Liken It going for Magic City Classic repeat versus six fellow Alabama-breds

The $50,000 Magic City Classic on Friday at Fair Grounds is missing a key player.

Buggin Out won this two-turn dirt race for Alabama-breds every year between 2014 and 2018. He finished third, beaten a neck, in the 2019 renewal and returned from a year away to be fourth in the 2020 edition last January. But Buggin Out has neither worked nor raced since that start and his reign as king of the Alabama-breds clearly has ended.

Buggin Out’s trainer, Ronnie Ward, is not, however, out of Alabama-breds. Four of the seven entrants in Friday’s mile and 70-yard race come from the Ward barn, including Liken It, who captured the 2020 Magic City and stands a good chance of repeating on Friday.

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The Magic City goes as race 5 and is immediately followed by the Friday card’s actual feature, a female-restricted first-level turf-sprint allowance race also open to $17,500 claimers.

Drawn on the rail is the most likely winner, Touch of Class, who hails from a Fair Grounds-loving family. Touch of Class is out of Abbeyville Miss, whose four other foals to race include Mizz Money and One Mean Man, both winners of multiple stakes races at Fair Grounds.