Travel Column, Clairiere renew rivalry in Fair Grounds Oaks

It seemed like everyone at Fair Grounds had watched the filly Travel Column working in company this winter with Essential Quality, champion 2-year-old colt of 2020. Travel Column didn’t just hold her own; one rival trainer described the team works as “her dragging him around the track.”

Between her works, her eye-catching victory in the Golden Rod Stakes, and the fact she hails from the Brad Cox barn, Travel Column went off at even money in her 3-year-old debut, the Feb. 13 Rachel Alexandra. Everything went as expected. Travel Column tracked the pacesetter and opened a lead in upper stretch – and then Clairiere ran her down.

This was sweet revenge for Clairiere’s connections, Stonestreet Stables and trainer Steve Asmussen. In the Golden Rod, Clairiere looked like a winner at the three-sixteenths pole. Locked inside, with no room, Travel Column switched off heels at the furlong grounds, coming with a dazzling swoop to get up by one length.

The fillies look closely matched and meet for a third time in the Grade 2, $400,000 Fair Grounds Oaks on Saturday. But is this a question of “either-or” or “none of the above?”

Six others are entered, among them Li’l Tootsie, a sharp New Orleans-based stakes newcomer, and Obligatory, who so impressed trainer Bill Mott and owner-breeder Juddmonte Farms last out that she goes from a Gulfstream one-turn-mile maiden straight into a Grade 2 route stakes.

Saturday’s race is a key Kentucky Oaks prep at a track proven to be among the best places to winter a future Oaks winner. The local Oaks awards 170 Kentucky Oaks qualifying points 100-40-20-10 to the top four finishers.

One theory regarding the Rachel Alexandra is that Joe Talamo on Clairiere rode a perfect race while Florent Geroux on Travel Column did not have his finest hour. Geroux’s purported sins were moving too early, attacking overmatched leader Off We Go at the three-furlong pole, and riding too confidently late. Clairiere, breaking from the rail and last early, was kept to the fence nearly the entire trip, following Travel Column’s move around Off We Go as Talamo hid coyly behind and inside Travel Column, belatedly producing his mount with an eighth of a mile left. Geroux didn’t cock his whip until the sixteenth pole, by which point Clairiere had all the momentum, with Travel Column fighting to get back on terms after being passed.

Travel Column, a Frosted filly owned by Larry Best’s OXO Equine, has continued working with verve, including a final in-company drill March 13, a breeze Cox termed “fantastic.” Some horses look better in the morning than the afternoon; perhaps Travel Column is one of them.

Clairiere has shown more during the morning the last couple months than she did as a 2-year-old, according to Scott Blasi, Fair Grounds-based assistant to Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen.

“She’s one of those fillies that has gone the right way at the Fair Grounds,” Blasi said. “She’s filled out and grown; there’s more to her than when she first got here.”

Clairiere, by Curlin, has raced only three times and should have plenty of development left this spring. She breaks from post 6 under Talamo, with Travel Column and Geroux in post 8. The fillies earned Beyer Speed Figures of 83 and 82 last month, good but not great, and other speed-figure makers rated the Rachel Alexandra similarly, suggesting Obligatory and Li’l Tootsie merit attention.

Luis Saez takes the mount on Li’l Tootsie, a Tapiture filly trained by Tom Amoss for Joel Politi, after riding Florida shipper Zaajel to two wins this winter. Zaajel is owned by Shadwell Stable, with whom Saez’s agent, former trainer Kiaran McLaughlin, has close ties, so the jockey maneuvering seems noteworthy. Amoss wants a different trip for Li’l Tootsie than she got Feb. 12, when she won her two-turn debut rallying up the fence from many lengths off the pace. Li’l Tootsie showed ample sprint speed in a highly rated January maiden win, and Amoss all but guaranteed she will race much closer to the front Saturday.

Obligatory debuted Oct. 18 at Belmont with a sprinting fourth, and Mott said he tried without success to get her into a subsequent New York maiden race. A race in January finally went, but when Khalid Abdullah, principal of owner-breeder Juddmonte Farms, died after entries were taken, Juddmonte went briefly on hold and the filly was scratched. Mott sent her to Florida, and on Feb. 7 Obligatory overcame a tough trip to win by 2 1/2 lengths. Stymied inside at the half-mile pole, Obligatory had to wait, switch to the far outside, and come with a strong sustained run.

“From where she was in the middle of the turn, it’s very hard to win at Gulfstream,” said Mott, who is confident Obligatory will handle the added distance. “She’s easy to deal with and has come around steadily from early in the year. She seems to adapt to everything real well.”

Plenty of adaptation will be required Saturday: First time shipping, first stakes, first time two turns, and racing without Lasix, which she ran on last out.

Zaajel drew the rail and gets the services of Irad Ortiz Jr. Moon Swag, Souper Sensational, and Il Malocchio complete the field.