Trainer McGee seeks 1,000th win from December Seven

The veteran trainer Paul McGee has been sitting at 999 career wins for a few weeks now. A milestone – 1,000 wins – is right around the corner and could come in the featured seventh race Thursday at Fair Grounds with a very promising prospect named December Seven.

December Seven is one of eight entrants in a second-level allowance race that is also open to $40,000 claimers and carded for 1 1/16 miles on dirt. The 11-race card starts with modest offerings, but races 6 through 11 all are for open maidens or allowance horses.

No one racing Thursday in New Orleans has more potential than December Seven, a 3-year-old Street Sense colt out of the Bernardini mare Date to Remember owned by Jay Em Ess Stable. December Seven didn’t debut until this past summer, a late start, particularly for a horse with pedigree, but McGee said it was merely a series of relatively minor events that delayed December Seven’s career. December Seven was third after breaking from the rail in an Ellis Park sprint first time out, but has prospered since being stretched out to two turns and racing with Lasix in three subsequent starts.

He won a maiden dirt race at Churchill in September, then finished third in a first-level Keeneland allowance race, where his chances were ruined by a slow break and a troubled trip. Stuck in a pocket near the back of the field into the far turn, December Seven was shuffled back to last before coming home with a race-best 12.01-second final furlong as front-runners dominated that nine-furlong affair.

Bettors were onto his tough luck last month at Churchill Downs, where December Seven crushed a first-level allowance field by more than three lengths, easily staying 1 3/16 miles while eased up the final half-furlong, the outcome having been decided.

“He’s a nice horse. We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, but our long-term goal is to make him a stakes horse,” McGee said.
December Seven has trained just as well at Fair Grounds, McGee said, as he did in Kentucky.

“He had a bullet the other day. Jimmy Graham was on him, and he breezed really well,” McGee said. “I feel like he likes it at Fair Grounds.”

December Seven, with Graham named to ride, is listed as the 5-2 morning-line second choice in the featured seventh – a possible milestone winner for McGee who could reward bettors, too.