Warrant finds soft spot for possible Santa Anita Handicap prep

Warrant a year ago used a distant third-place finish on Jan. 22 in the Louisiana Stakes at Fair Grounds as a springboard to the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap on March 4, when he gallantly lost by a head to Express Train. Warrant on Thursday will use a high-level Fair Grounds allowance race as a potential springboard to the Santa Anita Handicap on March 5 – only it’s hard to see Warrant finishing anything but first in this year’s prep.

Warrant faces four rivals at most in the mile and 70-yard dirt race with a basic third-level allowance condition and a $80,000 claiming option. Five-year-old Warrant still is a three-other-than allowance horse, having compiled a 3-5-3 record from 12 starts. A son of Constitution and Whisper Number, by First Samurai, Warrant was bred and is owned by Twin Creeks Racing. He makes his first start Thursday since finishing a dull third as the odds-on favorite in the Prairie Meadows Cornhusker on July 9.

“I’m excited they got the race to go,” said trainer Brad Cox, who seems to have a favorite for nearly every dirt allowance race at this meet.

Warrant’s Santa Anita Handicap proved to be the high point of his 4-year-old season; he came back to finish fourth as the favorite in the Ben Ali at Keeneland, then was second trying 1 1/2 miles in the Brooklyn Stakes before the Cornhusker start.

“It was the middle of the summer and he just kind of was training flat,” Cox said regarding Warrant’s effort in the Cornhusker. “He needed some time off. He’s doing really good again now.”

Warrant and jockey Florent Geroux are drawn in post 2. Outside him are Cash Logistics, Dust Em, and Rightandjust, none of whom are beating Warrant even if the horse needs his comeback start. The one upset candidate to consider is rail-drawn Mailman Money, who races for the first time since being gelded in December. His trainer, Bret Calhoun, is having easily the best Fair Grounds meeting of his career, coming into this racing week leading the trainer standings with a 26-17-11 record from 82 starters. Mailman Money, a lightly raced 6-year-old, races under the $80,000 claiming option, his third start in a row for a high tag. In June 2021, which actually was just six starts ago, Mailman Money won a Churchill Downs race at this class level over a slightly longer trip, which produced a 94 Beyer Speed Figure.

That sort of showing would put him in range of a Thursday win. But does the chance of it warrant a win bet? Probably not.