Ours to Run cruises in Louisiana Champions Day Ladies Sprint

Ours to Run pushed past $235,000 in 2018 earnings in dispatching the competition at Fair Grounds in the $100,000 Louisiana Champions Day Ladies Sprint, the last of 10 stakes for statebred horses contested there Saturday.

Sitting a favorable stalking trip under Gabe Saez, Ours to Run stalked two early leaders for the first half-mile of the race before overtaking them once asked at the head of the lane. She powered on to win by five lengths, completing six furlongs in 1:10.37 over a sloppy racetrack.

Minit to Stardom, making her first start since a sixth-place finish in the Grade 1 Test at Saratoga, lasted for second after setting the early pace under pressure. She finished three-quarters of a length in front of third-place Shakopee Town.

The Louisiana Champions Day Ladies Sprint was the fourth stakes victory of the year for Ours to Run ($3.20), a 4-year-old daughter of Half Ours owned by Colonel Thoroughbreds. She moved into the barn of trainer Larry Jones in late 2017.

Earlier stakes victories this year included the Premier Night Matron at Delta Downs in March, the Louisiana Legends Mademoiselle at Evangeline in May, and the Happy Ticket at Fair Grounds last month.

A race before the Ladies Sprint, Givemeaminit, who fell a neck shy of victory in the Champions Day Juvenile in 2017, ended up on the winning end of a photo finish decided by another neck in Saturday’s $100,000 Sprint. Rallying furiously from sixth with Corey Lanerie up, he ran down runner-up Divine Bean, who had taken command in midstretch from pace-setting favorite Monte Man, the eventual third-place finisher.

Sired by Star Guitar, the 3-year-old Givemeaminit ($5) raced six furlongs in the slop in 1:10.52. He provided owner Valene Farms and trainer Dallas Stewart with their second stakes winners on the Champions Day program after they won the Juvenile with Classy John.

It also marked the second stakes win of the day for Lanerie, who earlier piloted Underpressure to victory in the Classic.

Also toward the conclusion of the Saturday program, Remember Daisy scored the largest win margin of the day’s stakes races, eight lengths, in dominating the $100,000 Ladies.

Originally scheduled for the turf, the Ladies was moved to the sloppy main track, though the versatile Remember Daisy did not mind. She splashed her way to the lead under Mitchell Murrill, and always looked ready to blow away her competition when asked.

She did that in the lane, spurting away from her rivals and finishing 1 1/16 miles in the slop in 1:46.09, with the Ladies providing Remember Daisy ($3.80) with her third stakes victory for owners Al and Bill Ulwelling and trainer Gary Scherer.

Crossing the wire in second was Hyper Piper, two lengths ahead of third-place Pacific Pink.