Keep Quiet may not relish added ground in allowance

NEW ORLEANS – It’s been six weeks since Keep Quiet had one of the worst trips of this Fair Grounds season. We’ll see if he still has retained his edge when he runs back in the co-featured 10th race here Thursday.

Keep Quiet is one of a dozen entrants in a second-level allowance race carded for about 1 1/8 miles on turf and open also to $40,000 claimers. Altito is entered for the main track only, and if the weather forecast as of Monday holds this race should remain on grass.

Race 9 has the same conditions but is carded at 1 1/16 miles on dirt. The obvious contenders here are Pirate’s Punch and Empty Tomb, the two-three finishers in a similar spot Nov. 10 at Churchill Downs.

This is the first grass race of the Fair Grounds meet carded at a distance longer than 1 1/16 miles, and that might not be ideal for Keep Quiet, who flattened out slightly in deep stretch finishing third in the Remington Green Stakes late last year over the same trip. Mr. Misunderstood won that race, however, and there’s nothing of his class in Thursday’s race.

Trained by Steve Asmussen for Clark Brewster, Keep Quiet last raced in a one-mile grass event at this class level on Nov. 30 at Fair Grounds, and to say he had bad luck would be saying too little. Keep Quiet was getting a good trip sitting in the pocket right behind the pacesetter until he tried to creep up the rail at the quarter pole. There was room for a moment but as Keep Quiet hit the hole tiring leader Star of Kodiak drifted left, sealing off the gap and shutting off Keep Quiet, who spent the rest of the race hemmed behind horses. He finished sixth, finally found daylight past the finish, and galloped out in front.

Keep Quiet and several others here were entered on the Jan. 3 card that was canceled because of rain, extending a gap between starts. Keep Quiet is listed at 3-1 on the line, which feels a touch short of fair value, even given the rotten trip last time.

Botswana, who handles turf and dirt, has been second in a pair of races (one grass, one on the main track) at this class level during the meet, and on Thursday gets the longer distance he needs for his best.

In race 9, Pirate’s Punch should be prominent from the start breaking from post 1 under Robby Albarado. Pirate’s Punch moved into the barn of trainer Grant Forster during midsummer and improved rapidly, just failing to clear this condition in a pair of Kentucky dirt routes last fall. Empty Tomb finished more than two lengths behind Pirate’s Punch when they met about two months ago. Empty Tomb also returns Thursday and makes his first start for trainer Steve Asmussen.