Monte Man using allowance as prep for stakes

Monte Man, the reigning Louisiana-bred of the year, will be in action Wednesday night at Remington Park. He goes in a first-level allowance sprint at six furlongs, and the race is intended to serve as his bridge to the $100,000 Louisiana Champions Day Sprint on Dec. 14 at Fair Grounds.

Monte Man last raced Aug. 3, finishing a troubled fourth in the $50,000 Louisiana Cup Sprint at Louisiana Downs. He was an odds-on favorite off a win in the $75,000 Louisiana Legends Sprint at Evangeline Downs in May.

“We wanted to get a race into him before we ran on Champions Day,” said Ron Faucheux, who trains Monte Man for Ivery Sisters Racing. “It’s too big of a gap from the race he ran in at Louisiana Downs to Champions Day.

“Time-wise, this should set us up good.”

Monte Man’s final work for Wednesday was a bullet half-mile in 48.40 seconds in New Orleans. Faucheux said the horse shipped early Monday to Remington. It’s a rare Oklahoma City starter for the Louisiana-based barn. Faucheux is 2 for 5 at Remington. Among his winners was Smitty’s Cougar, who like the 12-time winner Monte Man was multiple statebred stakes winner who shipped in for a conditioned allowance.

Monte Man will break from post 7 under Luis Quinonez.

The horse is coming up to the start in fine fashion, Faucheux said.

“He’s great. He’s his old self,” Faucheux said. “I really think that last race you can almost just throw it out. He just had too many obstacles to overcome in that race. He broke all right, stumbled after the break. He was kind of stuck on the inside. He really didn’t have a chance to run throughout the race.

“We like the outside post for him in this spot.”

In the Louisiana Cup Sprint, Monte Man broke from post 2.

The chief rivals Wednesday could be the stakes-placed runners Alpha to Omega and Kats Second Silver.