Fair Grounds: Golden Ticket coming in for Mineshaft

Trainer Ken McPeek has confirmed Golden Ticket for the Grade 3 Mineshaft Handicap, one of the secondary features on the Louisiana Derby Preview card. Golden Ticket, a dead-heat winner of the Travers in August, most recently was an easy winner of a second-level optional claiming race at Gulfstream Park and will come into the 1 1/16-mile race with four weeks between starts.

McPeek said Golden Ticket will ship from south Florida two days before the race, along with others coming from that region for the big day. Jimmy Graham will have the mount.

“He ran super in that last race,” McPeek said. “He’s acted as a solid horse ever since I got him, but I’ve always thought he was a horse that is going to get better as he got older.”

Other likely starters in the $150,000 Mineshaft include Infrattini and Mark Valeski, the respective one-two finishers in the Louisiana Handicap last month.

* Trainer Steve Margolis said he will mull his upcoming options with Good Deed, who returned from an eight-month layoff Tuesday with a one-length triumph over Beat the Blues in the $72,750 Mardi Gras Handicap.

Margolis said Wednesday morning that he would consult with Richard Klein, whose family bred and owns Good Deed, about what would be a suitable next spot. Good Deed, a 4-year-old filly by Broken Vow, has won 5 of 9 career starts.

* The nominal feature of a 10-race Friday card is the ninth, a $41,000, first-level allowance with a $30,000 claiming option. Mischievous Mama, favorably drawn to the far outside post in a field of nine Louisiana-bred 3-year-old fillies, is a lukewarm favorite for the familiar tandem of jockey Miguel Mena and trainer Wes Hawley.

The Saturday feature is the $60,000 Sarah Lane’s Oates, the seventh of 11 races.