Training title comes down to closing weekend

Entering the last week of the 2020-2021 Fair Grounds meet, a real race was on for leading trainer. Ron Faucheux continues to bombard the entry box and came into Wednesday’s card with 37 winners, one more than Brad Cox. Tom Amoss has sent out 33 winners, probably too few to catch the top two. Cox has led the standings for much of the season, but Faucheux, with a bevy of Louisiana-bred and conditioned claiming horses at his disposal, has hung tough.

On closing day, Sunday, Faucheux has four entrants, Cox only one, and both trainers entered two horses for Saturday’s card. Friday, Cox has only one runner, Parker Eva, a Bernardini filly who makes her career debut in race 4, a $50,000 maiden turf claimer. Faucheux has horses entered in race 5, a $12,500 Louisiana-bred maiden-claimer, and race 9, a Louisiana-bred second-level dirt-sprint allowance with a $20,000 claiming option.

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Faucheux’s entrant, Echoesoftime, runs for the claiming price and would have a stronger chance with a better draw, but she breaks from post 1 and could get caught up in a hot pace.

The day’s best bet runs in this race, a horse named Galaxy Thirtysix, whose trainer, John Ney, has only four winners. One came March 13, when Galaxy Thirtysix aired in a Louisiana-bred turf sprint, earning a claiming-tag rise from $12,500 to $20,000. Galaxy Thirtysix probably is a better horse on dirt than turf and can knock out a second straight win at a square price.