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FAIR GROUNDS NOTEBOOK FEBRUARY 28, 2008 by Steve Collison Louisiana Derby Day Louisiana Derby Day is the richest day of racing ever in Louisiana, with six stakes offering $2.3 million in purses. The headline event of the afternoon is the $600,000 Louisiana Derby (G2) for three-year-olds. Three other Grade 2 stakes are on the Derby Day schedule: the $400,000 Fair Grounds Oaks for three-year-old fillies, the $500,000 New Orleans H. for older horses on dirt and the $500,000 Mervin H. Muniz Jr. Memorial H. for older horses on turf. Rounding out the stakes schedule is a pair of sprints: the Duncan F. Kenner S., which offers a $200,000 purse, and the $100,000 Bienville S. for fillies and mares on turf. Speaking of the Derby, Pyro (Pulpit), the likely favorite was drawing rave reviews after breezing a bullet six furlongs Monday morning. One of the early favorites for this year's Kentucky Derby (G1) continues to impress and his stock remains high following his explosive stretch run Risen Star (G3) victory on February 9. This horse appears to be growing daily both mentally as well as physically and is taking on the look of the real thing. On Saturday, CANDY BALL (Lemon Drop Kid) took the lead from the start, made the pace before drawing off late to capture the $150,000 Bayou H. for fillies and mares. Under a well-judged ride by Peruvian jockey Miguel Mena, the six-year-old mare set soft early fractions of :24.94 and :49.75. She was 3 1/2 lengths in front at the wire and covered the mile and an eighth in 1:52.21. The race was carded for the turf but transferred to a fast main track after heavy rain the last two days. "I knew I had plenty of horse turning for home after those early fractions," the 21-year-old said. "At the quarter-pole I asked her to run and she ran huge. She was really very comfortable and relaxed for me all the way. I couldn't have asked for anything better." Trained by Andrew Leggio Jr., Candy Ball increased her career earnings to $271,075 after winning her seventh career race from 19 lifetime starts. With just 16 days left in this year's season, veteran jockey Jamie Theriot continues to lead the rider's standings with 78 tallies to his credit. On Sunday, Theriot took another huge step toward securing that title when adding three more to that total. Among his scores, he took the featured allowance event over the lawn with WISE RIVER (Belong to Me) after that five-year-old romped home over a yielding turf course going 7 1/2 furlongs in 1:33.83. Earlier, he won the 5TH race aboard EXTRA EXCLUSIVE (Awesome Again) and the 7TH on TEARS I CRY (Chester House), both for trainer Cody Autrey. Theriot now has nine more wins than six-time Fair Grounds leading rider Robby Albarado, who is making it easy as he'll be in Dubai to ride Curlin (Smart Strike) this week in his four-year-old seasonal debut. TRAINER PROFILE Despite winning the Bayou with Candy Ball this past Saturday, ANDREW LEGGIO is one of the better kept secrets at the Fair Grounds. Although he sports consistently solid numbers he's frequently overshadowed by the bigger names who ship in annually for this historic winter meet. Nonetheless, Leggio still wins at more than 20 percent with all of his runners over the dirt while showing an overall positive rate of return on a $2 bet. That's quite an accomplishment that few of his more heralded comrades can claim. And to take that stat up a notch, he does even better when that percentage is limited to just colt which provides an excellent starting point when evaluating the potential playability of his runners. This stable is also one of a select few that excels with their middle distance runners hitting an excellent 30 percent. One pattern to monitor as it represents great success is when this outfit drops a runner down in class while making a second attempt at going two turns. This pattern has produced many happy returns over the years and is often easy to miss as good recent form isn't always an issue. RECENT CLAIMS TO WATCH Thursday (2/21) 4TH -- LOVE ANTE (Upping the Ante), after sprinting the last couple of times out, stretched back out today and the six-year-old mare obviously does much better going added ground. Was claimed for a nickel by trainer Francis Melancon, who doesn't set the world on fire but can get the job done. 10TH -- COREY’S RED BOY (Forty Won) has shown solid improvement since adding Lasix to his arsenal and turned in another encouraging performance today. Managed to run fourth despite still racing somewhat greenly and should be a useful commodity for new trainer James Counts. Friday (2/22) 3RD -- BEN'S DR. DAN (Irish Bluff) showed little today going first time off the claim for Autrey, but was immediately taken back after just one race by the astute Michael Terre, who isn't one to sentimentalize over previous runners. And he in fact looks to have the keys to this gelding's success and can win first time out with the claim back at inflated odds due to what is now poor recent form. 4TH -- VERITASERUM (Yes It's True) turned in an improved performance today after getting his blinkers taken off by trainer Eddie Johnston. Unfortunately for Johnston now that he's found the key to waking this underachiever up, he'll be sleeping in the barn of new trainer Steve Asmussen who took this colt for himself. Sunday (2/24) 1ST -- INVISIBLE FORCE (Include) doesn't have anything monumental or glamorous to boast about, but he goes out and tries every time no matter the circumstances. He's a blue-collar type runner who was claimed today by trainer Alvin Sidler and can win right back at this $25,000 level or even up slightly. HORSES TO WATCH Thursday (2/21) 2ND -- MAJESTIC SWAIN (Swain [Ire]), after breaking his maiden last out at the tender age of five, moved up in company to once again run extremely well despite his running style being compromised by chasing a lone front runner over a speed-favoring sloppy track. 5TH -- DEGA PAPILLION (Gold Tribute) is running in good form right now although is clearly overmatched going against allowance runners. When trainer Mike Burgess realizes this and drops him back to the claiming ranks, the three-year-old colt will see the winner's circle once again. 8TH -- TIGER STRIKE (Volponi), a lightly raced three-year-old gelding, was clearly out of his element when going two turns but now seems to have found his stride after cutting back to sprint today. Sunday (2/24) 1ST -- TRACK RECORD (Elusive Quality), an expensively bred three-year-old gelding, could also be on the "beware list" as he certainly has physical problems that are highlighted by having front bandages for the first time last out followed by drop down to claiming ranks this time. Fortunately, we're not buying this horse but simply looking to cash a bet and that should be possible next time out as he turned in an encouraging performance after running into more then his fair share of traffic trouble. Would only give him one shot though as can't believe he'll be around for much longer then that. 6TH -- HIGH TONED (Zarbyev) moved at the same time the favorite Kat's Court (Twilight Agenda) did and was simply out kicked by a stronger rival. However still turned in a solid performance going second time off the shelf and wouldn't be surprised to see this one in the winner's circle next out. BEWARE OF THESE Friday (2/22) 1ST -- LITTLE GULP (Exploit) returned from an extended 14-month sabbatical while dropping substantially in class. She received some tote support which is understandable considering the plunge in price and managed to show a solid turn of early speed before backing up through the lane. Most players will assume she simply got tired and will be ready to move forward with the added conditioning. That's possible, but it's just as likely and more probable that she's going to be dropping next out for her swan song before retreating to the sidelines for good. 1ST -- CLASS QUEEN (Mutakddim), after being away for nearly one year, came back last out to win by 11 widening lengths. Despite investing so much time and money into getting this one back to the track. the Bernie Flint operation gave her only a token class hike up in class today and she responded with a predictable last-place finish. So if I see this why did highly respected trainer Tom Amoss claim her? Stables like Amoss use Speed figures to evaluate potential claims and frequently will roll the dice at this low level ($16,000 is low for powerful stables) and take a chance especially considering that she is still eligible for all her allowance conditions. In this case they might crap out! Sunday (2/24) 2ND -- ON COMMON GROUND (Skywalker) had won three straight yet Autrey was doing everything possible to lose him by continually dropping in class. Finally got his wish today as was claimed away for reasons not clear here. Not surprisingly this hard knocker seems to have hit the wall that Autrey had feared and once they're tapped out, it's hard to get 'em going back in right direction.
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