Sweetsouthernmoon finds soft spot at Fair Grounds

If Sweetsouthernmoon runs to his second-place finish in the Thanksgiving Handicap, there’s little doubt he’ll win race 8 Monday at Fair Grounds, a six-furlong starter allowance also open to $32,000 claimers. Would that race 9, which shares top billing with race 8 on Monday’s card, were similarly clear.

Race 9, the only allowance race on the Monday program, drew just seven entries, and has nothing like a solid favorite. The pick to win is Dancing Darcey, who with only two starts is the most lightly raced filly among the septet. Dancing Darcey scored an easy debut win Sept. 4 at Ellis Park, and finished fourth of eight in a Nov. 6 Churchill allowance race. She’s set to make her turf debut Monday, and has a pedigree suggesting that’s a good thing: Her sire, Orientate, gets turf runners, and her dam’s sire, Two Punch, merits attention when horses in his gene pool sprint on grass.

Sweetsouthernmoon, meanwhile, started his career in February as a $10,000 maiden claimer, but his development has been steady and somewhat monumental. By mid-summer Sweetsouthernmoon had become an established allowance horse, and his two recent performances mark him as a decent listed stakes runner. Those early claiming races allow him into Monday’s race, which is open to horses who have started for a claiming price of $16,000 or less the last two years.

Miss Kinderhook eyes stakes

Two-year-old filly Miss Kinderhook, an easy winner over just three rivals in a first-level dirt route allowance race on Friday, will be nominated to the Tiffany Lass Stakes on Jan. 22 at Fair Grounds.

“She’s a good possibility for that,” trainer Rick Jackson said Saturday.

Miss Kinderhook will be based at Oaklawn Park, which opened for training on Nov. 22. Jackson would like to start Miss Kinderhook in the Martha Washington there in February, but said he’d like her to race once before then. She won Thursday’s race by more than four lengths while leading throughout, and was timed in 1:41.30 for one mile and 40 yards.

“Everything she’s done, she keeps getting better,” Jackson said. “She’s more settled and enjoying it more.”

Theriot okay after spill, Jacinto hurt

Jamie Theriot, leading rider at Fair Grounds, escaped injury when his mount broke down in the eighth race Friday. Theriot sat out race 9, but was aboard Port of Seattle for a win in race 10.

Jockey John Jacinto was not so fortunate, suffering a broken left wrist in a training accident this past week. His agent, Jerry Reites, said Jacinto would be out of action between four and six weeks.