Fair Grounds: Turf favorite Kids Rule re-routed to Battaglia Memorial at Turfway Park

An overnight deluge left Fair Grounds water-logged Wednesday morning, meaning grass races for subsequent days at the New Orleans track were, in all likelihood, destined for the main track yet again.

Trainer Mike Stidham has Kids Rule entered in the nominal Friday feature, a $41,900, first-level allowance for 3-year-olds scheduled for a mile on the turf course, but he said early Wednesday by phone that he fully expected to scratch the colt and run him instead Saturday in the Battaglia Memorial Stakes at Turfway Park.

“I’d say there’s zero percent chance of any turf racing here Thursday or Friday,” said Stidham. “The infield is flooded and there’s standing water everywhere. I’m already planning to put Kids Rule on a van and have him run there in Kentucky.”

Clearly, the complexion of Friday’s seventh race that had Kids Rule as a lukewarm morning-line favorite would undergo a major change with a surface switch and the probability of multiple scratches from an original field of nine 3-year-olds. Trainer Larry Jones is the obvious beneficiary, as he has entered a powerful uncoupled entry of Campeon and The Trunk Monkey, both of whom appear fully capable of winning at a mile and 40 yards on the main track.

Campeon, with Kerwin Clark to ride, earned a field-high Beyer Speed Figure of 93 when capturing an off-the-turf maiden sprint on Feb. 13 in his third career start.

The Trunk Monkey, with leading jockey Rosie Napravnik named, was all the rage in winning his Jan. 31 career by a neck as a 7-5 favorite, earning an 86 Beyer.

Jones has been particularly hot throughout the three-month-old Fair Grounds meet, having won with 24 of his first 76 starters (32 percent). He narrowly missed winning the Risen Star Stakes last Saturday with Albano, a 13-1 shot beaten just a nose by Intense Holiday.

Among the others in the race-7 feature, Teniente Coronel will run regardless of surface, said trainer Paul McGee, who scratched the colt last weekend from the Risen Star to await an easier spot.

One other allowance (race 5) also is on tap for a nine-race Friday program. It, too, is likely to go at a mile and 40 yards on the main, having originally been carded at a mile on turf. A field of seven older Louisiana-breds is entered for a $38,700 purse.

First post is 1:25 p.m. Central, with the feature set for 4:25.

◗ The Saturday feature is the inaugural running of the $60,000 Star Guitar for older statebreds at 1 1/16 miles on the main track.

◗ A rare Tuesday card will be held this coming week at Fair Grounds because of the Mardi Gras holiday.

◗ The next Friday twilight program (5 p.m. post) is scheduled for March 14.