Who Took the Money can rake it in

Pace and track bias should play a central role in two stakes races Saturday at Fair Grounds. In a third, talent figures to trump all.

The three Saturday stakes, two for Louisiana-breds, are turf routes. Race 4 is the $60,000 Red Camelia, for older Louisiana-bred fillies and mares at about one mile. Race 6 is the $50,000 Black Gold, for 3-year-olds at about 1 1/16 miles, and race 8 is the Edward J. Johnston Memorial, for older Louisiana-breds at one mile.

Who Took the Money, regardless of how the race unfolds, will take no end of beating in the Eddie Johnston, named for the longtime New Orleans trainer who passed away in 2021. Who Took the Money just is a good grass horse, Louisiana-bred status aside, though that did not become apparent until his seventh start this past December. Who Took the Money was all right, nothing special, in his lone turf try during his 3-year-old campaign of 2021, but when trainer Bret Calhoun put him back on turf late last year, he got tremendous results.

Who Took the Money won the Louisiana Champions Turf by nearly six lengths on Dec. 11, but his half-length victory Jan. 6 in a Louisiana-bred turf-route allowance was equally impressive. There, Who Took the Money faced a 4 1/2-length deficit at the stretch call. Grand Luwegee, who’d won the Champions Day Classic in his last start, had led on a slow pace, but Who Took the Money ripped through a 23.43 closing quarter mile and got home by a half-length. Calhoun has pointed Who Took the Money in this direction for the better part of two months, and the 4-year-old Street Boss gelding has put together a glittering work pattern between starts.

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Calhoun has a better-priced contender for the Red Camelia in Winning Romance, who’s 9-2 on the track’s morning line compared to 4-5 on Who Took the Money in the Eddie Johnston. Four-year-old Winning Romance, a stakes-winner at the Louisiana-bred level, has tried turf once, getting an inside trip while contesting the pace in a Louisiana-bred allowance race on Jan. 7. She faded to fifth in a race won by Red Camelia favorite Net a Bear, but that just makes Winning Romance a better price Saturday. The turf race came during a period when the Fair Grounds course was heavily biased toward wide-rallying closers. Winning Romance had next to no chance given the circumstances and could wind up lone speed from the rail on Saturday.

It wasn’t bias but pace that did in likely Black Gold Stakes favorite Dowagiac Chief on Jan. 30 in the $200,000 Texas Turf Mile at Sam Houston. Pressing a strong pace from third around the first turn and down the backstretch, Dowagiac Chief challenged three paths wide around the far turn and held a lead in upper stretch, only to get swallowed up in the final furlong by three closers rallying into a taxing pace. He held on for fourth, more than five lengths clear of his nearest pace rival, 4-1 shot Chanceaux.

“The setup was terrible. He was the only horse to fight on after a very quick early pace,” said trainer Tom Amoss.

Dowagiac Chief has the outside post in the seven-horse Black Gold, with other pace players drawn inside him.

“He’s a good horse. I like him. He’s a physically attractive horse,” said Amoss. “He wants to be fairly prominent in a race that looks to have some other horses like that, but I do like his post. I think he’ll sit a little off the pace if necessary.”

Amoss has a second runner, Iberville, coming off a decisive $50,000 maiden-claiming win over the Fair Grounds grass course on Jan. 13. Iberville raced just off the pace and won comfortably while leading through the homestretch racing along the inside. That meant Iberville was against the outside-closing bias that still prevailed at the time, and means that he has an upset chance in the Black Gold.