Louisiana Downs: Get in Da House sharp for target in Erwin

Trainer Wes Hawley claimed Get in Da House for $10,000 this past spring with one race in mind – the $150,000 A.L. “Red” Erwin at Louisiana Downs on Saturday. The fact that the horse has already won two stakes for Hawley and partner Bob Orth has been a bonus.

“We were kind of taking a shot,” Hawley said of the claim made at Fair Grounds in March. “I figured he was worth $10,000, maybe more, when I took him. I thought he might win a few races. I never dreamed he’d be this good.”

Get in Da House is the headline act on a program of six restricted stakes worth $600,000. The Erwin is for 3-year-old Louisiana-breds who graduated from a yearling auction put on by the Breeders’ Sale Company of Louisiana.

Get in Da House, a $14,000 yearling purchase who won the day he was claimed, has since won three more times. In each of his victories, he has used a dynamic late kick that Hawley hopes will serve the horse well when he makes his turf debut in the one-mile Erwin.

“Whether he likes the grass or not, I don’t know,” he said. But “when you ask him to move, he’s got very fast acceleration, and I think good grass horses have that big burst of quickness like he’s got.”

Hawley also noted Get in Da House is a half-brother to Tommy’s Turn, a four-time winner on turf. As for Get in Da House’s sire, the Unbridled son Grand Appointment, he is getting 24 percent winners on the grass from a limited sample. The stats are strong, and so is Get in Da House’s last race, a three-length win in the $75,000 Louisiana Cup Derby on Aug. 20 for which he earned a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 90.

“His last race, he did everything you were supposed to do,” Hawley said. “He settled real nice, finished up real strong.”

Don Simington will again be aboard Get in Da House, whose chief rivals appear to be Tonto Too, who has been working sharply at Keeneland for trainer Jeffrey Thornbury, and Amanecer de Oro, who is a half-brother to past Erwin winner Dynamic Time.

In the Erwin’s counterpart for fillies, the $150,000 Elge Rasberry, top contenders include Honorary Gallop, Stop Dat, and Sweet Ruston.

Louisiana Stallion: Mouton runner serious chalk

Foreign Girl, a nine-length debut winner for trainer Patrick Mouton, looks like the shortest-priced stakes starter on the card. She will make her second career start in the $100,000 Louisiana Stallion Stakes for 2-year-old fillies, and the Beyer of 71 she earned for her first race is at least 21 points higher than each of the career-best numbers her rivals have put up heading into Saturday.

But if there is one question, it might be how Foreign Girl will handle the move from six furlongs to seven, which can be a demanding distance. She drew well for the task, getting the outer gate in the field of seven, just like she did in her debut Aug. 28.

“I don’t think [distance] will be a problem, if she’ll run back to the maiden win, because she handled that really, really nice,” Mouton said. “She was full of run at the end and ought to handle seven-eighths okay.”

It doesn’t hurt matters that Foreign Girl is a full sister to Foreign Production, who was a two-time stakes winner at 2. E.J. Perrodin has the mount for Iron Oak Stable.

Broadway King will make his first start for new connections in the $100,000 Louisiana Stallion Stakes for 2-year-old colts and geldings. Since winning both the D.S. “Shine” Young Futurity and John Franks Memorial Sales Stakes for owner Wesley Yelverton and trainer Anthony Aguilar this summer at Evangeline, he has been sold to Cook Racing and transferred to trainer Gerald Romero.

◗ A trio of horses from the barn of trainer Al Cates lead the Razorback series for 2-year-olds bred in Arkansas. In the $50,000 Razorback, Cates will send out the entry of Tricky Suspect and Spartan. In the $50,000 Lady Razorback, the Cates maiden Primarily Payton owns the field’s best career Beyer.