Fair Grounds: Unknown Road becomes stakes prospect winning maiden with 98 Beyer

Al Stall Jr. was expecting to have a fairly quiet Christmas with his family in his native New Orleans, but the excitement quotient got turned up a few notches Thursday when he sent out a promising 2-year-old named Unknown Road to a rousing victory at Fair Grounds.

Unknown Road, making his second career start, took what was touted beforehand as a very deep six-furlong maiden race and quickly turned it into a one-sided affair, leading throughout to prevail by 11 3/4 lengths and earning a 98 Beyer Speed Figure.

Unknown Road surely made more than a few horses-to-watch lists for the 2014 Kentucky Derby, in no small part because of his bloodlines: He is by the top sire Bernardini and was produced by Banshee Winds, making him a half-brother to champion Banshee Breeze.

“We’ll definitely stretch him out in his next race,” Stall said. “We’ll either find a one-other-than allowance for him or just wait for the Lecomte” on Jan. 19. “He’s got the pedigree and the demeanor to suggest he wants more ground.”

Unknown Road, a dark bay ridgling, is owned by the JMJ Racing Stables of Dennis Narlinger. In his only prior start, he ran second to Coup de Grace in a Nov. 9 maiden race at Aqueduct when trained by Mike Hushion. Coup de Grace, incidentally, is now 2 for 2 after winning a first-level allowance race last weekend at Gulfstream Park.

Meanwhile, Stall said Departing, one of the top 3-year-olds of 2013, recently arrived in his barn following a 10-week freshening at Claiborne Farm and is being put back into light training.

“He got here last weekend,” he said. “Saturday [Dec. 21] will be his first day to go to the track. He looks absolutely fabulous.”

Bred and owned by Claiborne and Adele Dilschneider, Departing won 5 of 8 starts this year and nearly $1.4 million, most of it from wins in the Illinois Derby, West Virginia Derby, and Super Derby.

Departing was the 1-5 favorite when trying for a fourth derby in the Sept. 29 Oklahoma Derby at Remington Park but ran fourth. He was then turned out.

“We’ll point for an older-horse race in the spring, although we’re not ready to pinpoint anything yet,” he said.

Another Stall standout, Vexed, was scheduled to return to training soon and will be pointed to the major events for 3-year-old fillies, starting with the Feb. 23 Rachel Alexandra. Vexed, a Claiborne/Dilschneider homebred, won the Nov. 30 Golden Rod Stakes on closing day of the Churchill Downs fall meet.

“We sent her down here right after the Golden Rod, and she’s just been doing a lot of tack-walking and taking it easy,” Stall said. “We wanted to give her about 30 days, so she’ll be back to the track real soon.”

Sign, an older half-sister to Vexed, still has yet to arrive from Claiborne following a lengthy layoff, Stall said.

One other Stall trainee, Central Banker, has been in California since Dec. 13 to prepare for the Grade 1 Malibu on the opening-day program Thursday at Santa Anita. The colt breezed Friday with Joe Talamo aboard.

Central Banker, owned by Klaravich Stables and William Lawrence, will be stretching out from a sharp effort in the Thanksgiving Handicap, in which he earned a career-high 101 Beyer.

“We’re hoping for plenty of pace in there,” Stall said.