Fair Grounds: Vicar's in Trouble looks to show growth in Risen Star Stakes
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[bc_video_id:316886:]NEW ORLEANS – Vicar’s in Trouble is a Louisiana-bred by Into Mischief who cost $8,000 at a yearling auction, and that’s exactly how he looks. His hair coat doesn’t glow. He’s on the light side. And, quite frankly, the colt is tiny: He’ll be a full head shorter than brutes like Gold Hawk when he lines up in the starting gate here Saturday for the Risen Star Stakes.
“He puffs up when he gets out on the track, though,” assistant trainer Joe Sharp said.
Indeed, Vicar’s in Trouble has made the opposition look puny in his two Fair Grounds starts. He crushed Louisiana-bred maiden sprinters Dec. 14 and treated his rivals in the Grade 3 Lecomte Stakes last month with equal disdain, winning by almost seven lengths.
Vicar’s in Trouble has sprinter’s speed, but he harnessed it in the Lecomte, his legs turning over at a blur as he spurted away from well-regarded rivals Albano and Gold Hawk in the stretch.
Can he do it again? That’s what the Risen Star will reveal, and Vicar’s in Trouble had another hurdle thrown in front of him when he drew post 14 for the Grade 2, $400,000 race over 1 1/16 miles. The scratch Wednesday of Bond Holder moves Vicar’s in Trouble into post 13 and allows also-eligible Emmett Park to get into the race. The second also-eligible, Teniente Coronel, won’t run even if there’s another scratch, trainer Paul McGee said.
Vicar’s in Trouble, resold as a 2-year-old for $80,000 to Ken and Sarah Ramsey, is the 5-2 favorite on the morning line. He showed rating ability in the Lecomte, settling off the flank of the pacesetting Roman Unbridled until jockey Rosie Napravnik gave him his cue midway around the far turn. Even while bounding clear, Vicar’s in Trouble ran greenly, changing leads while shifting in and out. His connections believe there’s room for improvement.
“In his overall presence, he’s starting to show more confidence,” Sharp said.
Vicar’s in Trouble has good gate habits, and an alert beginning Saturday can produce a favorable trip despite the wide draw. Delta Downs Jackpot winner Rise Up, drawn in post 2, also should take up the early running.
“He wants to be fairly close,” said jockey Gerard Melancon, who rode Rise Up in the $1 million Jackpot. “He’s a free-running horse.”
Rise Up’s three wins have come in a Mountaineer Park sprint and in two races around Delta’s small oval. Trainer Tom Amoss admits that the Risen Star will determine how much staying power and substance Rise Up possesses.
Intense Holiday has won only once in seven starts but can notch his first stakes win Saturday. In from Florida for trainer Todd Pletcher, Intense Holiday has met the best of his generation – Honor Code, Cairo Prince, and Havana – in East Coast graded stakes, but despite his ambitious schedule, he remains somewhat unexposed because of unlucky circumstances. A wide draw last month, for instance, made winning the Holy Bull Stakes, where Intense Holiday rallied for third, almost impossible.
“We think maybe we’re a good trip away from making that big jump forward we need,” Pletcher said.
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Intense Holiday has raced well off the pace in his last three starts but needn’t get that sort of trip again.
“I think he’s a horse who’s maybe a little handier than it looks on paper,” Pletcher said.
Albano beat Gold Hawk for second by a half-length in the Lecomte, a somewhat-disappointing performance for Gold Hawk, who was favored at 7-5 after a smart allowance win. Gold Hawk has trained forwardly since, and trainer Steve Asmussen still holds the Empire Maker colt in high regard.
“I think he’s very talented, and I do expect him to move forward, but he could improve and it still might not be enough,” Asmussen said. “And I am concerned with traffic: Fourteen runners, and he’s a very big horse.”
Albano has more positional speed than Gold Hawk, but his draw Saturday in post 1 is problematic.
Last-start maiden winners Hoppertunity and Commanding Curve merit respect. Hoppertunity took a big step forward while stretching out to two turns in his Jan. 30 maiden win at Santa Anita. He won easily and galloped out powerfully.
“The talent’s there,” trainer Bob Baffert said. “He just needs seasoning.”
Commanding Curve makes his first start since a sharp Churchill maiden win Nov. 30, though none of the 11 horses he beat there has shown much since. Trainer Dallas Stewart skipped the Lecomte and first-level allowance races to wait for the Risen Star.
“He’s built muscle, matured, and I think he’s ready for a stakes,” Stewart said.
Emmett Park, unbeaten after two route races over Turfway Park’s synthetic surface, could rally into a top placing at long odds. Keith Desormeaux, the trainer of last year’s 105-1 Risen Star winner, Ive Struck a Nerve, saddles longshot Flat Gone.
The Risen Star offers 85 Kentucky Derby qualifying points on a 50-20-10-5 basis. The race is the fourth of five stakes on a 13-race card that includes three other graded races, the Rachel Alexandra, the Mineshaft, and the Fair Grounds Handicap. A 50-cent all-stakes pick four starts with race 8 and ends with the Risen Star, race 11, with a post time of 5:25 Central. First post Saturday is 12:30, and while no rain is forecast, thunderstorms that would turn the turf wet were expected Thursday night.