Fewer racing days and far more turf racing should make the 2023-24 Fair Grounds racing season, which begins Friday in New Orleans, far superior to the 2022-23 meeting. There’s nearly nowhere to go but up. Fair Grounds began last season without the use of its grass course and barely was able to card turf races until March. Track officials said that a well used to irrigate the course had become contaminated in late summer with saltwater that killed much of the grass on the inner 60 percent of the oval. Whatever the cause of the issue, the track ran only 58 grass races during the season compared with 235 the year before. Things should return to historical norms this winter. The turf course is in good shape and ready to handle three or four races per day. Fair Grounds’s purses are dwarfed by their regional competitor, Oaklawn Park, but Oaklawn has no turf course, and grass racing now is the defining characteristic that can make Fair Grounds an appealing destination for horsemen and a playable product for horseplayers. Playable it was not early last season, with total year-over-year handle down 26 percent in mid-January. By meet’s end, total handle was down 10 percent compared to the previous season, momentum Fair Grounds hopes can carry over into this 76-day meet. Until the law was changed in the Louisiana legislature this past summer, Fair Grounds was required to race 80 days every season. Four fewer required dates mean fewer five-day racing weeks, the bane of a racing office in this era of chronic horse shortage. :: Bet with the Best! Get FREE All-Access PPs and Weekly Cashback when you wager on DRF Bets. “We have no five-day weeks until March, which really helps us,” said racing secretary Scott Jones. Standard race weeks run Thursday through Sunday before Wednesdays are added in March, with regular first post 12:45 p.m. Central. Jones said the track, before adjusting for in-season handle, has $33 million in purse money to distribute. The plan is to pay out $300,000 in overnight purses daily in addition to a robust stakes schedule worth $9.7 million. Maiden races are worth $52,000, solid but nothing like the six-figure maiden purses available in Kentucky. Fair Grounds will start its meet heavy on Louisiana-breds and lighter on higher-end Kentucky horses until Churchill concludes its fall racing season Nov. 26. More Kentucky horsemen are leaving stock at home for the winter since Turfway began offering purses on par with or greater than those at Fair Grounds. Still, Fair Grounds attracts some of the best young horses in North America, with Steve Asmussen and Brad Cox generally stabling their top prospects in New Orleans. The track’s series of races for 2-year-olds of 2023 and 3-year-olds of 2024 begins with Road to the Derby Kickoff Day on Dec. 23. The Lecomte for 3-year-olds and the Silverbulletday for 3-year-old fillies headline Road to the Derby Day on Jan. 20 and are followed by the Risen Star and Rachel Alexandra Stakes on the Feb. 17 Louisiana Derby Preview program. The Louisiana Derby and Fair Grounds Oaks are carded for March 23. Fair Grounds hosts the Claiming Crown for the first time, with that series of rich starter-allowance races scheduled for Dec. 2. The most notable addition to the training colony this season is Larry Rivelli, who had a handful of horses on the grounds last meet but has 40 stalls for 2023-24. New York-based trainers Rob Atras, Robert Falcone, and Ray Handal all have Fair Grounds stalls for the first time. English jockey Ben Curtis is riding for the first time in North America, with former leading Fair Grounds trainer Ron Faucheux booking his mounts. Jamie Torres, another Fair Grounds newcomer, should be solidly supported. The track will continue offering pick five wagers with 15 percent takeout as well as a non-jackpot pick six. Friday’s nine-race card leans heavily on Louisiana-breds and includes three $75,000 dirt stakes for statebred fillies and mares. Free Like a Girl is cross-entered in the Doris Hebert Memorial at six furlongs and the John Valene Memorial at a mile and 70 yards, but while Free Like a Girl has proven her mettle at middle distances as well as sprints, she’s a better Friday fit in the Hebert. Just a 4-year-old, Free Like a Girl already has made 30 starts, winning 13 times while banking more than $960,000 for the partnership that owns her. :: Get Daily Racing Form Past Performances – the exclusive home of Beyer Speed Figures There appears to be stiffer competition for Free Like a Girl in the Valene over a distance a tick longer than she really handles. Three-year-old Sabra Tuff takes on older rivals here but drops from open stakes races and should be ready for this level of statebred-restricted competition. Dallas Stewart trains Sabra Tuff as well as Accommodate Eva, who starts in the Donovan Ferguson Memorial, a six-furlong race for 2-year-old fillies. Accommodate Eva won a restricted maiden race at the Keeneland meet before being thrown to the wolves in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, where she finished 10th. Clearly a Test still is a maiden but last saw action at Saratoga and is the pick to win the Ferguson. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.