Barn Notes
All Six FG Stakes Winners Doing Well Sunday Morning
FAIR GROUNDS BARN NOTES
Headlines for Sunday, March 09, 2008
· All Six Fair Grounds Stakes Winners Doing Well Sunday Morning
· Mervin Muniz Remembered Fondly by Frankel
· Louisiana Derby Runner-Up My Pal Charlie Ready for Next Round
All Six Fair Grounds Stakes Winners Doing Well Sunday Morning
NEW ORLEANS, La. – In a clean sweep of good fortune, all six stakes winners on Fair Grounds’ Louisiana Derby Day program Saturday came out of their respective races in good order and were doing well Sunday morning at the New Orleans oval.
Winchell Thoroughbreds’ Pyro, a three-length winner of the $600,000 Louisiana Derby, came back in good order and remains on the road to a Triple Crown campaign.
“He’s doing wonderful,” said Evan Downing, assistant to trainer Steve Asmussen on Sunday during training hours. “He’s perfect this morning.”
Asmussen said Saturday Pyro would likely work one more time at Fair Grounds before shipping to Kentucky, where his next start is expected to come in the Grade I Toyota Blue Grass Stakes over Keeneland’s Polytrack.
Brereton Jones’ Proud Spell, heroine of Saturday’s $400,000 Fair Grounds Oaks by 2 1/4 lengths, was also in fine fettle.
“Yesterday was a good day,” said Proud Spell’s conditioner Larry Jones. “We feel our filly is getting better all the time. She was a late May foal, so she’s really just now coming to hand.
“After the Silverbulletday last month (when Proud Spell ran second to Indian Blessing), our filly came out of the race pretty tired, but this morning she’s acting like she hasn’t done anything.”
Michael and Doreen Tabor’s Circular Quay, winner of Saturday’s $500,000 New Orleans Handicap, returned to the form he showed a year ago winning the 2007 Louisiana Derby.
“Circular Quay came out of his race really well,” said Ginny DePasquale, assistant to four-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Todd Pletcher. “In fact, all our horses came back really well. The Florida horses (Magna Graduate and King of the Roxy) will leave Monday morning, but Circular Quay is going back to California, so he’ll leave Tuesday.”
Circular Quay defeated odds-on favorite Grasshopper by a neck in the New Orleans Handicap, becoming the first horse since Peace Rules in 2003-2004 to accomplish the Derby- Handicap double, and the fourth horse in Fair Grounds history to do so.
Grasshopper also came back well, according to trainer Neil Howard. “He (Grasshopper) cooled out good,” said Howard Sunday. “You can’t take anything away from the winner. Our horse ran his race. He just got beat.”
"Both my horses came good," added trainer Barclay Tagg, who was stabled in Howard's barn. Tagg, who won the 2003 Kentucky Derby and Preakness with Funny Cide, saddled Tale of Ekati to run sixth in Saturday's Louisiana Derby and Fracas to finish fourth in the $500,000 Mervin Muniz Memorial Handicap.
Proudinsky, who won the Muniz Memorial for Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel, also came out of his effort in the richest grass race of the Fair Grounds season without problems.
“He’s looking great this morning,” said Frankel’s Fair Grounds assistant Scott Hansen. “(Proudinsky) will be heading home Tuesday.”
Undefeated Euroears, who extended his victory skein to six with his third straight Fair Grounds stakes tally in Saturday’s $200,000 Duncan F. Kenner Stakes, was doing well Sunday morning.
“He’s doing great,” said Jill Parrott, assistant to trainer Bret Calhoun. “He’s something else.”
Danceroftherealm, who won her second straight Fair Grounds stakes event with a win in Saturday’s $100,000 Bienville Stakes, looked “good this morning,” said trainer Malcolm Pierce.
Muniz Remembered Fondly by Frankel
Trainer Bobby Frankel and the late Mervin Muniz, who served as racing secretary at Fair Grounds for a quarter-century, were close friends, which made the Hall of Fame trainer’s initial win in Saturday’s Muniz Memorial Handicap even more special.
“Mervin was a great guy,” said Frankel via telephone from southern California Sunday morning. “Whenever I came to New Orleans when he was alive, he always showed me a real good time.”
Interestingly, Frankel had won the other three of Saturday’s quartet of Grade II stakes in previous renewals, taking the Louisiana Derby with High Limit in 2005 and with Peace Rules in 2003. He scored in the New Orleans Handicap with Peace Rules in 2004 and with Badge of Silver in 2005, and took down winning honors in the Fair Grounds Oaks with Pampered Star in 1990.
Frankel, it should be noted, flew in from the West Coast to attend Muniz’s funeral in August 2003. The Explosive Bid, which was Muniz’s creation as a late-season turf stakes race, was renamed in Muniz’s honor just days after his death.
Louisiana Derby Runner-Up My Pal Charlie Ready for Next Round
B. Wayne Hughes My Pal Charlie, who went off at better than 60-1 in Saturday’s Louisiana Derby, came out of his second-place finish in good order and will not be so easily dismissed the next time.
Plans are not certain at this time as to where that will be, indicated trainer Al Stall Jr. Sunday morning, one day after saddling his second straight runner-up finisher in the Louisiana Derby. New Orleans native Stall saddled Ketchikan, also owned by Hughes, to finish second behind Circular Quay last year.
“That was a lot of fun yesterday, and I like the way he looks this morning,” said Stall on Sunday. “That race yesterday was very exciting. When (My Pal Charlie) started to open up in mid-stretch my heart starting pumping, and my blood pressure went way up. I thought they might have to get the paddles out to keep me going.”
Other Derby Weekend Notes
Three of the last four Louisiana Derby winners have broken from post No. 3 … Despite the presence of odds-on favorite Pyro in the winner’s circle, the superfecta payout of $3,021.20 was the second-highest in the six runnings of the Louisiana Derby on which the exotic wager has been offered … With his win by Veritaserum in Sunday’s sixth race, Asmussen now has 78 wins in 73 racing days, and needs only three wins in the final two weeks to become the first trainer in Fair Grounds history to average a win per day.
