Hot Dixie Chick needs to pick it up a bit

NEW ORLEANS - Grade 1 winner Hot Dixie Chick had her first timed workout of 2010 on Thursday, but her breeze was a slow one, and the time and place of Hot Dixie Chick's 3-year-old debut remains up in the air, trainer Steve Asmussen said this week.

Hot Dixie Chick finished second in her career debut last May, then won three in a row, including the Schuylerville Stakes and the Grade 1 Spinaway Stakes during the Saratoga meet. Hot Dixie Chick hasn't raced since the Sept. 6 Spinaway, and is "highly unlikely" to make the Feb. 20 Silverbulletday Stakes here at Fair Grounds, Asmussen said.

And if Hot Dixie Chick isn't ready for the Silverbulletday, one imagines it's unlikely that she would make her two-turn debut in the Fair Grounds Oaks on March 26.

Asmussen said Wednesday that Hot Dixie Chick would "speed up" a little in her morning training Thursday, though he doubted she would go fast enough to make the work tab. But Hot Dixie Chick was credited with a half-mile work in 52 seconds, 16th fastest of 23 works at the distance. Hot Dixie Chick's progress this winter has been set back by poor weather, with several days lost either to rain or a frozen racetrack.