Plenty of speed signed on for Pan Zareta Stakes
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Few things frustrate bettors more than handicapping a race, then watching several on-paper front runners fail to show their customary speed, fundamentally changing anticipated pace dynamics.
This will not be an issue Saturday at Fair Grounds in the $75,000 Pan Zareta Stakes.
Speed abounds in the Pan Zareta, a 5 1/2-furlong turf dash for older fillies and mares, and there’s no taking back 3-year-old filly Love and Money.
Love and Money, 2 for 2 in sprints, has been the first-call leader in all four of her races, revealing herself as a horse who just wants to rock and roll.
“There’s a lot of speed in the race, but she’s fast,” trainer Cherie Devaux said. “The less you fight with her, the better it is.”
Jockey Tyler Gaffalione got it right Oct. 21 when Love and Money romped in a first-level Keeneland turf-sprint allowance. Saturday, Brian Hernandez Jr. has his first crack piloting Love and Money, who faces 10 foes, including rail-drawn pace factor Elle Z. Love and Money is assigned just 116 pounds, eight fewer than top-weighted Yes It’s Ginger and Short Summer Dress.
Yes It’s Ginger won a pair of Fair Grounds allowance races last winter and hit a higher level this past summer, landing turf-sprint stakes at Lone Star and Ellis. A pair of recent poor performances under unsuitable conditions obscures potentially contending form. The Ladies Sprint at Kentucky Downs in September was too long for distance-limited Yes It’s Ginger, who failed to show anything close to her best over soft October turf at Keeneland. Excuses aside, Yes It’s Ginger has the look of a 5-year-old mare descending from a peak she’d never previously reached during her career.
Four-year-old Short Summer Dress makes her first start since being claimed for $40,000 by owner Maggi Moss and trainer Tom Amoss. She has upside and won a minor Indiana turf-sprint stakes in August, but Short Summer Dress at this point appears a superior dirt horse, and the New Orleans forecast says the Pan Zareta remains on grass.
Fiduciary invades from Canada for trainer Josie Carroll never having raced over a distance shorter than 6 1/2 furlongs. But Advocating, a 4-year-old Uncle Mo filly cutting back from routes, might rally into contention. Only twice started on turf, Advocating showed ability as a stalking sprinter in a pair of 2020 races.
At an even longer price, Iowa-bred 3-year-old filly Kela’s Turn has stepped forward since trainer Henry Guillory removed blinkers four starts ago. She cuts back from a nice Delta Downs mile win and will handle the short sprint trip, though grass, which she’s never tried, is an unknown.
Elle Z, the 2020 Pan Zareta winner, traded decisions with Yes It’s Ginger over the summer and enters Saturday’s contest a fresher filly than that rival. Elle Z gets in light at 118 pounds but drew the rail and figures to face pace pressure from the start.
Love and Money surely will take part in the pressuring. Roy and Gretchen Jackson’s Lael Stables bought Love and Money after she debuted June 26 at Monmouth with a smart turf-sprint win. Seeing a scopey horse with a middle-distance pedigree, Devaux tried Love and Money in two routes, but found that her charge could not master a turn coming up shortly after a race’s start. Cut back to a sprint, Love and Money won impressively at Keeneland.
“In the beginning we had a hard time with her. Breezing, she’s very hard to go slower than 48, but we’ve been working with her and she’s galloping a lot better in draw reins,” said Devaux, a fourth-year trainer who has upped her Fair Grounds string to about 30 runners from 22 for her second winter in New Orleans. “Her last work was nice and relaxed. But when she gets into gear, she wants to go.”