A pair of entry-level allowance races, one for older turf sprinters, the other for 3-year-olds sprinting on the main track, headline Monday’s nine-race card at Fair Grounds.
The turf sprint, race 3, should have Perfect Easter as a heavy favorite. Perfect Easter missed by a nose at this class level, distance, and surface in his most recent start, but does have a history of finishing second or third in races he might have won.
Afleet Deceit overcame trouble in the first turn to win the $50,000 Sam Houston Distaff by 1 1/2 lengths Saturday night. She overtook favorite Bella Medaglia in the stretch, as that one held second by 5 1/2 lengths over third-place finisher Mayhaw.
Fusa Code might have put himself on the fast track to next month’s Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Park Derby, when he won his maiden in the local prep, the $100,000 Borderland Derby. He drove to a three-quarter-length win over stakes winner Behold de Buy in the race run Saturday, while it was another nose back in third to favorite Special Kid.
PHOENIX - Beer Meister, a 40-1 shot in the $50,000 Turf Paradise Derby Saturday, spoiled the trip for Southern California invading favorites Indian Winter and Mr Artistic M D as he rallied for a huge upset at the Phoenix track. There was an inquiry and disqualification though it didn’t affect the winner.
Jockey Rosie Napravnik continued her romp through the Fair Grounds race meet on Saturday, winning two of the three stakes races on the program. The victories, aboard Upperline in the Allen Lacombe Memorial and Man of Strife in the Gentilly Stakes, gave Napravnik eight stakes victories from 26 such opportunities this winter in New Orleans. Napravnik, the meet’s leading rider, had 77 total Fair Grounds wins after Saturday’s races.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Ultra Blend gave jockey Joel Rosario his 12th stakes win of the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting in Saturday's $100,000 Valentine Dancer Handicap.
Rosario's decision to guide Ultra Blend wide on the turn proved to be the difference. Ultra Blend ($4.60) had an easy trip, while runner-up Evening Jewel, the 4-5 favorite, was stuck behind horses to early stretch and could not catch the winner in the stretch, losing by 1 1/4 lengths. Ultra Blend ran a mile in 1:35.58.
J J's Lucky Train got back to winning on Saturday, cutting back to seven furlongs to win the $51,500 Miracle Wood by a neck over the odds-on Bandbox at Laurel Park.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark.- Rattlesnake Holler won his maiden in the $50,000 Rainbow at Oaklawn Park on Saturday, when he overtook pacesetter Ile St. Roy nearing the wire in the six-furlong race for 3-year-olds bred in Arkansas.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Soldat left little doubt he’s just as capable on a fast track as he is over slop or grass after leading from start to finish en route to a two-length victory over Gourmet Dinner in Saturday’s $400,000 Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream Park.
Flashpoint ran himself out of winter racing in New York with a powerful debut victory on Jan. 15. Who knows where, and how high, the colt might be headed now. Flashpoint dueled 3-5 favorite Travelin Man into submission around the far turn and ran off to a 7 1/4-length victory in the Grade 2, $150,000 Hutcheson Stakes on Saturday at Gulfstream Park.
