Fair Grounds notes: Trainer Burgess takes stable private

NEW ORLEANS – Veteran Fair Grounds trainer Mike Burgess has gone private, and he’s off and running in his new position.

In late August, Burgess, 45, took over as the private trainer for Oak Leaf, the racing operation of Royce Roberts. After being based at Fair Grounds in previous seasons with a public stable, Burgess has become strictly a ship-in trainer. He lives at the Oak Leaf Training Center, Roberts’s 140-acre facility in Tyler, Texas. Burgess said he’s training 18 horses for Roberts, with five more on the way.

“He’s great to work with, and he lets me make the right decisions with the horses,” Burgess said.

Roberts, who owns Arctic Pipe Inspection, an oil-field service company, said of Burgess: “He just seems to be a straightforward person. That’s what I want.”

Most of the horses will race at Fair Grounds, though some will run at Delta Downs, Burgess said. On Nov. 23, Burgess saddled his first two Fair Grounds starters for Oak Leaf, winning a maiden race for Louisiana-bred 2-year-olds with Yankee Hunter and finishing fourth in an open optional-claiming race with Productive Envoy. At the current Delta Downs meet, Burgess won with three of his first four starters.

Yankee Hunter, who lost a Delta Downs maiden sprint by a nose in his debut, was in control all the way in his Fair Grounds race, running 5 1/2 furlongs in 1:05.21 to win by four lengths.

Burgess said he’s considering either the Louisiana Champions Day Juvenile on Dec. 14 or the Louisiana Futurity on Dec. 31 for the colt’s next start.

“He is probably, without a doubt, the best Louisiana-bred colt I’ve ever had,” Burgess said.

Flores enjoying New Orleans

Jockey David Flores has been a traveling man this year. He spent two weeks in Singapore, where he won three races. Then he went to France, where he rode No Nay Never to victory for trainer Wesley Ward in the Group 1 Prix Morny in August at Deauville. “The racing is beautiful,” he said.

Then Flores headed to Kentucky, where he rode for five weeks. Now, riding in his first meet at Fair Grounds, he’s off to a solid start, with four wins from his first 12 mounts.

“I love it so far,” he said. “It’s a great track. The horse racing is good. I love it.”

Flores made Southern California his base for 24 years and consistently ranked among the top riders on the circuit. But in recent years, his business slowed.

“It was time for me to make a move,” said Flores, 45.

Flores, who through Thursday had 3,528 career wins, won three Breeders’ Cup races – the Mile on Singletary in 2004, the Juvenile on Action This Day in 2003, and the Juvenile Fillies on Tempera in 2001. He won the Arlington Million on Sulamani in 2003 and the Kentucky Oaks on Keeper Hill in 1998.

Aboard Siphon, Flores won the Hollywood Gold Cup in 1996 and the Santa Anita Handicap in 1997 before finishing second in the Dubai World Cup.

“Siphon was one of my best,” Flores said.

Jockeys satisfied with turf

The Fair Grounds turf course, repaired during the offseason, has received favorable early reviews from jockeys.

“It’s very good,” said Leandro Goncalves, who rode in two of the four grass races during the opening weekend of the meet. “The horses get a hold of it.”

Unlike last season, he said, sand doesn’t kick back into a rider’s race.

James Graham, who won the Mr. Sulu Stakes on String King on Nov. 23 in the meet’s first turf race and rode a claiming-race winner on turf the next day, said: “As long as they don’t overdo it and run on it when it’s wet, it’ll be fine. It wasn’t nearly as wet as it had been the last couple of years.”

Last season, because of wet weather and drainage problems, the course was falling apart. It was scraped clean during the offseason, a different type of grass was planted, and drainage repairs were made.

It rained opening night, Nov. 22, when no turf races were scheduled. The course was yielding for the Mr. Sulu. Two other races scheduled for turf that day were switched to the main track. The three turf races on the Nov. 24 card were run on a yielding course.

“A little bit soft, but not bad at all,” Goncalves said.

The rail was out 25 feet for the first four turf races, two of which were won by front-runners. The local turf for years was known for stopping front-runners, even when the pace was slow. Jockey Jamie Theriot said he doesn’t expect this course to show a bias.

“It’s going to be fair, totally different,” Theriot said. “I don’t think that the grass course will be an issue this year. You can ride your race. You don’t have to ride the course.”