Point Proven could provide value in Woodchopper

The trainer Alice Cohn operates just about the most mom-and-pop operation imaginable. Cohn, who has 10 starters during 2023, hasn’t won a stakes race since 2005. Cherie DeVaux has more than 300 starters this year. She trained a stakes winner just last Saturday.

Both women send out plausible winners of the $100,000 Woodchopper Stakes on Saturday at Fair Grounds, but where DeVaux’s entrant, Northern Invader, projects as an underlaid favorite, the Cohn-trained Point Proven is a value-laden contender.

Those two are among a dozen entered in the Woodchopper, a very late-season 3-year-old contest carded for about one mile on turf. Grass races Saturday will be run with the temporary rail positioned 9 feet out.

Cohn is an Alabama native who once trained a considerably larger Fair Grounds string and some good horses for prominent owner Carl Icahn. She welcomed Point Proven to her stable after owner Norman Miller IV purchased the horse, culled from the holdings of owners Repole Stable and St. Elias Stable, for $45,000 at a Keeneland sale in April. His first start for new connections came in June, a flop at Ellis Park in Point Proven’s turf debut.

“He just wasn’t right yet, and we still were getting to know him,” Cohn said.

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Cohn freshened her charge, and Point Proven returned to action, without the blinkers he’d been wearing for six starts, with a convincing first-level grass allowance win over older horses at Horseshoe Indianapolis. At Keelenand in October, Point Proven got into a salty second-level turf allowance and finished a close, respectable fifth with a career-best 85 Beyer Speed Figure. He hit the same figure Nov. 23 at Fair Grounds finishing third, beaten less than one length, in a second-level allowance open to $50,000 claimers. Well back in the field turning for home, Point Proven found a seam in midstretch as he picked up speed under Corey Lanerie.

“Corey said at first he thought the hole was too narrow and the horse did, too,” Cohn said.

Point Proven slipped through the gap without issue, but two paths inside him, eventual third-place finisher Protonic Power drifted out and bumped tiring Deccan Prince, who clipped Point Proven’s hind end, briefly knocking him off stride and causing an untimely lead change. With a strong Woodchopper pace in front of him, Point Proven can rally to a high placing.

Northern Invader was made the 7-2 second choice behind 3-1 Gigante but figures to be a defined favorite for DeVaux and jockey Brian Hernandez. Gigante won the Commonwealth Stakes last month at Churchill over second-place Northern Invader, but that race was switched from turf onto dirt. When Gigante captured the Secretariat Stakes at Colonial Downs, fifth-place Northern Invader had early trouble and raced too keenly. His eight-length maiden win this summer at Belmont and a one-length score in the $130,000 Gio Ponti at Aqueduct suggest Northern Invader is the top talent in the Woodchopper, and while the colt wants to show pace, and there is plenty of Woodchopper speed signed on, DeVaux isn’t concerned.

“He just needs to get into his rhythm. He came out of his last race very well and has trained forwardly,” she said.

Gigante, not without hope, will be ridden by Edgar Morales, his 11th different jockey in his last 11 starts.

Pago Hop Stakes

Tufani stands a strong chance of notching her first stakes win when she starts Saturday in the $100,000 Pago Hop, a one-mile grass race for 3-year-old fillies.

Tufani is listed at 4-1 on the morning line but looks like the potential Pago Hop favorite following an eye-catching Fair Grounds grass win over older second-level allowance foes and $50,000 claimers. Making her first start since a sixth-place finish in the Virginia Oaks, Tufani, following a slow start, showed a slick turn of foot before winning off by almost three lengths.

“She definitely had another gear in that race,” trainer Michael Stidham said. “We liked her all along, and she’s getting better with maturity.”

Stidham said a second entrant, Mo Bills, has been retired to become a broodmare and won’t start.

Watch This Birdie, in from Kentucky for trainer Ignacio Correas, last was seen winning a second-level turf allowance for 3-year-old fillies on Nov. 1 at Churchill. She was scratched later last month from the Mrs. Revere Stakes when that race was moved from turf to dirt, but even at her best, Watch This Birdie is more of a grinding type lacking Tufani’s upside.

Free Look would rate a stronger chance for trainer Brad Cox and jockey Florent Geroux had she not drawn post 12.

The Pago Hop drew an overflow field of 15, with 12 permitted to start.

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