Fair Grounds opens 142nd meet with Starlight Racing program

The first stakes race of the meet, the sixth running of the $60,000 Mr. Sulu

Stakes, will also be contested opening weekend on Saturday. First post is 1 p.m.

Traditionally set on the racing calendar to begin the meet, Thanksgiving Day

(November 28) will once again see fans treated to a festive holiday atmosphere

and top-quality racing with a 10-race card highlighted by the 88th running of

the $100,000 Thanksgiving Handicap, a six-furlong test for top sprinters. First

post is 11 a.m. Clubhouse General Admission is $10, and Grandstand General

Admission is free.

Thanksgiving Day Clubhouse dining reservations start at $70 per person -- at

tables of four or six only -- and go up to $125 per person, depending on the

row. Seating is limited and nearly sold out, and reservations are required.

Reservations can only be made by phone weekdays (until Friday) or any live

racing day (Friday and beyond) from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., at (504) 943-2200. The

Grandstand Buffet will be open to the public for $32.

The majority of Fair Grounds stakes races are run on five banner

days. Louisiana Champions Day on December 14 comprises 11 stakes for Louisiana-breds

worth $1.1 million and is followed by Santa Super Saturday the next weekend,

December 21, including four stakes totaling $300,000. Santa Super Saturday

features Holiday Family Fun Day on the apron.

Over the course of the meet, Fair Grounds will present 10 graded stakes races in

multiple divisions. This series of races, containing preps in multiple divisions

to allow horses to run in through a progression of stakes races leading up to

Louisiana Derby Day, will be carded on January 18, February 22, and March 29.

"Our daily racing program and attractive stakes schedule will spotlight

top-class Thoroughbreds throughout the meet," Fair Grounds General Manager

of Racing, Howard "H." Withers, said. "Our daily product will provide competitive

racing, and our three graded stakes races that serve as preps for the Kentucky

Derby will again attract the top Derby hopefuls in the nation to the Fair

Grounds."

Road to the Derby Kickoff Day will take place January 18. Comprising five stakes

totaling $625,000, the day will be highlighted by the 70th running of the Grade

3 Lecomte Stakes for three-year-olds. The Lecomte Stakes will be the first of

three local graded stakes events that will help three-year-olds qualify for the

Kentucky Derby in May. The 22nd Silverbulletday Stakes, for three-year-old

fillies attempting to race their way to the Kentucky Oaks, and the 28th Grade 3 Col.

E.R. Bradley Handicap will also be run.

Louisiana Derby Preview Day consists of five stakes worth $975,000 on February 22.

The 41st running of the Grade 2 Risen Star Stakes is

the second of three preps for Kentucky Derby hopefuls and the final local prep

for the Louisiana Derby. The Grade 3 Rachel Alexandra Stakes, the Grade 3

Mineshaft Handicap and the Grade 3 Fair Grounds Handicap will also

be run on Louisiana Derby Preview Day.

Louisiana Derby Day on closing weekend brings the curtain down on the season's

stakes program with seven stakes events worth a combined $2.51 million. Fair

Grounds' marquee event, the Louisiana Derby will offer hopeful three-year-olds a

final local chance to qualify for the Kentucky Derby. Under the points-based

qualifying system for the Kentucky Derby, the $1 million Louisiana Derby is one of only seven races that will offer the

maximum 170 points (100 for first, 40 for second, 20 for third, 10 for fourth).

The Grade 2, $500,000 Fair Grounds Oaks will also be presented on Louisiana

Derby Day, along with the Grade 2 New Orleans Handicap and the Grade 2 Mervin

H. Muniz, Jr. Memorial Handicap. The Fair Grounds Oaks, a race that has

remarkably produced five of the last nine Kentucky Oaks winners, will be one of

the premier 170-point (100-40-20-10) stakes under the qualifying system for the

Kentucky Oaks.

Three-time defending jockey champion Rosie Napravnik, having collected 346 wins

over the course of the last three racing seasons, will seek her fourth

consecutive Fair Grounds riding title against a typically deep jockey colony.

Napravnik won the 2012 Kentucky Oaks aboard Believe You Can, who prepped in the

Fair Grounds Oaks.

The top 13 riders in the 2012-2013 standings are all

expected back for the 2013-2014 racing season including: James Graham, second to Napravnik in the standings in each of the last two seasons; Shaun Bridgmohan, a

top five Fair Grounds rider in each of the last three seasons; Richard Eramia,

Miguel Mena, and Brian Hernandez Jr. are among other notable names along

with John Jacinto who earned a top-five finish with 69 wins last season.

One familiar face will rejoin the riding colony at Fair Grounds along with a

pair of jockeys who will ride consistently at Fair Grounds for the first

time. Robby Albarado, a seven-time Fair Grounds riding champion, will winter in

New Orleans again this season after spending most of last winter at Oaklawn. David

Flores, a popular and established rider in Southern California with multiple

Breeders' Cup victories to his credit will ride full-time in Louisiana for the

first time along with French-born, Chicago-based jockey Florent Geroux, a

multiple graded stakes-winning rider.

As usual, the deep jockey colony is matched by a competitive set of trainers

stabled at Fair Grounds this season. Steve Asmussen and Tom Amoss, who tied for

top honors in the 2012-2013 season with 42 wins apiece (they also tied one

another for the 2000-2001 training title), will again stable large strings of

horses on the Fair Grounds backstretch. Asmussen's tie in last meet's standings

gave him a sixth consecutive training title. Many familiar barns that

consistently impact the trainer standings will also return, including: Al Stall

Jr., Larry Jones, Mike Stidham, Bret Calhoun, Steve Margolis, Wayne

Catalano and Mike Maker.

Canadian horsemen will be well represented by the major barns of Malcolm Pierce,

Josie Carroll and Mike Keogh. The 2013-2014 meet will also see the return of

several Chicago-based horsemen who were notably absent when unable to

participate in the majority of the 2012-2013 meet due to a quarantine at

Hawthorne Race Course. Doug Matthews, Hugh Robertson, Richie Scherer, and Gary

Scherer will all be welcomed back to New Orleans this winter. New faces Jimmy

Toner (New York) and Jimmy Baker (Kentucky) will stable locally.

For more details about the 142nd Thoroughbred racing season at Fair Grounds,

log onto www.FairGroundsRaceCourse.com.

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