Pletcher loaded for Louisiana Derby Day stakes

The centennial edition of the Grade 2, $1 million Louisiana Derby, for

three-year-olds with Triple Crown aspirations, and the Grade 2, $500,000 Fair

Grounds Oaks, whose winners have gone on to win the Kentucky Oaks after five of

its last eight renewals, take center stage on Louisiana Derby Day March 30 at

Fair Grounds.

However, the Grade 2, $400,000 New Orleans Handicap for older horses on the

main track and the Grade 2, $400,000 Mervin H. Muniz Memorial Handicap for older

horses over the Stall-Wilson Turf Course are also showcased at the Crescent City

oval on that day, and five-time Eclipse Award-winning conditioner and sure-fire

future Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher is sending highly regarded contenders

for all four of those stakes.

In fact, a Pletcher sweep of those four stakes is a distinct possibility. The

trainer's duo of Grade 3 Withers winner Revolutionary and Palace Malice, beaten

a half-length in the Grade 2 Risen Star February 23, may vie for favoritism in

the Louisiana Derby, and his Repole Stable-owned filly Unlimited Budget will

undoubtedly be the public's choice in the Fair Grounds Oaks based on her Grade 3

Rachel Alexandra Stakes victory, also on February 23.

The Pletcher-trained Grade I Donn Handicap winner Graydar will probably be

post-time favorite in the New Orleans Handicap, and his turf-favoring

six-year-old Doubles Partner, winner of the Grade 3 Canadian Turf last year,

must be given serious consideration in the Mervin Muniz Memorial.

Pletcher updated on the status of all five of his Louisiana Derby Day-bound

quintet while speaking over the phone from South Florida Thursday morning.

"After that last race in New York (a win in Aqueduct's Withers February 2) we

decided to ship Revolutionary to South Florida because of the better weather and

the easier ship from South Florida to just about anywhere this time of year,"

Pletcher said. "We decided awhile back that the Louisiana Derby would make the

most sense for him because he has a tendency not to break real sharply and that

the long stretch at Fair Grounds would help overcome that. He's not a bad gate

horse; he just doesn't do it very quickly.

"Palace Malice is a horse we've always liked a lot. We've had high hopes for

him from the beginning, and hopefully there is more to come. He got a little

further back than I would have liked in his first two-turn race (when he

finished third, beaten a half-length, in the Risen Star), but we did finish in

front of Oxbow in that race, and he went on to run real well when a close second

in Oaklawn's (Grade 2) Rebel the other day.

"Unlimited Budget has run really well in all three of her races, and since

that last race (heroine of the Rachel Alexandra by 3 3/4 lengths) she's been

training better than ever. Also, she showed us a new dimension when she handled

that surface in New Orleans as well as she did.

"Graydar is a big colt who has always been very talented but has been

sidelined by a lot of minor things that kept interrupting his training. Over the

years we've had a lot of luck in this race (winning the New Orleans Handicap

four times) and after the Donn we wanted to keep him stretched out so this race

made a lot of sense for us. Plus, his connections (Twin Creeks Racing Stable)

are from there (Louisiana).

"Doubles Partner has been a very consistent performer for us and when he

brings his 'A' game he has always been capable of running a big one. In the

Sunshine Millions race (Turf) he didn't get away well (but finished second) and

in that Tampa Bay race that last time (February 16 when second by a half-length

in the Grade 3 Tampa Bay) he had some traffic problems in that one as well."

One additional note about Pletcher is that he and the late Hall of Fame

trainer Bobby Frankel are the only two horsemen to have won all four of Fair

Grounds' big four races.

It took Frankel 18 years to complete his sweep of the Crescent City oval's

Louisiana Derby Day foursome but Pletcher accomplished that same sweep in six

years.

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