Stallion Heiress stretching out in delayed second start

More would be known about Stallion Heiress by now had this been a normal winter at Fair Grounds, but the ongoing race meet has been far from normal.

An equine herpesvirus scare came close to shutting down the Fair Grounds season, and Stallion Heiress was stuck in the middle. Mike Stidham trains Stallion Heiress, and Stidham’s barn was quarantined, the horses barred from racing and forced to train during a late-morning window following the general population from Dec. 31 through last Monday.

Stallion Heiress debuted with an eye-catching turf-sprint maiden win Dec. 8, and on Saturday, in the $50,000 Joseph E. “Spanky” Broussard Stakes, she finally gets to race for the second time.

Stallion Heiress is one of eight entrants in the Broussard, a one-mile grass race that, like so many stakes at this meet, drew a field stronger than its purse level. Chief among her rivals are Summertime Sky, who impressed in her own turf-sprint debut win before finishing fourth on dirt in the Silverbulletday Stakes, and Clever Girl, a Brad Cox-trained winner of her two starts, both two-turn turf races.

Stallion Heiress, by Exchange Rate, broke from post 2, made a narrow early lead along the rail, established a clear lead around the far turn, and sped away from her rivals by running her fifth furlong in a swift 11.53 seconds. Her race won, she went her final half-furlong in a little more than six seconds and proceeded to gallop-out around the turn like a horse itching to run farther.

“Ultimately, I don’t feel like the added distance is going to hurt her any. It should actually help her,” Stidham said.

Stallion Heiress didn’t especially enjoy having her training regimen changed because of the EHV-1 situation, but Stidham said she has done well enough since her debut to turn in a representative performance.

“She’s had a saddle on every day even if she hasn’t been able to go to the track every day,” he said. “She’s kind of a light-framed filly, and she hasn’t put weight on. We’ve got a lot in her, work-wise. I think she’s in a good spot.”

Summertime Sky, from the Mark Casse barn, ran a different kind of race in her debut win. Seventh around the turn, Summertime Sky found her best stride at the quarter pole and got her last half-furlong in something like 5.60 seconds while blowing by Aiken to Be and Fault, both of whom returned to win maiden special weight races. Summertime Sky did not travel nearly as comfortably over dirt in the Silverbulletday and should appreciate returning to grass.

Cox won the Keith Gee Memorial last weekend with the 3-year-old grass horse Cowboy Culture, who went into the race 2 for 2. The Cox-trained Clever Girl has not been quite as sharp in her wins, and she will need to improve on her Dec. 15 allowance win on the Fair Grounds course.

Rum Go was last seen finishing a well-beaten third in a solid edition of the Grade 3 Jessamine last fall at Keeneland. Hotshot Anna’s decent form all has come in dirt sprints.