Pacific Pink, Big World stand out in Si Cima

Seven Louisiana-bred fillies and mares were entered, but the $50,000 Si Cima Stakes on Sunday at Fair Grounds looks like a two-horse race.

Pacific Pink has three wins and a second from her four Fair Grounds starts, and she won the $100,000 Champions Day Ladies last December. Big World is a relative newcomer to these parts, a Louisiana-bred 3-year-old with enough talent to have won the Grade 3 Tempted Stakes last November.

Big World returned from a long layoff Sept. 29 in a Belmont Park allowance race for trainer Tony Dutrow, then was shipped into the barn of trainer Tom Amoss. She decisively won her Louisiana debut, the $100,000 Magnolia Stakes on Oct. 28 at Delta Downs.

Big World is the Si Cima’s 9-5 morning-line favorite for Amoss, owner Maggi Moss, and jockey James Graham. Pacific Pink might be slightly preferable if, as the line forecasts, she goes off as the second choice. Pacific Pink is the more proven route horse of the two, and she gets a three-pound weight break from her younger rival.

Pacific Pink hasn’t raced since February but has always run well fresh, and her two most recent starts came at Delta Downs, which is not her favorite venue.

The Si Cima, carded for one mile and 70 yards on dirt, is race 8 on a solid nine-race card. Post time for the stakes is 4:50 Central; first post is 1:25.