Tom's d'Etat ready to roll in Tenacious Stakes

It’s never been an issue of just what Tom’s d’Etat can do on the racetrack. The problem has been keeping Tom’s d’Etat on the racetrack.

Barely more than a week from turning 6, Tom’s d’Etat makes just his ninth career start Saturday in the $75,000 Tenacious Stakes at Fair Grounds. If he comes anywhere near producing his best form, Tom’s d’Etat will run out a short-priced winner. And from trainer Al Stall’s point of view, Tom’s d’Etat looks ready to roll.

“He’s good to go right now, that’s for sure,” said Stall, who trains Tom’s d’Etat for Gayle Benson’s GMB Racing. The Bensons are a prominent New Orleans family that owns the NFL Saints and the NBA Pelicans.

Tom’s d’Etat needed seven months between first- and second-level allowance wins and didn’t start for 15 months before posting a ridiculously easy fourth-level allowance win last month at Churchill Downs. The Tenacious marks his stakes debut.

Tom’s d’Etat was days from the 2017 Woodward Stakes at Saratoga when an injury sent him to the sidelines.

“He was headlong into the Woodward,” Stall said. “[Joel] Rosario came out and breezed him. The next day we saw what we didn’t want to see.”

Tom’s d’Etat had surgery to insert a stabilizing screw into a small fracture and came back from his long break breathing fire. By Smart Strike, Tom’s d’Etat is a gorgeous monster of a horse, scopey and powerful with an impressive cruising speed.

Snapper Sinclair and Thirstforlife – both of whom get weight from the heavy favorite under the Tenacious allowance conditions – could provide the chief opposition, though both need Tom’s d’Etat to run below his best to contend.

The one-mile and 70-yard Tenacious (race 9, post time 4:22 Central) is one of six stakes on a blockbuster 14-race Fair Grounds card Saturday. First post is 12:35.

Buddy Diliberto Memorial

Arklow and Mr. Misunderstood are getting winter down time at a Florida farm, but trainer Brad Cox still has a live contender for the $75,000 Buddy Diliberto Memorial Stakes in Big Changes.

Big Changes won five in a row earlier this year before finishing second to stablemate Mr. Misunderstood in the Grade 3 River City Stakes last month at Churchill Downs. He’s probably going to be favored in the Diliberto, a 1 1/16-mile grass race, though bettors have cause to consider other options in a contentious race.

“This horse has had a great year already, but he’s doing well right now and we’re going to press on with him and see where he takes us,” Cox said.

Big Changes “likes to mix it up” early in his races, Cox said, but is unlikely to control a glacial pace as he did in the River City. He can race effectively from just off the speed, and his trip poses less concern than the fact that Big Changes, 6, has probably already hit his ceiling and has failed to produce a top performance in two previous Fair Grounds turf starts.

Great Wide Open also stands on the threshold of his 7-year-old season, but unlike Big Changes he’s not fully exposed as a turf-route horse. Great Wide Open has made many starts at distances shorter than a mile, but got into a great rhythm this fall in middle-distance races. His second in the Grade 1 Shadwell Turf Mile at Keeneland came at astronomical odds, but Great Wide Open to some extent validated that performance with a strong third-level allowance win Nov. 24 at Fair Grounds. He’ll be on or near the pace under James Graham, who has forged a strong partnership with his mount.

Oscar Nominated figures to be second choice at worst, but there are sexier options in terms of price. Memory Bank and Teodoro both are 4-year-olds who still have room to improve, and either would boost exacta and trifecta payouts.

Blushing K. D.

Take These Chains was an odds-on favorite in her stakes debut, the Intercontinental at Belmont Park in June 2017, and finished eighth. One race into a comeback following a year-plus layoff, Take These Chains enters the $75,000 Blushing K. D. Stakes the 3-1 morning-line favorite, and that price should give bettors pause.

Take These Chains, making her first start for trainer Brad Cox, impressively won a Churchill turf allowance race Nov. 11, but she’s stepping up in class Saturday while stretching out to a 1 1/16-mile trip that might be a hair beyond ideal. The conditions demand handicappers hold out for fair value, which may be found elsewhere in the Blushing K. D.

I’m Betty G will take action, but showed no love for the local course in a lone start last season. Cox’s second starter, Beau Recall, switches circuits on the way to a broodmare career and might not have the wherewithal to capitalize on a class drop.

Superioritycomplex is the pick, hopefully at a decent price. She got a favorable trip Nov. 22 in an easy local second-level turf-route allowance win and can get another win in the Blushing K. D. for trainer Mike Stidham and jockey Joe Bravo.