Fair Grounds: Strike Impact may finally get his chance

The 2012-13 Fair Grounds meet was kind to Strike Impact. The aging gelding, running as well as he ever had in a career dating to 2006, was loving the tricky Fair Grounds grass course. He won the Diliberto Memorial Handicap, and later in the meet almost captured a high-end grass allowance.

This winter in New Orleans? Different story. Strike Impact turned 10 on Jan. 1, and his racing days surely are running short, but the gelding’s trainer and co-owner Pat Dupuy cannot seem to get Strike Impact into a race. There have been five or six different spots in which Strike Impact might’ve landed, but the races either failed to fill or were rained off grass. To add insult to injury, the one time Strike Impact nearly got to run on turf, he was scratched in the paddock for having shoes that turned down slightly longer than permitted on the Fair Grounds course. Strike Impact is one of 10 horses entered in the featured eighth race Friday at Fair Grounds – meaning you pretty much know what’s going to happen: The about one-mile turf race, which has multiple allowance conditions and also is open to $62,500 claimers, could easily wind up being run on the main track. That evidently was the thought among local horsemen when entries were taken: Among the 10, three horses are entered main track only, while four of the seven in the main body of the field would benefit from a move from grass to dirt.

Should the feature remain on turf, Strike Impact appears to have as good a chance as anyone, though he has taken nine straight losses since his mild upset of the 2012 Diliberto. The other legit grass horses are Mr. Vegas, whose best form came during the 2011-12 Fair Grounds meet, and All Stormy, who was a distant second in a Jan. 9 grass race at this level.

Two of the three main-track-only horses, Populist Politics and Arkansas Martini, also are entered Saturday in a Louisiana-bred stakes at Delta Downs. The third main-track-only, Flashy Sunrise, fits the spot decently but rarely wins, with just 3 victories from 27 starts.

Hard Aces, who seems intended for dirt, steps up in class, but can win his second straight route race at the meet. Trained by Larry Jones, Hard Aces beat 10 second-level allowance foes while winning by three-quarters of a length Jan. 1, despite racing at least five paths wide on the first turn and three or four wide on the second. The 4-year-old Hard Spun colt still is improving and has a much better draw in post 5 than was the case when he won his last start.