Stall barn already overflowing with stakes-bound young horses
The Fair Grounds meet is only five racing days old and already trainer Al Stall has sent out three 2-year-old winners.
The filly Fannie and Freddie won a two-turn dirt maiden race on Nov. 26 by nearly four lengths, earning a career-best 74 Beyer Speed Figure and a stakes start Dec. 26 in the inaugural edition of the $100,000 Untapable.
On the same card, Underhill’s Tab, a first-time starter, dashed to victory in a maiden sprint, his time of 1:10.57 working out to a solid 77 Beyer. Underhill’s Tab, Stall said, is penciled in for a start in the $75,000 Sugar Bowl Stakes on Dec. 27.
And on Thursday, Trafalgar followed up on a second-out Churchill Downs maiden win at a one-turn mile with a narrow victory in a two-turn first-level allowance race. Trafalgar won by a head over Naval Aviator, a Brad Cox-trained colt who’d won a Keeneland route at first asking and, closing determinedly, appeared to head an idling Trafalgar in the final half-furlong. Trafalgar, an odds-on favorite who had pressed a slow pace under Colby Hernandez, quickly responded to the challenge and won going away.
“Colby said he put the [lead] horse away and got lost in space,” Stall said. “You got a Brad Cox coming up to you at 100 miles an hour like that, you think you’re in trouble. For him to reengage, first start after 60 days, first two-turn race, I thought that was a feather in his cap.”
Trafalgar, a $300,000 2-year-old auction purchase by Columbine Stable, is by Lord Nelson out of Southern Drifter, by Dixie Union.
“A big, long horse to stay two turns,” Stall said.
The $100,000 Gun Runner Stakes on Dec. 26 comes up too quickly for Trafalgar, and Stall said he’d await the Lecomte Stakes on Jan. 22.
Fannie and Freddie, another Columbine runner, this one by Malibu Moon, proved a non-factor in a pair of sprint races to start her career before improving in her winning route debut. Stall said she’s a nervous filly and a delay before her start caused by a malfunctioning starting gate didn’t help her composure on Nov. 26.
“She always breezes great, like a real horse,” he said. “We’ll school some more to get her to calm down a little.”
Underhill’s Tab, from Unified’s first crop, was a pinhook grand slam, purchased for $19,000 as a yearling and sold to Spendthrift Farm at auction this past spring for $400,000.
“He was a red-bag foal,” Stall said, referring to a foaling complication that sometimes results in a weak or stillborn foal. “Kind of small as a young horse, I guess. I don’t know all the details; I’m just happy to have him. He’s a great-looking colt.”
Peaceful Waters, another talented Stall-trained 2-year-old colt, showed a lot of speed finishing a strong second in his career debut Nov. 27 at Churchill and is likely to run back in a Dec. 26 Fair Grounds maiden race, Stall said.
Older Stall-trained stakes horses are wintering in Camden, S.C. This group includes the stakes-winning fillies Caribbean Caper, Dalika, and In Good Spirits, and 3-year-old Masqueparade, who won the Ohio Derby in June but was taken out of training after finishing sixth in the Travers Stakes on Aug. 28.
“He was tired and a little jammed up behind,” Stall said. “I just wanted to give him a real chance.”