Rapid Rhythm continues love affair with Fair Grounds turf in Mardi Gras
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
NEW ORLEANS – Trainer Mike Stidham looks forward to Fair Grounds meets. His house sits a stone’s throw from his main barn. He was the leading trainer during the 2015-16 Fair Grounds season and got off to a good start this winter.
Then the equine herpesvirus outbreak happened in late December. The EHV-1 quarantine affected everyone at Fair Grounds, but Stidham’s operation was especially hard hit. His barn was under quarantine for weeks. Finally, his stable is beginning to get back into a rhythm.
And on Tuesday, one of Stidham’s most reliable runners, Rapid Rhythm, will try to win the $75,000 Mardi Gras Stakes. Rapid Rhythm drew the rail with jockey James Graham and is the horse to beat in a 5 1/2-furlong turf dash for older fillies and mares that drew seven other entrants.
A year ago, when Rapid Rhythm first came into the Stidham barn, she raced in a $30,000 conditioned claimer. She won it, of course: Rapid Rhythm has started four times on the Fair Grounds grass course and never lost. She wound up having a very good 2016 campaign, winning five of eight starts, and captured the $50,000 Battle of New Orleans Stakes here Dec. 3 in her most recent race.
Stidham’s barn was quarantined when another stakes in Rapid Rhythm’s division, the $50,000 The Big Easy, was contested Jan. 28, but Rapid Rhythm might be better off now from having a short break.
“She’s doing fantastic,” Stidham said Thursday.
Strictly a one-run closer, Rapid Rhythm figures to save ground down the backstretch and around the turn, with Graham looking for a place to run starting at about the quarter pole. If he finds it, Rapid Rhythm, a 5-year-old mare by Successful Appeal, should stay perfect over the Fair Grounds course.
The first-, second-, and sixth-place finishers from The Big Easy – Equation, Simple Surprise, and Clairenation – return for the Mardi Gras. Simple Surprise is preferred among the trio. She finished a closing second last out despite a poor start and is a 4-year-old with turf-sprint upside.
Not to be discounted are Wheatfield and Loveable Lyss. The Louisiana-bred Wheatfield finished an even fifth in the American Beauty at Oaklawn Park last out but was an eye-catching winner of the Louisiana Ladies Sprint here on dirt in December. Wheatfield has raced only once on turf but could contend if her best dirt form transfers surfaces.
Loveable Lyss makes her turf debut in her first start since April, but she showed ample ability at 2 and 3 and, as a daughter of Big Brown, has a chance to be as good on turf as on dirt.