With unlucky 2025 behind him, Neat begins campaign

NEW ORLEANS – Trainer Rob Atras should adorn the Fair Grounds stall inhabited by the 5-year-old grass horse Neat with a shamrock, a rabbit’s foot, bouquets of four-leafed clover – whatever lucky talismans can be rounded up.

Neat had a 2025 campaign to forget. Five starts, no wins, places, or shows, but troubled trip after troubled trip. “Checked early, steadied often” in the Henry Clark last April at Laurel. “Steady 3/8, taken up” a month later in the Dinner Party at Pimlico, a race he did not finish. “Checked 3/8, swerved” in the Kelso in July, a race he might have won with clear passage. And finally, adding injury to insult, Neat, in the Fourstardave last August, was eased and taken off the course in an equine ambulance.

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“Thankfully, it wasn’t too serious, really nothing career threatening,” Atras said.

Neat launches his 2026 campaign Friday in the featured eighth race. The one-mile grass contest, which drew 10 entrants, has an $80,000 claiming option and two allowance conditions – nonwinners of three other than and nonwinners since Sept. 20. Neat, a six-time winner from 16 starts, his bankroll approaching $1 million, qualifies under the latter.

Curlin’s Malibu starts only if the race gets moved to the main track, which it won’t. Atras also entered Chasing Liberty but is likely to scratch and look for a shorter race for a horse who hasn’t run since September and barely gets a mile.

A four-time stakes winner, Neat hardly qualifies as a straightforward horse, periodically his own worst enemy in races. But much of last year’s run of bad luck resulted from circumstances.

“He’s got his quirks and sometimes finds his own trouble, but I honestly believe he just had some very bad luck last year,” Atras said. “As he matured, he was a lot better, settling a lot more in his races. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a good horse have as unlucky a year.”

Neat hit the Fair Grounds work tab on Jan. 16 and has logged eight drills without interruption. He has kept to stakes competition since his 2-year-old season and, if ready, should slot in very competitively with Friday’s rivals.

“He’s been really sharp in the mornings, worked pretty decent, had a couple works in company with good gallop-outs. Hopefully, he’s tight enough for a big performance,” Atras said.

While the track’s morning line probably has Neat too high at 10-1, it lists Higgins Boat as a reasonable 5-2 favorite under leading rider Jose Ortiz. Higgins Boat, entered along with Emmanuel for the $80,000 tag, hasn’t hit a level as high as Neat’s, but his 5-3-1-0 Fair Grounds turf record includes two wins this meet. On Feb. 21, racing 1 1/16 miles at this class level, Higgins Boat held on by a nose over well-meant comeback horse Maycocks Bay, and while he doesn’t figure to perform any better than that Friday, Higgins Boat shouldn’t be much worse.

Goldeneye, unraced since an October no-show in the Sycamore at Keeneland, has won four out of his last nine, but one of those wins came over 1 1/8 miles, the other three at 1 1/2 miles. Point Proven exits three Fair Grounds stakes but didn’t land a blow in any of them. West Hollywood hasn’t raced since April, but does that matter? Trainer Brad Cox, the last five years, is 43 for 156, a 28 percent strike rate, with allowance horses racing for the first time in a half-year or longer. Neat stat.

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