I'm a Chatterbox could try turf in Marie Krantz

Trainer Larry Jones has long toyed with the idea of trying multiple Grade 1 winner I’m a Chatterbox on turf, and now, because of unfortunate circumstances, he might have found the right time.

I’m a Chatterbox has been training at Fair Grounds for the $400,000 Houston Ladies Classic, but because of the EHV-1 ourtbreak at Fair Grounds, it now seems highly unlikely that she’ll be able to travel to Sam Houston in Texas for that start. I’m a Chatterbox, though, is fit and ready to run, and Jones confirmed in a text message Thursday that he was considering entering the mare Friday for the Marie Krantz Stakes, a turf race on the Jan. 21 card.

I’m a Chatterbox is by Munnings and out of the Lost Soldier mare Chit Chatter, a turf-slanted pedigree.

The Krantz also could draw a short field, but there will be good horses in it. The race is expected to draw Cash Control and Kitten’s Roar, who finished heads apart last month at Fair Grounds, as well as Cambodia, a highly impressive turf allowance winner earlier this meet for trainer Tom Proctor.

◗ The nine-race Saturday card is stakesless but includes several allowance races, among them a first-level turf route for 3-year-olds. Carded as race 4, this field is mainly composed of horses who got all the way out to the post parade for a previous version of this race that wound up being scrapped when the Fair Grounds program was canceled because of heavy storms. Total Tap, trained by Steve Asmussen, was the odds-on favorite in the betting for that race and will be a solid choice again over Hot Dad.