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NEW ORLEANS – Lost after a Kentucky Derby win, multiple Breeders’ Cup wins, and another Eclipse Award as North America’s leading trainer was the fact that Todd Pletcher ran wild early in 2010 at Fair Grounds. Pletcher shipped horses here from Florida for nine stakes starts early last year, and, remarkably, came up with six winners.
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An in-form New York-bred from little-known connections trying graded stakes company for the first time could easily be overlooked. Those who look past R Betty Graybull in Saturday’s Grade 2, $150,000 Barbara Fritchie Handicap may do so at their own peril.
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When Rogue Romance finished third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile on Nov. 6, a colt named Machen still was almost two months away from his career debut. But after making the races in January, Machen leapt to the head of the New Orleans 3-year-old class, and it’s he who might stand between Rogue Romance and a 3-year-old debut win Saturday in the Risen Star Stakes at Fair Grounds.
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HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Roger Attfield will try to parlay both quality and quantity into a victory in Saturday’s $150,000 Mac Diarmida at Gulfstream Park when he sends out three of the 13 starters in the 11-furlong marathon, including the 9-year-old veteran Musketier.
If it’s a two-turn stakes race for older horses at Turfway Park, yep, Timeless Fashion must be in it.
The $50,000 Dust Commander Stakes on Saturday night at the Florence, Ky., track will mark the seventh time that Timeless Fashion has gone postward in just such a race at Turfway. More notable, however, is that the 7-year-old gelding has been very productive, having posted four wins and a second from those six prior stakes tries. One of those triumphs came in the 2009 Dust Commander.
Who's hot
Silver Medallion and Anthony’s Cross scored victories on Saturday in Kentucky Derby preps in which heavy favorites were defeated, and thus moved their way onto the top 20 of Derby Watch. Silver Medallion, the El Camino Real Derby winner, is 30-1 on the future line set by Mike Watchmaker, Daily Racing Form’s national handicapper, and Anthony’s Cross, who won the Robert Lewis, is 40-1. Watchmaker also knocked the unbeaten Brethren down to 15-1 from last week’s 20-1 following his victory in the Sam Davis Stakes.
Who's not
Before all the graded action gets under way Saturday at Fair Grounds, a pair of longstanding $60,000 sprints will whet the stakes appetite for horseplayers of the New Orleans track.
The first of six stakes on the 12-race card is the Colonel Power (race 4), a 5 1/2-furlong turf race for older males, followed in quick order by the Pan Zareta (race 5) for fillies and mares at six furlongs.
PHOENIX – Saturday’s $75,000 Phoenix Gold Cup, the marquee event of the Turf Paradise meet, has the makings of a classic race. Among the 13 entered for the six-furlong event are last year’s one-two finishers Ez Dreamer and Goin’ Dancin, current top local sprinters Chaplain and Point Attended, Grade 1-tested Southern Californian New Bay, Northern California stakes winner Our Minesweeper, New Mexico hotshot Wiredfortwotwenty, Midwest sharpie Stephengotthisstar, and the world-record holder for the distance, Twin Sparks.
