Oeuvre not a sure thing in Mardi Gras Stakes
NEW ORLEANS – Supposedly, nothing lasts forever, but Oeuvre has been holding top form for what seems like an eternity.
Four wins in a row and eight from her last nine since she began her current form cycle last May, and this Fair Grounds meet alone the filly has won the Pan Zareta Stakes on dirt and the Nelson Menard Memorial on turf. Oeuvre figures to be favored Tuesday in the $100,000 Mardi Gras Stakes, a 5 1/2-furlong turf contest – but can she do it again?
The Mardi Gras drew 16 entrants, including a handful who only would run if the race is rained onto dirt, but only eight can start. Oeuvre, with regular rider Jareth Loveberry named for trainer Chris Block and owner-breeder Richard Perkins, is the 5-2 morning-line favorite, and perhaps it will pay to be skeptical. Nine months into her strong run, Oeuvre is overdue for regression, and while she came through as the chalk in the Menard, Oeuvre didn’t finish with quite the zip she’s shown in previous grass races.
While Astute and New Boss finished third and sixth, respectively, in the Menard, either could step up in the Mardi Gras.
Astute, making her first start in about 20 months, had shown California sprint speed in her pre-layoff races, but in the Menard, she was squeezed back shortly after the start and wound up second-last down the backstretch and into the turn. Astute rallied decently for third in an outing she might have needed and easily could get into the race sooner Tuesday.
New Boss will be a longer price, possibly for good reason, but isn’t impossible. Winner of the Allen “Black Cat” Lacombe Memorial going one mile on the Fair Grounds lawn in March 2021, New Boss’s Menard marked the first time she’d finished worse than second in four local grass starts. The defeat came with an excuse: New Boss, breaking from the rail, got locked along the inside part of a course strongly biased toward outside paths. She’s 12-1 on the morning line and stands a solid chance of outrunning those odds for leading trainer Bret Calhoun.
A third horse out of the Menard, Charlie T, is the first also eligible, and though she just raced Feb. 11 in Florida, finishing a good second in a Gulfstream stakes, Charlie T should make her presence felt on the front end if she draws into the Mardi Gras.
Brad Cox trains Astute and has a second runner, Goin Good, who ought to attract support. Goin Good finished second in the 2022 Mardi Gras, earning a career-best 94 Beyer Speed Figure, and did not appear to enjoy her first race over a synthetic surface last month at Turfway Park.
The others in the main body of the field are Aboukir Bay, Minute Waltz, Perfect Happiness, and Miner’s Queen, none of them an easy toss in a competitive Mardi Gras feature.
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