Owendale likely earns berth in Risen Star Stakes
NEW ORLEANS – Cornacchia got more attention in the betting but his Brad Cox-trained stablemate Owendale got the money in featured race 5 Thursday at Fair Grounds. Owendale won the mile and 70-yard allowance race for 3-year-olds by 1 1/2 lengths, probably earning a start in the Risen Star Stakes on Feb. 16, Cox said.
Owendale, an improved horse this winter after getting two months off following an Oct. 28 race, had finished second Dec. 22 in a race at this first-level allowance class and distance to Tackett, who was to run here Saturday in the Lecomte Stakes. Owendale ran fast, too, clocking 1:42.54 for one mile and 70 yards over a “good” track that was left sealed during the card’s early portion even after light rain had ended and no more appeared to be on the way.
Two other Thursday dirt races at the distance – one for older Louisiana-bred first-level allowance horses, the other an open older-female first-level allowance – yielded times at least two seconds slower than Owendale’s. The race earned a very solid 93 Beyer Speed Figure.
“He’s a big horse that’s just really improved,” Cox said. “He needed a little time.”
Owendale is by Into Mischief and out of Aspen Light, an unraced Bernardini mare who is a sister to Grade 2 winner Great Hunter. He needed three starts to clear the maiden ranks, doing so in an Indiana Grand one-mile dirt race that might have helped boost the colt’s confidence, according to Cox’s assistant Ricky Giannini, who oversees the Indiana and Fair Grounds strings.
Owendale, who races in blinkers, relaxed nicely Thursday, made the front in upper stretch and comfortably held clear of a run from second-place Frolic More.
Cornacchia, second choice at 3-2 after overcoming trouble to win his debut over six furlongs here last month, broke slowly, bid for the lead around the far turn, and tired late to finish a distant fourth. Cox said he’d consider cutting Cornacchia back to a shorter race in his next start.
A tiring third was the 6-5 favorite Gun It, a $2.6 million yearling purchase who had scored a second-start maiden win here last out. Gun It over-raced Thursday, tugging jockey Ricardo Santana to the lead with a swift 23.21-second quarter-mile that led to a taxing 47.05 half-mile split. He battled on to hold third, but remains a work in progress for trainer Steve Asmussen.
