Fair Grounds: Woodchopper has upset feel

His Race to Win and General Election are the morning-line favorites for the $75,000 Woodchopper Stakes on Saturday at Fair Grounds, and based on accomplishment, that’s understandable. General Election won the Grade 3 Jefferson Cup at Churchill in his most recent start, while His Race to Win captured the Grade 3 Ontario Derby at Woodbine.

But these two horses are fully exposed, at least in terms of current development. His Race to Win has started seven times this year, General Election eight, and there are other 3-year-old grass horses in the Woodchopper with much more room to improve. Marchman could be formidable if his sprint form translates to a two-turn mile, while one of two horses for trainer Wayne Catalano, Marine Patrol, also sports an ascendant profile.

His Race to Win was installed as the 5-2 morning-line favorite, but it’d be surprising if he wound up the chalk. His Race to Win has never won a grass race, and his top Woodbine Polytrack performance, the Ontario Derby victory, came over just five so-so foes.

With far better established grass form, General Election seems more likely to put forth a winning performance Saturday, but there are questions bubbling around this horse, too. He makes his first start for trainer Neil Pessin after Richard Duchossois purchased General Election at auction in November, and he is coming off perhaps the best race of his career, when he rallied into a fast pace to win the Jefferson Cup. If he fails to run back to that performance, which seems possible, General Election could be vulnerable.

Marchman is in strong form for trainer Bret Calhoun and exits two sprint stakes against older horses in Kentucky. Marchman has a turf pedigree and romped in his only grass race, but that was a five-furlong sprint, and he makes his two-turn debut in the Woodchopper.

“I think the distance is going to be within his scope, it’s just how he does it coming off sprints,” Calhoun said. “He can be tough in the morning, but his breeze for this was about as nice a 48-and-change half as you could ask for. He finished up huge, galloped out huge.”

Gentleman’s Kitten finished a decent third behind General Election in the Jefferson Cup for Catalano and won a Saratoga turf allowance in his previous start, but Catalano’s longer-priced entrant, Marine Patrol, feels more interesting. A debut winner at 2 last season at Arlington, he failed to fire at Saratoga this summer coming back from a long layoff, but subsequently won a Churchill maiden race by more than four lengths and a Keeneland first-level allowance by a length.

“He’s a now horse,” Catalano said. “I love the way he’s training, and everything’s going good.”