Local Hero puts in fast work for Louisiana Derby

Local Hero worked six furlongs Monday in 1:12.40, a fast time by Fair Grounds standards, as he prepares to race April 1 in the Grade 2, $1 million Louisiana Derby.

Steve Asmussen, who trains Local Hero for Bob Edwards’s e Five Racing, said last week that Local Hero had come out of his third-place finish in the Risen Star at Fair Grounds “in good physical shape” and was “on target for the Louisiana Derby.” Following the Feb. 25 Risen Star, Local Hero worked an easy half-mile in 50.80 on March 6 and five furlongs in 1:01 on March 13 as lead-ins to his major Louisiana Derby work Monday.

Local Hero had worked in company March 13 and was in company again Monday, breezing with the older horse Iron Fist, the winner of the Maxxam Gold Cup at Sam Houston in his most recent start. Local Hero’s training pattern is encouraging, and with only four starts – a pair of seven-furlong maiden races at 2, then a maiden win and his Risen Star third in two-turn tries this year – Local Hero should still have room to grow.

And what he especially needs to do is grow up. Local Hero held through a fast pace to impressively clear the maiden ranks Jan. 26, but in the Risen Star, he was too headstrong early under Florent Geroux, compromising his late energy.

“That is definitely something we have been working on,” Asmussen said. “He’s a very manageable horse in the morning. He just needs to go out and do it in the afternoon.”

Local Hero is among three horses from the Risen Star definitely being pointed to the Louisiana Derby, along with Girvin, the Risen Star winner, and fourth-place finisher Guest Suite.

Guest Suite, who won the Lecomte Stakes before the Risen Star, worked five furlongs in 1:00 on Monday at Fair Grounds, the fastest of 22 works at the distance. Girvin worked Saturday, going five furlongs in 1:01 in company with Cool Arrow.