Wet weather almost certain for five-stakes Santa Super Saturday

NEW ORLEANS – Father Christmas had better pack an umbrella.

Santa Super Saturday, the six-stakes program gifted with talented older horses and promising young stock, looks like it’s going to a wet one.

The main question Saturday at Fair Grounds appears to center around “how much” more than “if” regarding a precipitation event. Rain is supposed to commence sometime Friday night and stretch all the way through the weekend. Local horsemen on Thursday already were pondering what they might do with grass horses whose Saturday races could be rained onto turf.

The 14-race card commences at noon Central and includes a pair of 2-year-old sprint stakes that might or might not be stepping-stones to the twin 3-year-old dirt-route series here that culminate in the Fair Grounds Oaks and Louisiana Derby.

Both six-furlong, $75,000 races, the Letellier for fillies and the Sugar Bowl, drew short fields, and the Letellier (race 3) will have a smaller number of horses than entered since Halama was cross-entered in a first-level, two-turn allowance race and will start there, according to trainer Brendan Walsh. The promising filly Ursula was cross-entered in the same two races but is likely to start in the Letellier, trainer Mike Stidham said Thursday.

If so, she figures to be the main rival for Taraz, the likely favorite off a blowout Churchill Downs debut win for trainer Brad Cox and owner-breeder Juddmonte Farms. Taraz, by Into Mischief out of the Empire Maker mare Silk Route, is bred to run a route of ground and is of the physical type to do so, Cox said, but her connections want one more sprint race before stretching out. Taraz caught the eye drawing away to post a 7 1/2-length victory first out, but her 72 Beyer Speed Figure rates lower than the visual impression.

“She’s a really big filly with an unbelievable stride,” Cox said. “She’s ready.”

Florent Geroux has a return call on Taraz, who breaks from post 2, inside the race’s other main speed, the New York shipper Sweet Kisses. An early battle between those two fillies would suit Ursula, who ran evenly first out at Keeneland before taking a sizable step forward here Nov. 30 with a 5 1/2-length maiden win. Stidham seriously considered a Saturday stretch-out but isn’t totally sold on Ursula, a daughter of Tapit, as a true route horse. She’s already proven quick enough to sprint and might be a fairer price than Taraz in the Letellier.

Sprinting also is not the endgame for Shashashakemeup, who breaks from the rail in the Sugar Bowl, race 10. Shashashakemeup debuted going seven furongs and overcame a rail draw at Churchill to easily win a restricted maiden race. Trainer Keith Desormeaux sees Shashashakemeup, a son of Shackleford, as a long-term route prospect but wanted another sprint race before considering the 1 1/16-mile Lecomte Stakes here next month.

“He’s a nice, rangy colt – not huge, not too small, just the right size,” Desormeaux said.

Gold Street, posted alongside Shashashakemeup, required four starts to win a maiden race but has faced considerably stronger competition than his rail-drawn rival and coasted to an easy win Nov. 23 at Churchill while racing over a wet track for the first time.

“He ran against some of the better horses and he’s just a good, solid colt,” trainer Steve Asmussen said.

Self Taught and Axiomo also merit consideration in this six-horse field.