Palace Malice fires bullet for Risen Star

Dogwood Stable's Palace Malice breezed a co-bullet five furlongs in 1:00 1/5

at South Florida's Palm Meadows Training Center Sunday morning in preparation

for his upcoming appearance in Saturday's Grade 2 Risen Star Stakes at Fair

Grounds. The Todd Pletcher trainee worked in company with highly-regarded

stablemate Violence, who posted the exact same time ahead of Saturday's Grade 2

Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream Park.

Palace Malice's move has Dogwood President Cot Campbell looking ebulliently

forward to the final local prep for the 100th running of the Grade 2, $1 million

Louisiana Derby March 30.

"I'm a New Orleans boy -- I was born there and it's going to be great coming

back there," said Campbell, speaking from his South Carolina headquarters. "I

also came back there in the early '50s to work for an advertising agency there,

but I haven't been back for a few years now. We'll have about seven people in

our party besides me and we'll be getting in Friday morning. It's a wonderful

town with a wonderful race track and a lot of wonderful people live there.

"We're starting to get into a very exciting time of year," Campbell said.

"With all the Kentucky Derby preps coming up around the country everybody in the

nation starts to get interested in horse racing and I think that's a wonderful

thing for our sport.

Bob Baffert's Risen Star runner, Code West, worked at his Santa Anita base on

Sunday, covering four furlongs in :48 2/5.

Also expected to ship in from Southern California is the Doug O'Neill-trained

He's Had Enough, most recently third to Flashback in the Grade 2 Robert B. Lewis

at Santa Anita.

Three Risen Star candidates appeared on the Fair Grounds worktab on Saturday.

Ive Struck a Nerve, fourth in the Grade 3 Lecomte Stakes, breezed five

furlongs in 1:00 2/5 for trainer Keith Desormeaux, and trainer Al Stall Jr.'s duo

of Departing and Sunbean each went a half-mile in :48 2/5.

Others likely to line up in the Risen Star are Lecomte romper Oxbow (trained

by D. Wayne Lukas), Lecomte runner-up Golden Soul (Dallas Stewart), Agent (Amy

McAnally), Bethel (Gennadi Dorochenko), Circle Unbroken (Garry Simms), Mylute (Tom

Amoss) and Proud Strike (Steve Asmussen).

The companion race for three-year-old fillies on Saturday, the Grade 3 Rachel

Alexandra, will probably attract unbeaten Grade 2 Demoiselle winner Unlimited

Budget from the Pletcher barn. Her rivals are projected to be Touch Magic (Pat

Devereux Jr.) and Gal About Town (Bret Calhoun), the respective top two from the

Silverbulletday; Alluring Lady (Ronny Werner); Blue Violet (Larry Jones);

Dancinginthecircle (Jones); Every Way (Mike Stidham); Finding More (Kellyn

Gorder); Midnight Ballet (Tom Proctor); Neith (Lukas); and Promise Me More (Wes

Hawley).