Happy American could skip Mineshaft, wait for New Orleans Classic
Veteran trainer Neil Pessin celebrated a successful Saturday afternoon with a rollicking Saturday night in New Orleans. Pessin won the Louisiana Stakes with the improving Happy American and sent out first-time starter Sweet Alyssa to a 3-year-old filly sprint maiden score in Saturday’s second race. Maiden 3-year-old Baseline Beater rallied from a mile back to finish second in race 10, a two-turn maiden. And then things really got wild.
“I was at the barn until 8, then I got fast-food drive-thru, went home, and went to bed,” Pessin said.
Pessin came out of Saturday in good shape and so, too, did Happy American – though perhaps not quite as good as after his win Dec. 26 in the Tenacious Stakes. For that reason, Pessin and Happy American’s owner, Bob Lothenbach, could pass the Mineshaft Stakes on Feb. 18 and wait for the New Orleans Classic on March 25.
“We’ll wait and see what he looks like. We ran him back this time in less than four weeks, and it’s four weeks to the next one,” Pessin said Sunday. “Yesterday he was okay, but he wasn’t hyped up walking around afterward like the last time.”
Happy American had to rally wide from sixth position and close into a walking pace, but still managed to get home despite carrying top weight of 122 pounds. Happy American got a 96 Beyer, equaling his career-best figure from the Tenacious. The Beyer was adjusted upward to account for the race’s radically slow tempo.
A 5-year-old Runhappy gelding, Happy American developed late and appears just now to be coming into his prime.
“They were really running coming for home. He keeps getting better and better,” Pessin said.
* Determinedly, fourth in the Gun Runner Stakes last month, eked out a front-running two-turn, dirt-route allowance win Saturday, but trainer Mark Casse said he planned to cut the colt back to one-turn races.
“It was nice to win, but he had everything his own way,” said Casse, who said no specific plans had been set for Determinedly, a sharp seven-furlong maiden winner Nov. 26 at Churchill Downs.
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