Surveillance walks his beat in Duncan Kenner Stakes
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
Surveillance is looking like the king of Fair Grounds.
Reluctant to load, Surveillance absolutely was willing to rally through the homestretch, pinging between horses, coming inside the leaders, and winning the $100,000 Duncan Kenner Stakes by about one length over Bango.
The game victory at a 5 1/2-furlong distance perhaps shorter than his best made Surveillance 5 for 5 over the Fair Grounds dirt track. All six of his wins have come at Fair Grounds, where Surveillance cleared the maiden ranks in a turf sprint.
The Kenner had been scheduled for turf, but despite two other Saturday stakes being run over firm going, the race was moved to the main track shortly before first post at noon. The surface switch led to scratches and a field of six. By passing all five of his rivals through the last half-mile, Surveillance won his third stakes of the meet following victories in the Thanksgiving Classic and the Richard Scherer Memorial. All five of his Fair Grounds dirt wins have come under James Graham.
“He’s not the easiest guy to get along with, and he shows you that,” said Graham. “He loves this place. He loves his boss. And we get along together.”
The boss is trainer Keith Desormeaux, who made the prudent choice to geld the difficult Surveillance in October 2021. That led to a stark transformation: Surveillance started his career with nine losses and now has won six of his last 13.
Surveillance put up a mild fight about being loaded into the gate and quickly dropped back to last as Sign of War set off to lead through an opening quarter-mile in 22.51 seconds. Around the far turn, Graham had a ton of horse underneath him. He and Surveillance ranged up wide, but at the three-sixteenths pole, they dove toward the rail. Surveillance closed inside the leading horses to hit the front at the eighth pole and edged clear to the wire.
Bango turned in a solid showing for second and Manny Wah came late for third. Winning time on a fast track was 1:04.05 and Surveillance paid $4.20 as the favorite.
Desormeaux is a part-owner in Surveillance along with Big Chief Racing and Rocker O Ranch. The 6-year-old is by Constitution out of Majorelle, by Mizzen Mast.
“He loves New Orleans," said Desormeaux. "He loves Mardi Gras. He loves gumbo."
Another race, another parade to the Fair Grounds winner’s circle.
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