Scratch of favorites from Woodchopper would benefit Excess Magic

The most exciting horse entered to race Monday at Fair Grounds likely won’t be racing Monday at Fair Grounds.

Concert Tour won the San Vicente at Santa Anita and the Rebel at Oaklawn Park, looking like a major hope for the 2021 Kentucky Derby before a third-place finish in the Arkansas Derby took some shine off his luster. Concert Tour skipped the Derby, ran terribly in the Preakness, and would make his first start since that race – and first for new trainer Brad Cox – if the $75,000 Woodchopper were to be rained from turf onto dirt Monday at Fair Grounds.

The weather forecast says this one-mile grass race for 3-year-olds stays on the grass, which means Concert Tour stays in the barn, according to Cox, who declined to enter Concert Tour against older horses in Sunday’s Tenacious Stakes. An allowance race or the Fifth Season at Oaklawn, Cox said, are the logical alternatives for Concert Tour, provided he doesn’t run Monday.

Also questionable to race is Who Took the Money. Making just his second grass start, Who Took the Money blasted home to beat older Louisiana-bred rivals in the Champions Day Turf over the Fair Grounds course. But that race came Dec. 11, and trainer Bret Calhoun said he’d wait until the last minute to decide whether he wanted to run Who Took the Money back on such short rest.

“He’d fit with this group, but we do have other options,” Calhoun said.

Regardless, Calhoun has a live contender in the Woodchopper, for 3-year-olds going a mile, in Excess Magic, who drew the outside gate but will move in with scratches. Returning from a long layoff, Excess Magic wove in and out of stretch traffic to impressively win a Nov. 26 Fair Grounds turf-sprint allowance race that fell short of his best distance.

“The mile is right in his wheelhouse,” Calhoun said. “He’s got a really quick turn of foot.”

Big Lake had a strong run last winter winning maiden and allowance dirt routes at Fair Grounds and finishing third in the Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn before going to the sidelines. Big Lake, a son of turf influence American Pharoah, never has run on grass, but trainer Steve Asmussen said he plans to start the colt regardless of surface Monday. Asmussen also entered Hidden Enemy, who performed creditably in three Fair Grounds turf maiden races last season.

Point Me By in August won the Bruce D. Stakes at Arlington, the race that used to be the Secretariat and still was listed as a Grade 1 for 2021. The field itself was nowhere near Grade 1 quality, and Point Me By’s victory there has dimmed following sixth- and seventh-place finishes in his last two starts.

Pago Hop Stakes

Maryland-based trainer Brittany Russell has a handful of runners this meet, her first at Fair Grounds, and has won two races from her first three starts. Russell can bank a stakes win Monday in the $75,000 Pago Hop with Out of Sorts, a competent runner in a grass mile packed with pace factors.

Thirteen were entered in the Pago Hop, carded at one mile and restricted to 3-year-old fillies. Youens and Inajiffy will be scratched, according to their trainer, Joe Sharp.

Out of Sorts drops in class from the Winter Memories at Aqueduct and the Virginia Oaks at Colonial Downs. While her lone stakes win came on a soft course at Delaware Park and the turf Monday should be firm, Out of Sorts could get a great run into a strong, contested pace and is listed at a generous 8-1 on the morning line.

Hidden Candy, the 7-2 morning-line favorite, drew post 13, and even accounting for scratches faces the prospect of compromising ground loss.

‘Spanky’ Broussard Memorial

Cheetara drew an inside post and is going to the lead in the $75,000 Joseph “Spanky” Broussard Memorial Stakes for fillies and mares, trainer Ignacio Correas said. And if the filly can stay the Broussard’s mile and 70-yard trip, no one is catching her.

Cheetara won over 1 1/4 miles during the Chilean phase of her career, but her two best races since joining Correas’s barn in America came in six- and seven-furlong contests. After a third-place finish going two turns at Churchill, she eked out a route allowance win during the Keeneland meet in October, her most recent start.

“When you look at her numbers, everything points to her being better sprinting, but she’s only run four times for me,” Correas said. “It was a little confusing for me when she ran so well at six furlongs first time because I thought she wanted to go farther. She’s training super.”

Cheetara wore front bandages in her last two starts because she ran down a little, Correas said, winning a stakes race at Colonial over the summer.

“She’s as sound as they come,” he said.

Moon Swag and Audrey’s Time are the two rivals among seven who stand the best chance of catching Cheetara and jockey James Graham.