Shorter price on Cedartown in Mineshaft Handicap

NEW ORLEANS – Cedartown isn’t sneaking up on anyone this time. Sent off at 3-1 last month in the Louisiana Stakes, Cedartown waited just behind a pacesetting pair that included odds-on favorite The Player, pounced at the top of the stretch, and was gone before The Player could offer a response.

On Saturday in the Grade 3, $150,000 Mineshaft Handicap, it is Cedartown who is the 8-5 morning-line favorite and 121-pound highweight, conceding one pound each to The Player and Scuba, the second-place Louisiana finisher.

It might not matter. Cedartown, a Candy Ride colt trained by Mike Stidham for Godolphin, debuted last June and has been improving ever since. He won the Zia Park Derby in December while making his stakes debut and proved two lengths best while facing older stakes foes for the first time in the Louisiana. Cedartown and jockey Joe Bravo break from post 1 in the Mineshaft, which will be contested over 1 1/16 miles on dirt and is carded as race 5 (3:05 p.m. Central).

KEY CONTENDERS

Cedartown, by Candy Ride
Last 3 Beyers: 100-96-85

◗ Possesses an effective combination of tactical pace, a willingness to rate, and a good turn of foot for a dirt horse. All were on display in the Louisiana, where Cedartown jumped into the game as soon as his jockey pushed the button before the quarter pole. “He really stepped up to the plate last time,” Bravo said.

◗ Has the New Orleans Handicap next month as his major goal at this meet, but has gotten in three works since his last start and from all accounts has continued blossoming. “He’s doing really, really well,” Stidham said.

The Player, by Street Boss
Last 3 Beyers: 96-93-97

◗ The Player, the winner of the Grade 2 Fayette in eye-catching fashion last October at Keeneland, might be a 5-year-old, but trainer and co-owner Buff Bradley still sees him as a work in progress. Bradley feels like The Player lost focus in the Louisiana, and the horse will race in blinkers for the first time Saturday.

“He’s been very relaxed working in them, which is what we wanted to see,” Bradley said. “We just want them to focus him a bit more.”

◗ Indeed, The Player ran an interesting race here last month. After Cedartown passed him, he appeared to be one-paced until about the sixteenth pole, at which point he began gaining again on the horses in front of him. And on the gallop-out, The Player was in front before the horses got to the clubhouse turn.

Thirstforlife, by Stay Thirsty
Last 3 Beyers: 93-86-89

◗ Owner and trainer Wes Hawley has been very high on this $50,000 claim since before the Fair Grounds meet began. He probably can improve on his Jan. 14 second-place finish in an Oaklawn allowance race.

First Premio, by Pure Prize
Last 3 Beyers: 88-93-90

◗ Irish import makes his dirt debut after racing on synthetics and turf in his first six starts. “I was really impressed with the way he trained on dirt down here in Ocala,” said trainer Mark Casse. “If he likes it, it opens up big things for him.”