No derby at storm-affected meet
The abbreviated 2005-06 Fair Grounds season, just more than five weeks away, comprises just 37 racing days, but the meet will be packed with 34 stakes worth $3.5 million.
Fair Grounds released the stakes schedule Thursday for its upcoming meet, which will be staged at Louisiana Downs in Bossier City because of the catastrophic effects of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans. While three of Fair Grounds's most important stakes, the Louisiana Derby, Fair Grounds Oaks, and Mervin Muniz Handicap, were dropped from the schedule, horsemen and fans should find plenty of other opportunities.
The meet begins Nov. 19, and the fare is light for the first three weekends, but Dec. 10 brings about Louisiana Champions Day, which features 10 stakes restricted to Louisiana-breds. The graded stakes schedule - there are four in all this year - does not get under way until 2006, with the $400,000 New Orleans Handicap scheduled for Jan. 7.
Jan. 14, dubbed Road to the Derby Kickoff Day, will be the highlight of the racing season, with four stakes on the menu, three of them graded. The day includes a pair of races for 3-year-olds, the Risen Star for colts and the Silverbulletday for fillies, as well as the Grade 3 Bayou Breeders' Cup for fillies and mares on grass and the $200,000 Duncan F. Kenner Stakes for dirt sprinters. But that is it for 3-year-old racing, typically a major part of the Fair Grounds season, as the action moves on to nearby Oaklawn Park later in January.
The final major stakes of the meet is the Fair Grounds Breeders' Cup Handicap on the second-to-last day of the meet, Jan. 21. The race normally is a prep for the late-meet Muniz Handicap - but there will be nothing normal about this Fair Grounds racing season.
2005-06 stakes schedule
| DATE | EVENT | CONDITIONS | DISTANCE | PURSE |
| Sat.,Nov. 19 | Gentilly | 2YO* | 1 mile (T) | $50,000 |
| Sun.,Nov. 20 | Sarah Lane's Oates | 2YO F* | 1 mile (T) | 50,000 |
| Thur.,Nov. 24 | Thanksgiving B.C. Handicap | 3YO & Up | 6 furlongs | 75,000 |
| Sat.,Nov. 26 | Pago Hop | 3YO F | 1 1/16 miles (T) | 75,000 |
| Sun.,Nov. 27 | Woodchopper | 3YO | 1 1/16 miles (T) | 75,000 |
| Sat.,Dec. 3 | Dr. A.B. Leggio Memorial B.C. | F&M, 3YO & Up | 7 furlongs | 75,000 |
| Sat.,Dec. 10 | Quarter Horse Juvenile | QH, 2YO* | 350 yards | 100,000 |
| Sat.,Dec. 10 | Quarter Horse Derby | QH, 3YO* | 400 yards | 100,000 |
| Sat.,Dec. 10 | Juvenile | 2YO C&G* | 6 furlongs | 00,000 |
| Sat.,Dec. 10 | Starter Handicap | 3YO & Up* | 1 1/16 miles | 50,000 |
| Sat.,Dec. 10 | Lassie | 2YO F* | 6 furlongs | 100,000 |
| Sat.,Dec. 10 | Sprint | 3YO & Up* | 6 furlongs | 100,000 |
| Sat.,Dec. 10 | Turf | 3YO & Up* | 1 1/16 miles (T) | 100,000 |
| Sat.,Dec. 10 | Ladies | F&M, 3YO & Up* | 1 1/16 miles | 100,000 |
| Sat.,Dec. 10 | Classic | 3YO & Up* | 1 1/8 miles | 150,000 |
| Sat.,Dec. 10 | Quarter Horse Classic | QH, 4YO & Up* | 440 yards | 100,000 |
| Sat.,Dec. 17 | Furl Sail Handicap | F&M, 3YO & Up | 1 mile (T) | 75,000 |
| Sun.,Dec. 18 | Col. E.R. Bradley Handicap | 3YO & Up | 1 1/16 miles (T) | 75,000 |
| Sat.,Dec. 24 | Truly Bound B.C. Handicap | F&M, 3YO & Up | 1 1/16 miles | 75,000 |
| Sat.,Dec. 31 | Louisiana Futurity | 2YO C&G* | 6 furlongs | 40,000 |
| Sat.,Dec. 31 | Louisiana Futurity | 2YO F* | 6 furlongs | 40,000 |
| Sun.,Jan. 1 | Sugar Bowl | 3YO | 6 furlongs | 75,000 |
| Sat.,Jan. 7 | New Orleans Handicap (G2) | 4YO & Up | 1 1/8 miles | 400,000 |
| Sat.,Jan. 7 | Red Camelia | F&M, 4YO & Up* | 1 mile (T) | 50,000 |
| Sun.,Jan. 8 | Dixie Poker Ace | 4YO & Up* | 1 mile (T) | 50,000 |
| Sat.,Jan. 14 | Risen Star (G3) | 3YO | 1 1/16 miles | 200,000 |
| Sat.,Jan. 14 | Silverbulletday (G3) | 3YO F | 1 1/16 miles | 200,000 |
| Sat.,Jan. 14 | Bayou B.C. Handicap (G3) | F&M, 4YO & Up | 1 1/16 miles (T) | 200,000 |
| Sat.,Jan. 14 | Duncan F. Kenner B.C. | 4YO & Up | 6 furlongs | 200,000 |
| Sun.,Jan. 15 | Bedanken | 3YO F | 1 mile (T) | 75,000 |
| Sat.,Jan. 21 | Fair Grounds B.C. Handicap | 4YO & Up | 1 1/16 miles (T) | 200,000 |
| Sat.,Jan. 21 | Crescent City Derby | 3YO* | 1 1/16 miles | 75,000 |
| Sat.,Jan. 22 | Black Gold | 3YO | 1 mile (T) | 75,000 |
| Sun.,Jan. 22 | Battler Star | 3YO F* | 6 furlongs | 50,000 |
*La.-bred