Oeuvre looks tough turf or dirt in Mardi Gras Stakes

Oeuvre has won races at five different venues, but the mare has done much of her best work at Fair Grounds. She won all three of her starts during the 2022-23 Fair Grounds meet, ran her local record to 4 for 4 with a Jan. 6 stakes win, and has a strong chance to repeat Tuesday in the $100,000 Mardi Gras Stakes.

There’s rain in the New Orleans forecast Sunday into Monday, and the Mardi Gras, carded for older fillies and mares at 5 1/2 furlongs on turf, is no sure thing to stay on grass. That’s no issue for Oeuvre, whose win last month came in an off-the-turf renewal of the Nelson Menard Memorial. Oeuvre, a veritable win machine, has compiled a record of 9-2-1 from 12 dirt starts.

That gaudy mark notwithstanding, Oeuvre, who has gone 14 for 18 since Chris Block took over her training, hits peak form in turf sprints. Grass or dirt, she’ll be a major player in the Mardi Gras, but in Ova Charged, Oeuvre faces the strongest rival she’s encountered in New Orleans.

Like Oeuvre, Ova Charged has won prolifically, 10 times in 13 races, but where 5-year-old Oeuvre has been an iron horse, making 17 starts during 2022 and 2023, 6-year-old Ova Charged requires a light touch. Ova Charged, a Louisiana homebred owned by Brittlyn Stable, has four layoffs of three months or longer and didn’t start between April and December in 2023. Second in the Grade 3 Victory Ride at Belmont in July 2021, Ova Charged looked like a shadow of that horse when she went to the sidelines last spring.

Shane Wilson began training all the Brittlyn horses last fall and has revived Ova Charged’s career. Short on serious training following her long break, she eked out a win in the Louisiana Champions Day Ladies Sprint on Dec. 9, and about a month later put up a career-best 94 Beyer Speed Figure in another statebred-restricted dirt sprint stakes.

Ova Charged didn’t post any timed workouts between those starts and has only one slow half-mile drill since her race Jan. 6. That is not a concern. Less is more for Ova Charged.

“We were under the gun, didn’t have time to get the work into her we wanted going into the race in December, but her class carried her,” Wilson said. “Second start back, I wanted to make sure she had plenty of time to recover. She’s a horse that trains hard, puts a lot into what she does every day.”

Ova Charged, by Star Guitar, has made only one turf start, but that race, a sprint against Louisiana-bred stakes horses in March 2022, was excellent. Ova Charged led narrowly around the turn, spurted clear turning for home, switched briefly to the wrong lead and lost momentum, then got back on her proper lead and made a beeline for the wire, winning by seven lengths.

“She’s doing great, and I hope the race stays on [turf]. I’m anxious to see how she does on grass,” Wilson said.

With the temporary turf rail set at 21 feet, only nine can start in the Mardi Gras, with three longshots on the also-eligible list. Poppy Flower, in from Florida for trainer Bill Mott, would prefer a longer distance but could contend if the pace sufficiently percolates. Redifined and Carimba are not without a chance.

The most likely scenario has Oeuvre, after stalking the pace, drawing a bead on speedy Ova Charged somewhere in midstretch of the Mardi Gras. Neither has lost a Fair Grounds grass race. One will on Tuesday.

◗ Two other races of note come earlier on the Tuesday card. Race 5 is a high-end dirt-sprint allowance race also open to $80,000 claimers, with Fair Grounds specialist Surveillance pitted against long-layoff comebacker Marsalis.

Even more interesting is race 7, a first-level dirt-sprint allowance with a $100,000 claiming option that’s restricted to 3-year-olds. The seven-horse field includes stakes-placed Agoo, who will be hard-pressed to deal with second-time starter Doncho. Doncho debuted as a 21-1 shot in a Dec. 30 Fair Grounds sprint, contesting the early pace before drawing clear to a five-length win in an 11-runner field. His six-furlong time of 1:09.99 produced a strong 94 Beyer, and Doncho, trained by Michelle Lovell, has since posted encouraging work.

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