Fort Pulaski ends losing streak in Mr. Sulu Stakes

Fort Pulaski broke a couple losing streaks on Saturday at Fair Grounds, winning for the first time in nine 2017 starts and for the first time in six turf tries when he captured the $50,000 Mr. Sulu Stakes by a half-length over heavily favored Trust Factor.

In a field of older Louisiana-breds reduced to eight by the scratches of Gallery and Hail to the Nile, Fort Pulaski and jockey Jose Valdivia Jr. waited patiently in sixth as 53-1 shot Culp’s Hill towed Trust Factor along on a fairly strong pace, going the first quarter-mile in 23.48 and the half in 47.80. Trust Factor pushed to the lead turning for home, but he had to work to pull clear from the pressers, and it was then Valdivia played his hand. Fort Pulaski, who had moved smoothly into contention, attacked on the outside, struck the front at the stretch call, and gradually edged clear.

“I let him see a little bit of daylight and he jumped on the bit,” said Valdivia, the runaway leading rider earlier this year at Arlington.

Fort Pulaski, the clear second choice in a race that had only two starters in single-digit odds, paid $9.20 to win, and ran one mile on firm turf in 1:36.07. Danny Pish trains Fort Pulaski, a son of Any Given Saturday and the Jambalaya Jazz mare Jazznwithcandy, who was bred and is owned by the Tigertail Ranch. Fort Pulaski’s first grass victory ran his career mark to 4-2-5 from 17 starts, and he figures to return in the $100,000 Louisiana Champions Day Turf, a race in which he was a close second last year.

My Miss Chiff returns a winner

My Miss Chiff hadn’t started since finishing third last May 19 in the Grade 3 Miss Preakness Stakes, but the barn of trainer Al Stall had the 3-year-old filly ready for her comeback run, and she won the $50,000 Happy Ticket Stakes by 1 1/4 lengths over 3-2 favorite Wheatfield.

Look Into My Eyes finished third, pace-setting Fairwell Tax Break was fourth, and 3-1 second choice Sunny Oak was seventh after bumping and checking hard on the backstretch of this six-furlong dash. My Miss Chiff, ridden by Mitchell Murrill, ran six furlongs on a fast track in 1:10.86 and paid $9.20 to win.

Owned by Town and Country Racing, My Miss Chiff merits solid favoritism next month in the Louisiana Champions Day Ladies Sprint. By Into Mischief and out of the good Louisiana-bred racemare Carl’s Frosty Girl, by Pulling Punches, My Miss Chiff was dominant winning Louisiana-bred maiden and first-level allowance races to start her career last winter at Fair Grounds. Stall said no specific physical issues occasioned My Miss Chiff’s summer break, and now she is fresh and ready for a productive fall, winter, and spring in the state of her birth.