Leave it to Neil Howard to do something wacky to mark his 68th birthday on Thursday.
“I’ll be laying low,” Howard said, “doing the usual stuff – pulling manes, cleaning sheets. Anyway, it’s always good to wait until Monday morning to celebrate or not.”
And what a celebration it could be if Howard’s pair of Guest Suite and Eagle come through on Saturday in New Orleans, where the Risen Star for ambitious 3-year-olds tops a stakes-laden program at Fair Grounds.
Epicharis, who won the Hyacinth Stakes last Sunday in Tokyo to move to the top of the Japan Road to the Kentucky Derby points list, has accepted an invitation to the United Arab Emirates Derby on March 25 at Meydan, the Japan Racing Association said on Thursday.
This is a significant step for Epicharis, for it puts him on the same schedule now as Lani, who won the UAE Derby last year before coming to the United States for the Kentucky Derby, in which he finished ninth. Lani subsequently was third in the Belmont Stakes.
It’s all about Fair Grounds on Saturday as the New Orleans track offers a card that includes six stakes, led by the Grade 2, $400,000 Risen Star and the Grade 2, $200,000 Rachel Alexandra. Gulfstream has three stakes on its program, topped by the Grade 3, $100,000 Gulfstream Park Sprint.
Risen Star Stakes
Guest Suite, who won the Lecomte Stakes on Jan. 21 in his 3-year-old debut, had his final Risen Star workout on Tuesday, going a half-mile in 48 seconds. On a damp, drizzly morning, trainer Neil Howard did not hesitate to work Guest Suite over a wet, sealed Fair Grounds surface.
“On this racetrack, very rarely does anything get in your way of training,” Howard said.
NEW ORLEANS – The first multistakes card of any significance at the Fair Grounds meet on Dec. 17 sounded a steady drumbeat of Brad Cox-trained stakes winners. Green Mask won the Bonapaw, Cash Control won the Blushing K. D., and Western Reserve won the Buddy Diliberto.
In the summer of 2015, trainer Tony Dutrow had a handful of 2-year-olds from the first crop of Uncle Mo. He liked the promise they had shown and wanted to get more. So, at the Keeneland yearling sale that September, getting an Uncle Mo colt was paramount to Dutrow.
Practical Joke will make his first start as a 3-year-old in the Grade 2, $400,000 Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park on March 4, and Jose Ortiz will have the mount, trainer Chad Brown said Wednesday.
Brown also had been considering the Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct on March 4 for Practical Joke’s first start on the Kentucky Derby trail.
“Ultimately, the decision was made because he’s thriving in south Florida, and I really don’t want to move the horse since he’s doing so well,” said Brown, who winters at the Palm Meadows training center.
Mo Town
Uncle Mo-Grazie Mille, by Bernardini
(Bred in Kentucky by John D. Gunther and Eurowest Bloodstock; $200,000 purchase by Team D at 2015 Keeneland September yearling sale)
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The undefeated One Liner, who popped a Beyer Speed Figure of 102 for his win Monday in the Grade 3, $500,000 Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park, was traveling Tuesday, headed back home to Palm Beach Downs in South Florida.
