Ninety One Assault times run perfectly in Louisiana Champions Day Turf

Ninety One Assault isn’t an easy horse to ride. He’ll let you wait too long to make a move if that’s the way a race plays out, but make the lead too early with Ninety One Assault and he’ll wait on other horses. Shaun Bridgmohan has his number. Five times in 29 starts has Ninety One Assault finished first. Bridgmohan now has four wins from five times sitting on his back after delivering a textbook ride to win the $100,000 Louisiana Champions Day Turf on Saturday at Fair Grounds.

Bridgmohan waited until midstretch to play his hand, and Ninety One Assault took care of business. He collared the leaders in the final half-furlong and was drawing away late under a strong hand ride to cross the wire a length in front of runner-up Remembermis. It was a neck farther back to Budro Talking in third, who was a half-length better than 9-5 favorite In the Navy, who set moderate splits of 24.46 seconds, 50.71, and 1:15.94 but still was swarmed under at the furlong grounds.

“Once I figured him out, he makes my job easy,” Bridgmohan said. “He just has an eighth of a mile run.”

Ninety One Assault paid $11 to win and was timed in 1:47.46 for about 1 1/16 miles on a firm turf course.

Tom Morley trains and co-owns Ninety One Assault with Paul Braverman and had him set for a peak performance in his fourth start since a summer break. Ninety One Assault, now a four-time winner from seven Fair Grounds starts, is by Artie Schiller out of Lilly Ladue, by Chief Three Sox. The 6-year-old gelding likes the Fair Grounds grass course, likes Louisiana-bred competition – and apparently loves Shaun Bridgmohan.

Net a Bear strikes again on turf

Net a Bear is not a bad Louisiana-bred turf horse, but the 3-year-old filly turns into a tiger on turf. Her grass debut yielded a victory a 10-1 victory in a $60,000 stakes race three months ago at Louisiana Downs, and on Saturday her second turf try produced a 12-1 win in the $100,000 Louisiana Champions Day Ladies Turf.

Net a Bear closed from 10th under Florent Geroux and beat 6-5 favorite Room to Finish by 1 1/4 lengths. Net a Bear ran about 1 1/16 miles on firm turf in 1:47.96 and paid $26.20. She was the third stakes winner on the card for jockey Geroux, while trainer Allen Landry would win a second Louisiana-bred stakes later on the program when Laughingsaintssong captured the Sprint.

Three-year-old filly Net a Bear is by Awesome Bet out of Edacious Reality, by Eddington, and while she has shown tactical sprint speed on dirt, Geroux let the filly drop to the tail of the field Saturday while Al’s Gal set a solid tempo. Net a Bear came from behind Room to Finish but got the jump on the favorite when Room to Finish in upper stretch lacked, ironically, room to finish. Room to Finish wound up diving inside for a late run that just got her home for second over Eskenformore.