Geaux Sugar goes for third win of meet in Palmisano Memorial

In a post-race interview after Geaux Sugar, a horse he trains, won the Andrew Ney Memorial on Nov. 23 at Fair Grounds, Keith Bourgeois demurred when an interviewer suggested Geaux Sugar logically would make his next start in the Louisiana Champions Day Sprint three weeks later.

Geaux Sugar had won the Ney coming back just 15 days after a Delta Downs allowance race, which came about one month after another Delta start. Bourgeois said he’d asked a lot of Geaux Sugar, who might, in return, ask for more time between outings.

Geaux Sugar not only ran in the Champions Day Sprint, he won it by nearly five lengths, posting a 98 Beyer Speed Figure 13 points higher than the career best he’d put up in the Ney. A 21-1 upsetter of the $100,000 Ney, Geaux Sugar won the $100,000 Sprint at 7-2, and he’ll be an even shorter price Saturday when starting for the third time this meet in the $100,000 Gary Palmisano Memorial Stakes.

If Bourgeois was asking himself whether Geaux Sugar could put forth a top effort on Champions Day, bettors must wonder just how long Geaux Sugar can maintain his sudden, unexpected peak.

In May, Bourgeois and the Single Malt Stable claimed Geaux Sugar, a son of Half Ours, for a mere $10,000, and the 5-year-old gelding since has gone 5-3-1-1 with earnings of about $155,000. He ran so fast, given his history, on Champions Day that regression in Saturday’s Louisiana-bred six-furlong dirt sprint seems inevitable.

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A confirmed front-runner, one with a high-powered 126 TimeformUS early pace rating, Geaux Sugar, if he breaks alertly, will make the lead under regular rider Mitchell Murrill. But other pace players could push the tempo, and leading contender Jack Hammer could be improving just as Geaux Sugar steps back.

Jack Hammer might more naturally suit route racing than sprints but exited a layoff more than nine months long when he finished a one-paced second behind Geaux Sugar on Champions Day. Trained by Bret Calhoun and the mount of leading rider Jose Ortiz, Jack Hammer improved his Beyer eight points making the second start of his last two form cycles, and a similar step forward puts him within range of the favorite. He has better early pace than he showed last month, and Ortiz would be well-served by deploying it to keep Geaux Sugar within range.

Bob Wright Memorial

Manama Gold’s most unusual career trajectory has led her from Dubai, where she went 3 for 3 last winter, including an easy win in the Group 3 U.A.E. Oaks, and then into the barn of trainer Todd Pletcher. Considered for the Kentucky Oaks but taken out of Oaks consideration a week before the race, Manama Gold instead made her North American debut at Saratoga in June, finishing second in the Jersey Girl Stakes over six furlongs.

Two more starts, neither good, for Pletcher, and Manama Gold moved on to trainer Cherie DeVaux, whose winter presence at Fair Grounds would permit Manama Gold to capitalize on her Louisiana-bred status. Racing in statebred-restricted company for the first time, Manama Gold went off at 1-2 on Nov. 22 in the Delmar Caldwell Memorial – and finished fourth. The filly did get a somewhat claustrophobic rail trip, but then came up flat through the final furlong of that six-furlong contest.

The betting public figures to forgive the defeat: Manama Gold won’t be 1-2 again, but she should go off considerably lower than her 5-2 morning line Saturday in the $100,000 Bob Wright Memorial.

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DeVaux put four December works into Manama Gold, the Dec. 14 drill, in company with the unraced 3-year-old maiden Mezcal Mule, a solid if less than spectacular half-mile in 48.40 seconds, punctuated by a long gallop-out to the six-furlong marker. No public video is available of her half mile move Dec. 31 in 47.80, fastest of 67 at the distance.

Two of the three who last month beat Manama Gold, second-place Freeburn and third-place Six String, return Saturday, each exiting the Louisiana Champions Day Ladies Sprint on Dec. 14, a race Six String won and in which Freeburn finished third. Neither can match Manama Gold’s best, and with a stronger pace likely Saturday than in the Caldwell, Ortiz, drawn on the rail, could work out a more comfortable trip.

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