Play Unified has course and distance questions to answer in Lookout Stakes

Play Unified figures to start as the favorite in the $60,000 Lookout on Wednesday at Delta Downs but has two key questions to address.

Play Unified is seeking her first two-turn win in the seven-furlong race and also is looking for her first win at Delta.

The Lookout has drawn an overflow field of 11 and will go with 10 on the six-furlong track at Delta. First post is 12:55 p.m. Central.

Play Unified finished second in the $50,000 Louisiana Cup Filly and Mare Sprint over six furlongs Sept. 19 at Louisiana Downs and has since been working at Fair Grounds. On the strength of her multiple stakes-placings, she should go favored in the Lookout.

“The conditions are perfect, as far as being a Louisiana-bred stakes for fillies and mares that haven’t won stakes,” Ron Faucheux, who trains Play Unified, said of the Lookout. “The distance, and the depth of Delta’s surface, are the two biggest concerns we have.

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“On paper, if this was a six furlong, one-turn race instead of a two-turn race going seven-eighths I’d feel really good about it. We’re kind of concerned with fitness, as well. Whenever you go from Fair Grounds to Delta, it’s a deeper surface. So, we’re concerned with that, too, [but] it’s definitely a winnable race for us. She’s doing really well going into it.”

Play Unified was third in both the $60,000 Louisiana Legends Mademoiselle over 5 1/2 furlongs July 4 at Evangeline Downs and the $100,000 Premier Night Matron going five furlongs at Delta. She broke tardily in both races.

“We hope she can put it all together and get the stakes win that she really deserves on her résumé,” said Faucheux, who trains Play Unified for Ivery Sisters Racing, Larry Romero, Dorby Racing, and Winalot Racing.

Diego Saenz has the mount from post 2.

“Usually, she runs her better races when she’s somewhat forwardly placed,” Faucheux said. “I think maturity-wise, looking at her form before we had her, she was kind of one dimensional. She’s matured where she can come off the pace if it sets up that way.”

Play Unified is a daughter of Exchange Rate and the Carson City mare Carson City Sham. Play Unified is a half-sister to Heatseeker Sharon, a 2015 stakes winner in the 1 1/16-mile Louisiana Legends Distaff at Evangeline.

The chief threats to Play Unified include Smok’n Rita, who ran fourth in a pair of route stakes last meet at Delta Downs, and Saints N Muskets, runner-up in the Mademoiselle in July at Evangeline.