Fair Grounds allowance attracts graded-caliber field

Saturday's featured

6TH

race at Fair Grounds, an allowance going a mile on the grass for

older horses, has produced a solid field of 13 -- with two main-track only

entrants -- including four graded winners. Despite the aforementioned

quartet, the 4-1 morning-line favorite is the Gary Scherer-trained Beyond

Compare (Tapit).

Unlike his graded stakes-winning competition who need to

return to form, Beyond Compare is sharp in three local starts this Fair Grounds

season, including two victories. The five-year-old gelding exits a second at this level

on January 9 and gets the

return call from Francisco Torres from the three-hole.

Directly to his inside and with every right to improve is Infinite Magic

(More Than Ready), who became a graded winner at three in

the American Derby (G3) at Arlington. The Wayne Catalano trainee outran his 25-1 odds to finish a game fourth in the Col. E. R. Bradley H.

(G3) on January 17 despite

the good ground being slightly softer than he would prefer. That being said,

the five-year-old bay prefers rock-hard ground that he may not receive two

days after Wednesday rain forced Thursday's card off the turf. Marcelino Pedroza

picks up the ride on the 8-1 morning-line shot.

Fellow Catalano trainee Solitary Ranger (U S Ranger) has been burning up

the track in the mornings, including a bullet half-mile move in a swift :47 flat

on Monday, as he looks to make his four-year-old debut in Saturday's contest. The

dark bay four-year-old won

the Arlington-Washington Futurity (G3) over Arlington's Polytrack

surface in September 2013 and owns a win in his lone Fair Grounds start -- going

wire-to-wire in a one-mile turf race in January 2014. Last seen finishing a dull eighth

in the Straight Line S. on Arlington Million Day, August 16, the 10-1 morning-line shot will look to return to form after finishing

out of the money in four of his last five. Willie Martinez picks up the ride

from post five.

Seven-year-old multiple Grade 3 victor Grand

Contender (Strong Contender) was assigned a morning line of 9-2 and post seven under meet-leading

rider James Graham for meet-leading conditioner Tom Amoss. The earner of more

than

$617,000 has yet to compete on grass and is presumably entered in case the race

comes off the turf, just as he was in the Diliberto Memorial in December -- a

race he easily won wire-to-wire in the slop.

Perhaps the most intriguing member of the field is General Election (Harlan's

Holiday). A two-time Grade 3 scorer on the lawn,

the seven-year-old gelding was purchased for $450,000 at Keeneland's November

sale in 2013, but has only raced twice since -- finishing off the board in both

events. Trained by Neil Pessin, he has not been seen since running sixth,

beaten less than three lengths, in a conditioned allowance on July 11 at

Arlington. Florent Geroux gets the return call on the bay 12-1 morning-line shot

from post 10.

The remainder of the field is flush with quality, including minor stakes

winner Alamo Heights (Dunkirk), Grade 3-placed stalwarts Adios Nardo (Invisible

Ink), All Stormy (Stormy Atlantic) and Shining Copper (Aragorn), and quality allowance

charges Paroled (Flatter) and Geothermal (Unbridled Energy). Group 3 runner-up Cougar Ridge

(Johannesburg) and stakes-placed Afford (Street Sense) were entered for the

main-track only.

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