
Hit Show will attempt to commence a new win streak Saturday against nine rivals in the $175,000 Louisiana (G3), one of four stakes open to older horses on Fair Grounds’ 12-race card.
After reeling off a three-stakes win streak last season in the West Virginia Governor’s (G3), Lukas Classic (G2), and Fayette (G2) by a combined margin of 1 1/2 lengths, Hit Show stalled out in deep stretch of the Clark (G2) in late November. The Brad Cox trainee crossed the wire in third, but was disqualified and placed fifth for drifting into a rival around the sixteenth pole.
Skinner, a recent newcomer to the barn of Cherie DeVaux, will get play. Previously with John Shirreffs in California, the multiple Grade 1-placed five-year-old earned his first win outside the maiden ranks on Nov. 23 when rallying to win the Native Diver (G3) at Del Mar by one length.
Track Phantom, who captured the Lecomte (G3) on this program a year ago, has made two starts since returning from an extended layoff following the Kentucky Derby (G1) last spring. Although second in a Churchill allowance first up, he retreated to fourth in the Tenacious S. last month over this same 1 1/16-mile distance. Also looking to bounce back from modest recent showings are Velocitor and Komorebino Omoide.
Cooke Creek and Heroic Move both ran Hit Show close in different races last season, while Maycocks Bay enters off back-to-back allowance wins over the New Orleans track.
Grade 2 scorer Gigante looks the horse to beat in the $100,000 Colonel E.R. Bradley S., a 1 1/16-mile grass test. Gigante registered an odds-on success in last month’s Buddy Diliberto Memorial when last seen.
Other logical threats include fellow Grade 2 winner City Man, the Cox-trained Wadsworth, and stakes winner Northern Invader, who was gelded after running third to Carl Spackler in the Kelso (G3) last July.
Nobals, the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint (G1) winner, is a potential standout in the $100,000 Duncan F. Kenner S. going 5 1/2 furlongs on the turf. After three losses to start an abbreviated 2024 campaign, Nobals returned to winning ways in mid-November when taking the Kennedy Road (G2) at Woodbine over Tapeta.
The Kenner field also includes Bear River, who landed the Richie Scherer Memorial over the course and distance on Dec. 21.
The $100,000 Marie G. Krantz Memorial, for fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles on the turf, attracted an overflow field. Champagne Rose, a Group 1 winner in her native Brazil, makes her U.S. debut for Kenny McPeek, while Argentinean Group 1 winner Nanda Dea has had the benefit of one U.S. run, an allowance victory at Keeneland last October, for Nacho Correas.
Other notables include stakes winners Austere and Stir Crazy, both of whom won at first asking over the local turf earlier in the meet.