turf to the main track.

The gates opened for the race and Cozze Up Lady barely moved. By the time she started running, the rest of the field had a head start of several lengths, and as the eight horses in the 5 1/2-furlong Mardi Gras turned into the homestretch, Cozze Up Lady still was last.

But racing out in the middle of the track under Rosie Napravnik, Cozze Up Lady started picking up steam at the quarter pole. She passed three horses spinning their wheels in midstretch and took aim at a quartet of fillies and mares massed at the front of the pack. Cozze Up Lady didn’t even work her way into the pan shot of the race until the final sixteenth mile, when she burst into the picture and past her remaining rivals, hitting the front a stride or two before the finish.

“I lost all confidence after the break,” winning trainer Bret Calhoun said. “Rosie said she just kind of stood there.”

It was a wild finish to the Mardi Gras: The top five finishers were separated by little more than one length. Saturday Inthe Park made the lead from post 1 over Good Deed, setting splits of 22.13 seconds for the quarter and 45.39 to the half. Both pacesetters stuck around to the end, challenged before the eighth pole by a boldly looming Seeking Ms Shelley, and then by Same Cross, who lacked room trying to rally between horses.

No one saw Cozze Up Lady coming down the center – not until it was too late. She was up by a nose, stopping the timer in 1:05.10, and paying $12.40 to win.

Saturday Inthe Park stayed on for second, Good Deed was third, Same Cross fourth, and Seeking Ms Shelley fifth.

Calhoun has long been pointing Cozze Up Lady to the Grade 1 Madison Stakes on April 12 at Keeneland, and he was set on running her Tuesday regardless of conditions.

“I had to get an out in her, and we always thought this filly had trained well enough on dirt,” Calhoun said. “I thought this was a little short for her, but I felt good going into the race.”

It was a dazzling closing kick from a mare that, at 5, might still have her best racing ahead of her. By Cozzene, Cozze Up Lady won for the sixth time in 12 starts, and as well as she ran Tuesday, she might be better over a longer one-turn distance and on a synthetic racing surface like the one at Keeneland.

“She hasn’t been this healthy in two years,” said trainer Bret Calhoun. “I really feel like we could have a big year with her if things go right.”