Lone Sailor, Serengeti Empress begin 2019 as question marks

NEW ORLEANS – Trainer Tom Amoss sends out Lone Sailor and Serengeti Empress for their seasonal unveiling Saturday at Fair Grounds, but what lies behind the veil isn’t yet entirely certain.

Lone Sailor starts in the Grade 3, $150,000 Mineshaft Handicap, his first race since he essentially ran to form in finishing sixth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Serengeti Empress runs in the Grade 2, $200,000 Rachel Alexandra, her first start since she ran well below her best form in finishing a distant seventh in the BC Juvenile Fillies.

Both horses had a post-Breeders’ Cup break in Florida and arrived in Amoss’s Fair Grounds barn in late December, and both have logged just three workouts while preparing for their Saturday races.

Amoss said the horses did “light jogging and galloping” at a training track before returning to his string.

“We knew when we stopped on them when we wanted to bring them back and how it would play out,” he said. “I’m not expecting anything other than good performances, but these two races are stepping-stones to what we want to accomplish.”

Serengeti Empress especially is an open book. She won the Ellis Park Debutante over seven furlongs in August by more than 13 lengths and returned in September to capture the Pocahontas at Churchill over 1 1/16 miles by more than 19. Serengeti Empress led in those starts, but when jockey Corey Lanerie took a hold of her and placed her behind a horse in the BC Juvenile Fillies, she slipped tamely out of contention. James Graham rides Serengeti Empress for the first time Saturday.

“We have some questions to be answered here,” Amoss said. “Can she dominate her group when she makes the lead? Is she better shorter than longer? Is she tactically speedy, or is she one-dimensional? We can only answer them through racing.”

Lone Sailor nibbled at the 2018 Triple Crown when he finished fifth, beaten two lengths, in the Preakness Stakes. He hit a plateau through the summer but finished his season by winning the Oklahoma Derby and closing creditably in the BC Classic.

“I think those were steps forward for him,” said Amoss. “I do recognize he’s still eligible for a two-other-than, and there are a lot of people who question what he’s going to be this year. We’ll get that answer before the spring is over.”

Amoss also runs Roiland in the Risen Star Stakes and hopes the colt can improve on his seventh-place finish here last month in the Lecomte. In that race, as in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes in November, Roiland lost early contact with the leaders and had too much ground to make up. Amoss said he’d arranged to have Fair Grounds assistant starters “tail” Roiland at the start – that is, put mild pressure on his tail which sometimes helps slow-starting horses come away from the gate quicker.

Same agenda for Synchrony

Trainer Mike Stidham couldn’t be more pleased with the way Synchrony is coming into his 2019 debut Saturday in the Fair Grounds Handicap. Synchrony won this race a year ago and went on to capture the meet’s biggest turf race, the Muniz Memorial, on the Louisiana Derby card.

Stidham hopes Synchrony can repeat his back-to-back wins, and the barn might have another credible stakes runner for the Louisiana Derby card, the 3-year-old filly Tasting the Stars. Tasting the Stars’s debut in a Jan. 3 two-turn dirt maiden produced a 5 1/4-length win, and she returned Feb. 8 to capture a first-level dirt-route allowance by four lengths. The first start produced a 73 Beyer Speed Figure, the second a 72.

Tasting the Stars – who races in cheek pieces – is by Bodemeister and out of an Empire Maker mare and has taken some work to psychologically manage, but Stidham said she came out of her race last weekend in good shape and is a candidate for the Fair Grounds Oaks on March 23.