New Orleans shippers could have say in Sam Houston's Texas Turf Mile

The favorite for the $200,000 Texas Turf Mile on Sunday at Sam Houston might be shipping from Florida, but the key players could be coming out of New Orleans.

Trainer Todd Pletcher entered the Florida-based Fighting Force and Winfromwithin in the Texas Turf Mile. Winfromwithin will be scratched, Pletcher said, but many bettors will find Fighting Force a plausible winner.

Fourteen were entered in a race that can accommodate a dozen runners, with Flash of Mischief and T D Dance the two also-eligibles. Trainer Mike Maker said Chess’s Dream also would be scratched.

Fighting Force, by Air Force Blue, has run capably in his three turf tries, a debut sprint at Belmont and a pair of grass miles at Gulfstream. In December, he won a maiden race on turf by 2 1/2 lengths, and in the Jan. 2 Dania Beach on the turf at Gulfstream, he gave futile chase finishing second to sharp front-running winner Kentucky Pharoah.

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Fighting Force races on Lasix for the first time, as does Catman, a Maker-trained colt who cleared the maiden ranks winning the $150,000 Laurel Futurity by a nose on Oct. 3, a race contested over a sodden course. Catman has raced only once on firm turf, that in his career debut last summer at Saratoga, though Maker believes better ground will suit his colt.

Potential players Excess Magic, Palazzi, and, to a lesser extent, Invincibility come from Fair Grounds. Excess Magic and Invincibility exit a one-two finish in a Jan. 3 first-level turf allowance, where the former beat the latter by four lengths, and Excess Magic surely has the stronger chance Sunday. You wouldn’t know it from the official chart, but Excess Magic overcame serious trouble winning a Remington turf maiden Nov. 7 by six lengths, and he backed that performance up in New Orleans.

Still, Palazzi is the pick to win. This colt’s first four starts, all on dirt, were forgettable, but the addition of blinkers and a switch to turf Dec. 19 produced a memorable maiden win.

Facing 13 foes in an above-par maiden field, Palazzi got the squeeze breaking from post 10 and dropped to the back. Declan Carroll, who rides Sunday, had ample horse down the backstretch, but held his mount until the half-mile pole, where he was forced to move wide. Entering the turn, Palazzi had two horses behind him. Coming out of it, after an eye-catching move, only three were in front of him, and Palazzi, despite briefly losing his action brushing with a rival at the three-sixteenths pole, stormed to victory.

Trainer Mark Casse would’ve run Palazzi in a first-level allowance, but when that Fair Grounds race failed to fill, Houston became the target. It’s a target this handsome colt can hit, perhaps at a square price.