Fair Grounds: Vicar's in Trouble coming for Louisiana Derby

Vicar’s in Trouble will be returning to Fair Grounds for the Louisiana Derby on March 29, according to owner Ken Ramsey, after a foot ailment forced the horse’s connections to rule out the March 23 Sunland Park Derby.

The winner of the Jan. 18 Lecomte Stakes at Fair Grounds by nearly seven lengths, Vicar’s in Trouble was sent to trainer Mike Maker’s main winter base at Gulfstream Park after the colt ran third as the favorite in the Feb. 22 Risen Star at Fair Grounds.

[ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Prep races, point standings, replays]

“He popped an abscess the day after he got back here to Florida,” Ramsey said Wednesday by phone from his condominium near Gulfstream. “The colt missed about four days of training because of it. Mike said we couldn’t make the Sunland Derby but thinks we’ll be okay for Louisiana, so that’s where we’re going.”

Ramsey said he is intent on making the May 3 Kentucky Derby “with as many horses as I can, pure and simple.”

“I’m trying to get as many Derby points as I can in the next five or six weeks,” he said.

Toward that end, he is sending We Miss Artie to the March 22 Spiral Stakes on Polytrack at Turfway Park and is moving Bobby’s Kitten – whose five starts have all been on grass – to the Keeneland Polytrack for the April 12 Blue Grass Stakes.

Ramsey said he will come to New Orleans to watch not only Vicar’s in Trouble in the $1 million Louisiana Derby but also Real Solution in the Grade 2, $300,000 Mervin Muniz Memorial. The Muniz is one of four graded stakes on the Louisiana Derby card.

Real Solution, the winner of the Arlington Million by disqualification last summer, has had nine workouts at Palm Meadows in south Florida since getting a brief respite following a ninth-place finish in the Nov. 2 Breeders’ Cup Turf. Real Solution was invited to run later this month in Dubai, but Ramsey said he and trainer Chad Brown agreed that the Muniz is a more prudent start to a 5-year-old campaign.

In other Ramsey news, $1.1 million earner Big Blue Kitten has been sent to Ramsey Farm in central Kentucky for a break but is expected back “before too long,” while $1.6 million earner Stephanie’s Kitten is being trained up to the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley on April 12 at Keeneland after missing her planned comeback for Brown last Saturday in the Hillsborough Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs.

“Four days out from the Tampa race, she rapped her right hock in her stall and got a puncture wound that required three stitches and us to treat her with antibiotics,” Ramsey said. “She’s already fine.”

Ramsey returned Monday to south Florida after becoming the first American owner to win the Barbados Gold Cup since the race was created in 1982. Although his past performances will not reflect it because Barbados is not recognized by Equibase, Major Marvel, an 8-year-old gelding trained by Maker, won the Saturday race with Barbadian native Patrick Husbands aboard. Ramsey said he received a 28-inch-high trophy and the equivalent of about $60,000.

“It was a blast,” he said. “They treated me like royalty. The next day, I got to throw out the ball to start a polo match, and the governor gave me a bottle of his best 10-year-old rum. I even had my own paparazzi following me around.”

◗ Friday marks the final twilight racing program of the four-month Fair Grounds meet. First post is 5 p.m. Central, with the last of nine races set for 9:45. The nominal feature goes as race 8. It’s a $38,700 second-level allowance for older Louisiana-bred sprinters.

◗ The highlight of the coming weekend at Fair Grounds is the $60,000 Colonel Power, a 5 1/2-furlong turf race for older horses Saturday.