Hollywood Handsome will make stakes debut in Louisiana Derby

The improving 3-year-old Hollywood Handsome will have his first chance at a starring role April 1 in the $1 million Louisiana Derby.

After another strong workout from the colt Friday, trainer Dallas Stewart said he would send Hollywood Handsome out for his stakes debut in two weeks.

“We’re going to run him,” Stewart said. “I think he’s going to be ready and that the [1 1/8-mile] distance is going to be in our favor. We’re going to give him a chance and find out more about him.”

Hollywood Handsome, a Tapizar colt owned by Mark Stanley, was a good, closing third of 12 debuting in a Keeneland seven-furlong maiden race in October, but it took him several races to even run back to that form. Hollywood Handsome raced in blinkers for his first three starts, but even when the hood was removed in Hollywood Handsome’s two-turn debut Dec. 26 at Fair Grounds, he could finish only an even fourth.

Finally, in a wet-track Jan. 21 maiden race, Hollywood Handsome cleared the maiden ranks, and he came back Feb. 23 with a solid, closing third in a first-level allowance race.

“We just kind of regrouped with the horse down here,” Stewart said. “He was a horse that looked around a lot. I took off the blinkers, and I think he’s just maturing. He ran good last time. He was flying, making up a ton of ground, and moving forward from that race, he’s trained extremely well.”

Stewart said he used to drill Hollywood Handsome in company, but a change to solo breezing has brought out a better work horse. Hollywood Handsome went a bullet half-mile in 1:00 on March 10, galloping out six furlongs in 1:12, and on Friday morning, he was timed in a bullet 59.40 seconds for five furlongs, galloping out in 1:12, according to his trainer.

“We’ve tightened the screws on him a little bit, and he’s responded. I think he’ll be right there in the race,” Stewart said.

Cisco Torres has the mount for the Louisiana Derby, which is likely to have Risen Star Stakes winner Girvin as a favorite.

Voodoo Spell still going strong

It was probably inevitable that a horse named Voodoo Spell would enjoy racing in New Orleans, but Voodoo Spell has run well wherever he has plied his trade.

Voodoo Spell has raced eight times on the Fair Grounds grass course, winning five times and twice finishing second, and he can enhance that record in the featured eighth race Sunday, a second-level turf-sprint allowance also open to $40,000 claimers. Voodoo Spell runs for the claiming option and was a fast-closing second in a race just like this when last seen in action Dec. 3.

A $40,000 claiming tag is a pretty lofty performance level for a horse who once scraped the bottom of the barrel.

Racing for owner and trainer Hugh Robertson’s son Mac, Voodoo Spell twice ran poorly when starting his career late in 2013, and he was equally hapless early the next year under Hugh Robertson’s care at Fair Grounds. Robertson sent him to Hawthorne and ran Voodoo Spell against $8,000 maiden claimers to get a win, and Voodoo Spell came right back to capture a $5,000 claimer for non-winners of two.

Horses down at that level rarely rise very high, but Voodoo Spell has been on an upward trajectory ever since, and he enters Sunday’s race with a career mark of 14-8-3 from 30 starts and earnings of more than $200,000.

Voodoo Spell rallies late but should have sufficient pace at which to run with Small Fortune and Tell All You Know, fast horses both, drawn side-by-side. The Zip Zip Man, finally back on track after showing high-level talent two summers ago, also rates a chance.