Two Emmys can make statement in Fair Grounds Stakes
It’s not out of the question that the best nine- to 10-furlong turf horse in North America races Saturday at Fair Grounds. Maybe you don’t think that highly of Two Emmys. Maybe his record merits a closer look.
In March 2021, Two Emmys made his stakes debut in the Grade 2 Muniz Memorial, Fair Grounds’s most important turf race, where he set the pace and held a strong second behind Colonel Liam. Colonel Liam was coming off a win in the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Turf and would go on to dead-heat for first in the Grade 1 Turf Classic at Churchill Downs.
Five months and three starts later, Two Emmys went wire to wire in the Grade 1 Mr. D. Stakes, holding of Domestic Spending, who had won three Grade 1s coming into the race.
Last March, Two Emmys won the Muniz Memorial by more than two lengths over Santin, who returned to win the Grade 1 Turf Classic on Kentucky Derby Day.
Two Emmys is a 7-year-old now. He’s also by English Channel, whose best turf offspring often don’t even find themselves until age 5. Racing for the first time in seven months, Two Emmys looked as good as ever Jan. 21, nearly overcoming a powerful course bias when second in the Colonel E.R. Bradley Stakes. He’s the horse to beat in the Fair Grounds Stakes on Saturday.
“He’s been training fine, like normal,” said trainer and majority owner Hugh Robertson. “I’ve just been breezing him easy because he’s fit now.”
Robertson has been watching the outside-closing Fair Grounds turf bias recently ebb – a great sign for Two Emmys, who wants to race forwardly and get down to the rail.
“It’s not that the inside got any better, but everyone was going to the outside rail, so the whole course got chewed up,” Robertson said.
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.