Gigante looks to add another local win to his ledger in Fair Grounds Stakes

Gigante has hit peak form this winter in New Orleans, and an extra half-furlong might not stop him from winning his third stakes race of the Fair Grounds meet.

Gigante and nine others were entered in the Grade 3, $150,000 Fair Grounds Stakes, a 1 1/8-mile turf contest that leads into the $300,000 Muniz Memorial next month. From the top down, the North American middle-distance grass division lacks luster right now, and you can see it in the Fair Grounds. The two horses with the best chance to beat Gigante, What Say Thee and Unit Economics, both exit allowance races. Unit Economics makes his stakes debut, while What Say Thee has one stakes victory in his career and 14 months ago was claimed for $35,000.

They are meeting Gigante on his home turf – though this 5-year-old does not require turf to win. While his very best races have come on grass, Gigante has won three of four on dirt, including last month’s E.R. Bradley Stakes, where he snuck up the rail under Jose Ortiz and was comfortably home at odds of 4-5. Gigante in December won the Buddy Diliberto Memorial at the same price, which ran his Fair Grounds grass record to 2-1-0 from four starts.

The second-place Fair Grounds grass showing came in the 2024 Muniz, and on speed figures marked the best race of Gigante’s career. It was also one of four defeats he’s taken in 1 1/8-mile contests, though the horse who ran over him in the Muniz, I’m Very Busy, was at least one cut above anything opposing Gigante on Saturday.

“He handles so well, his confidence level is exactly where you want it, and I feel very good about his chances,” trainer Steve Asmussen said, asked about Gigante’s suitability to the distance.

Chad Brown sent I’m Very Busy to win last year’s Muniz and has Unit Economics for the Fair Grounds. A 5-year-old, Unit Economics has raced only seven times and finally appears to be getting the hang of things. In several starts, Unit Economics failed to relax in the early and middle stages, and he has a habit of switching to his “wrong” lead at about the sixteenth pole. He lost a head bob last out in a second-level Gulfstream allowance but ran a winning race while settling much better and staying on his proper lead.

“He’s one of those horses that took a while to get himself organized physically where he’s sound and solid,” Brown said. “He’s got a really good turn of foot, and I think he could work himself in the graded stakes division.”

What Say Thee has gone 3 for 4 at this distance and scored his lone stakes win, in the Texas Turf Classic last June, over 1 1/8 miles. He hasn’t raced since November but hit a new level after being claimed by trainer Mike Maker.

Albert Stall Memorial

Rained out of her intended 2025 debut last month, Nanda Dea gets her season started Saturday in the $100,000 Albert Stall Memorial. And if she’s the horse trainer Ignacio Correas believes her to be, Nanda Dea, with any luck, will win.

Bred in Argentina and campaigned there for six of her seven starts, Nanda Dea was her country’s champion miler in 2023. She came to Correas during the spring of 2024, but Correas likes to give South American imports a half-year to adjust to life in the Northern Hemisphere, and Nanda Dea didn’t make her American debut until October.

While she earned a modest 87 Beyer Speed Figure winning a third-level allowance at Keeneland, her electric turn of foot carries more weight than the figure. Correas worked her at Fair Grounds in preparation for the Marie Krantz Memorial on Jan. 18 but took her back to his Keeneland base when the Krantz was rained onto dirt. Nanda Dea logged three works there preparing for the Stall, and if Jose Ortiz can work out a trip in a full field, he’s sitting on a winner.

The Kenny McPeek-trained Chilean import Champagne Rose stayed in the Krantz when it came off turf and showed nothing in her American debut. She won a pair of Chilean Group 1s on grass, though Champagne Rose might require more distance than the Stall’s 1 1/16 miles.

Root Cause did not ship from Florida and will be scratched.

Colonel Power

Mansa Musa stands a strong chance of winning his first stakes race in the $100,000 Colonel Power, a 5 1/2-furlong turf sprint.

Imported from Ireland, where he showed talent as a 2-year-old, Mansa Musa ran very well last year losing the Palisades at Keeneland, the Quick Call at Saratoga, and the Grade 1 Franklin Simpson at Kentucky Downs. A one-run sprinter, he wanted no part of a two-turn mile in his most recent race, the Bryan Station in October at Keeneland, and the long Fair Grounds homestretch should afford jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. ample time to work his way into the clear and onto victory.

Old Homestead and Kavod will be scratched if, as seems likely, the Colonel Power remains on turf.

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