Sunbean a short price in Louisiana Champions Day Classic

On Dec. 8, 2012, a horse named Sunbean made his career debut in a Louisiana-bred maiden special weight sprint and lost by a nose. Sunbean has since started in 10 Louisiana-bred races, nine of them stakes, and has not been defeated yet.

On Saturday at Fair Grounds, he seeks the 12th stakes win of his career and his second straight Louisiana Champions Day Classic, and he will be overwhelmingly favored to succeed. Not only is Sunbean one of the best Louisiana-breds in recent history, he is one of only five horses in the $150,000 Classic, and his morning-line odds of 2-5 are almost certainly a mere pipe dream.

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Owing to the short field and Sunbean’s presence – the two things are not disconnected – Fair Grounds carded the Classic, contested at 1 1/8 miles, as the first of the Thoroughbred stakes on a 12-race Champions Day card that starts at noon Central with three Quarter Horse stakes.

There’s a starter race and a maiden sprint after the Classic, then six more statebred-restricted Thoroughbred stakes worth $100,000 each. Among the participants is String King, who gave the Classic a go last year, fell just short of Sunbean, and now will try to win the Turf for the third time.

Heitai suddenly looks vulnerable, losing a recent six-furlong allowance race, but still figures to be favored to win the Sprint for the second year in a row.

The weather looks favorable for good racing, with no precipitation in the local forecast until Monday. Barring a dud from Sunbean, the only horse with a plausible chance at a Classic upset, One King’s Man, would have his best chance on a wet track that he’s unlikely to get. One King’s Man, making his first start after being claimed by trainer Joe Sharp, powerfully won an off-the-turf allowance race over String King on Nov. 23, but One King’s Man may be a superior mudder.

Louisiana Flyboy is a 3-year-old still lightly raced who may have room to improve, but he will need to do so sharply since Sunbean trounced him last month at Delta Downs.

A Brittlyn Stables homebred by Brahms and out of X Strawdnair, Sunbean debuted just six months after the last dominant Louisiana-bred dirt-route horse, Star Guitar, made his final start. Brittlyn, the nom de course of Maurice and Evelyn Benoit, bred and owned him, too. Star Guitar stuck around for six years and was all but unbeatable in statebred-restricted dirt-route races. Sunbean has some ways to go to equal Star Guitar’s prolonged reign, but he is on his way.