Silverbulletday Stakes will show if La Crete might some day compare to big sister Clariere

NEW ORLEANS – One year ago at Fair Grounds, Clairiere, a debut route winner the fall before at Churchill Downs, skipped the Silverbulletday Stakes in January, then won the Rachel Alexandra Stakes in February. Clairiere, by Curlin, went on during 2021 to become a Grade 1 winner, earn about $1.2 million, and finish a tough-luck fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.

She’s stabled right now on the west side of the center row of stalls in the Fair Grounds barn that houses Steve Asmussen-trained horses, and almost directly across from her in the shed row is her 3-year-old sister, La Crete.

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La Crete, a Stonestreet Stables homebred by Medaglia d’Oro, is the second foal to race out of three-time Grade 1 winner Cavorting, and like Clairiere she debuted at Churchill Downs, winning a two-turn dirt maiden race. Unlike Clairiere, who finished second in the Golden Rod at Churchill before coming to Fair Grounds, La Crete made only one start during her 2-year-old season. And while Clariere passed the 2021 Silverbulletday, this year’s renewal Saturday is a starting point for La Crete’s 3-year-old campaign.

The dissimilarities between fillies don’t end there, Asmussen said.

“She won impressively first time out, and being Clairiere’s little sister there’s nothing but high hopes and expectations for her,” Asmussen said. “That being said, she’s not as physically developed as Clariere was at the time, being a little smaller in stature, but she’s a gorgeous mover on the track.”

La Crete went to the lead in her Nov. 20 debut and never came close to being headed. Joel Rosario, who rides La Crete again Saturday, looked under his right shoulder for competition past the eighth pole and seeing none let his mount coast to the wire. La Crete galloped out strongly, pulling far ahead around the clubhouse turn, but the race’s time was slow, the Beyer Speed Figure came back a tepid 67, and none of the seven others in the race returned to impress. Asmussen said he entered La Crete in a first-level allowance race at Fair Grounds, and when it failed to attract sufficient entries to be carded turned toward the Silverbulletday.

“I think there’s more there,” he said. “[Rosario] let her ease up a lot late.”

Speaking of “more there,” Clairiere has returned from a winter freshening looking very, very well. She’s grown into a much more robust filly than the one seen last winter at Fair Grounds, and hopes are high for her 2022 season.

“She’s serious,” said Asmussen. “She’s the Grade 1-winning millionaire with the best still ahead of her. For all the practical reasons, she’s going to continue to get better, just like her mom and dad did. She looks beautiful under tack.”

The $1 million Apple Blossom Handicap on April 23 at Oaklawn is the major early-season goal for Clairiere, whose connections would like to get a prep race into her.

La Crete, meanwhile, is not close to the most accomplished 3-year-old filly on that east side of Asmussen’s middle row of stalls. That distinction belongs to Echo Zulu, who next month will be named champion 2-year-old filly of 2021 after capping an unbeaten season with a blowout win in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.

Echo Zulu has been in New Orleans since late December, but Asmussen said, “It’ll be a little bit” before Echo Zulu posts her first workout. Echo Zulu is in great shape physically, but Asmussen said he wants to get “a little more foundation in her” before asking her to work.

Given the fact Echo Zulu hasn’t breezed yet, the Rachel Alexandra here Feb. 19 comes up perhaps too quickly.

But wait – there’s more! Asmussen has four other stakes horses set for Saturday at Fair Grounds, including the exciting colt Epicenter, likely second choice in the Lecomte. Epicenter, who looks fantastic, schooled in the gate and galloped Wednesday morning, and also will be ridden by Rosario. Midnight Bourbon will race in blinkers for the first time when he faces Mandaloun in a cracking edition of the Louisiana Stakes. Halo Again goes in the Colonel E.R. Bradley, and Cowan returns to his best game, turf sprinting, in the Duncan F. Kenner Stakes.