Starlite Starbrite looks good for Amoss at Fair Grounds
The dynamic historically has been straightforward: Tom Amoss brings stable to New Orleans. Stable sends out bevy of starters. Many win. For the first several weeks of the 2010 – 2011 Fair Grounds meet, the Amoss operation was slightly off kilter, with everything running second or third. But since Jan. 1, order has been restored. Team Amoss has gone 10-6-2 from 31 starters, and will be favored to get at least one more on Thursday with Starlite Starbrite in co-featured race 4.
Starlite Starbrite is one of just five horses in a high-end, six-furlong allowance race also open to $62.500 claimers. She’s 7-5 on the Fair Grounds morning line and could drop lower than that even though Starlite Starbrite hasn’t raced since Sept. 26. What she has done is win four races and finish second in four others during in a nine-start career. The Fair Grounds corner of her career has produced similar results, with 2 wins and 2 seconds from 4 starts, and she hinted at continued fondness for the New Orleans racing surface with a near-bullet five-furlong workout on Jan. 24.
Starlite Starbrite, who figures to show speed from the rail, would have to take significant step back to lose to three of her four opponents, but Beat the Blues might have a shot. A $20,000 maiden-claimer back in July, Beat the Blues came steadily around the rest of the summer, and scored back-to-back allowance wins last fall at Monmouth. She makes her first start for trainer Bret Calhoun, and though away for the races since Nov. 7, Beat the Blues has posted workouts at least every few weeks since Nov. 20.
Another trainer on a major January push is Steve Margolis, who has gone 9-3-3 from 23 Fair Grounds starters in 2011. Join in the Dance might well be sitting on a win himself, but Margolis hasn’t been able to find a suitable spot for the horse since he won an entry-level allowance on Dec. 9. Entered main-track only in previous second-level allowance races, Join in the Dance is part of the main body of race 9 Thursday, a second-level allowance also open to $40,000 claimers that’s carded for about 1 1/16 miles on turf. The Fair Grounds grass course already is wet, and there’s rain in the forecast this week, so Join in the Dance might actually get his dirt chance Thursday.