Fair Grounds: Unknown Road to be short price in Friday allowance
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
There’s a wide range of methods for bringing along young, talented horses.
Vicar’s in Trouble was given a break of five weeks but jumped way up in class from a Louisiana-bred maiden win to make a smashing two-turn debut last Saturday in the Lecomte Stakes. Beaten Lecomte favorite Gold Hawk went from a maiden race at seven furlongs in late November to a two-turn allowance race Dec. 27, then came back in just 22 days for the Lecomte.
Trainer Al Stall? He’s taking it slow and steady with Unknown Road, the Bernardini ridgling who looked as good as any young horse at this meet when he won a maiden sprint race Dec. 19 by 11 3/4 lengths.
Stall passed on the Lecomte, hoped and prayed that a first-level allowance race around two turns would fill as a possible prep for the Feb. 22 Risen Star Stakes, and breathed a sigh of relief Saturday when six horses were entered in a race carded as the fifth on Friday’s program.
“I just wanted to stick to the horse’s schedule,” Stall said. “It was touch-and-go, too, but thank goodness the race went.”
[ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Prep races, point standings, replays]
Unknown Road could have a very bright future. In his career debut Nov. 9 at Aqueduct, he rallied from three lengths down at the stretch call to come within three-quarters of a length of the hot Chad Brown-trained colt Coup de Grace. Then, in his first start since being transferred from trainer Mike Hushion to Stall, came the Fair Grounds romp, which earned Unknown Road a 98 Beyer Speed Figure. Unknown Road won under a hand ride from Shaun Bridgmohan at a six-furlong trip that, on pedigree, should fall well short of his best trip. Unknown Road, owned by JMJ Racing Stables, is out of the mare Banshee Winds, whose best runner, Banshee Breeze, won Grade 1 stakes at 1 1/2 miles and 1 1/4 miles.
“I assumed he was doing it comfortably last time,” Stall said. Bridgmohan “came back and said he had gears. We’ll certainly try to turn him off early, if possible, without getting into a wrestling match out there. This is all part of the learning deal.”
As a betting proposition, race 5 is unappealing, with Unknown Road likely to go postward at odds of something like 2-5.
Also part of a generally appealing card is race 7, a second-level, two-turn dirt allowance race for older horses that pits Ground Transport against Karibu Gardens, who was making his dirt debut and just the third start of his career when he won a first-level allowance by four lengths last month at Fair Grounds.