Much-hyped Dolphus set for second start Friday

NEW ORLEANS – A combination of hype and hope, the 2-year-old colt Dolphus makes the second start of his career Friday night at Fair Grounds.

The hype comes from the fact that Dolphus is a half-brother to the champion Rachel Alexandra. That close kinship to a star also fuels hope, as does the fact that Dolphus won his debut here at a sprint distance well short of what trainer Joe Sharp believes will be Dolphus’s optimal trip.

Dolphus, by Lookin At Lucky and out of Lotta Kim, is one of seven 2-year-olds in race 4 on Friday’s Starlight Racing program, with first post scheduled for 5 p.m. Central and Dolphus to run at about 6:45. His race is for first-level allowance horses or $50,000 claimers and is carded for one mile and 70 yards on dirt. The track should be fast under clear skies.

Sharp, a former jockey and assistant trainer for several operations, went out on his own late in the summer of 2014. Dolphus is the best young prospect he’s trained, and Sharp, who still gallops many of his own horses, said Dolphus is the most talented 2-year-old he’s ridden. A large horse with a laid-back attitude, Dolphus didn’t break any stopwatches in winning his debut Nov. 22, but the best part of his performance was the last of the six furlongs he raced that day and the ensuing gallop-out, Dolphus drawing clear from his rivals with his ears pricked.

“He’s trained since then like he trained before,” Sharp said. “The race tightened him up a little bit; he looks a little more like a racehorse now.”

Dolphus meets much stronger competition Friday than he did first out, and Tom’s Ready is the deserving favorite while dropping in class from the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes last month at Churchill Downs. There, Tom’s Ready finished a disappointing eighth in his two-turn debut, but circumstances beyond distance limitations probably triggered the flop.

Trainer Dallas Stewart thinks Tom’s Ready disliked the sloppy Churchill track, but Tom’s Ready, normally a laid-back type, was edgy and anxious in the paddock and before the race, Stewart said. A return to the form he showed two races ago while finishing second in the Street Sense Stakes and three back in a Churchill maiden win would make Tom’s Ready formidable Friday.

One Mean Man also has talent, but whether two turns on dirt brings out the best of it is an open question. He and Pinnacle Peak should show speed Friday in a field that also includes last-out maiden winners Moon Gate Warrior and The Tascosa Kid.

Race 7 actually is the highest-class offering on the program, a second-level dirt-sprint allowance race also open to $40,000 claimers, and Exodus looks like the right horse here.

Exodus sharply won a maiden race here last winter and went on to capture the Allen’s Landing at Sam Houston before going to the sidelines for several months. He performed dismally in his comeback race at Keeneland, but a sloppy track there probably proved Exodus’s undoing, and he has turned in a series of fast local workouts for trainer Larry Jones. An outside draw gives Florent Geroux all the options on Exodus, who, unfortunately, figures to be bet lower than his 9-2 morning-line odds.