Fair Grounds: Same Cross back on favored track to seek first stakes win in Happy Ticket

Racing in cities other than New Orleans, Same Cross has compiled a modest record: a second, two thirds, a fifth, and a ninth from five starts. But at Fair Grounds, she’s been nearly unbeatable. Same Cross has climbed the class ladder with ease, winning a maiden, a first-level allowance, a second-level allowance, and a third-level allowance by nearly 12 combined lengths in her four Fair Grounds dirt starts, and on Saturday, she’ll be favored to make it 5 for 5 and win her first stakes when she starts in the Happy Ticket, a six-furlong dirt race for older fillies and mares that’s one of two $60,000 stakes on an 11-race card. Same Cross finished fifth in last year’s 5 1/2-furlong Happy Ticket on turf, the only blemish on her overall Fair Grounds record.

Same Cross, bred and owned by Brereton Jones, trained by Larry Jones, and to be ridden by Rosie Napravnik, is 3-1 on the morning line, but that price seems substantially inflated. Same Cross was 3-5 when she cruised to her third-level allowance win Nov. 29; her merits are plain to see, and her connections tend to drive down odds.

But if Same Cross proves difficult to bet at a deflated price, she also is not easy to bet against, though this will be the deepest Fair Grounds race in which she’s participated. Same Cross wins her races from off the pace, with big moves around the far turn and into the homestretch, and like all very good one-run sprinters, she can sustain a strong bid for more than a quarter-mile. Her absence since late November is not a concern: Larry Jones has been hunting a spot for several weeks, trying without success to get Same Cross in turf races that get rained onto dirt, while keeping his mare sharp with occasional timed workouts.

The opposition is a mishmash. Swift Artist rallied well for third Jan. 4 in the Pan Zareta, but that was a grass race, and Swift Artist has not run as well on dirt. Los Ojitos finished second to the excellent (and retired) Cluster of Stars when last seen, but that was in April. Ire has knocked on the door in stakes races without winning, while Mama’s Dia, a 4-year-old with some upside, was passed easily by Same Cross when they met in late November.

Put it all together, and Same Cross is likely to come out of Saturday’s race with her flawless Fair Grounds dirt mark intact.

Fillies will Battle it out

There are seven 3-year-old fillies entered in the Battle of New Orleans, a 5 1/2-furlong grass race, and it is not an easy bunch to separate. Adrianne G is 2 for 2 at the meet, and though both wins came in turf races rained onto dirt, she might well prove equally effective on grass.

Toni’s Hollyday, soundly beaten by the good filly Divine Beauty in the Letellier Stakes last out, is the 5-2 morning-line favorite in her grass debut. Dramatize and Jenny Vignette are the only two fillies to have won a grass race.