Barn Notes
Costa Rising Top Attraction on Champions Day
Headlines for Friday, December 07, 2007
· Costa Rising Top Attraction on Champions Day
· ‘Wheat’ Ready to Sprout Again in Louisiana Turf
· Ramsey On A Roll – Zimmerman Rides 4 Winners Sunday
· Steve’s Double Gives Trainer Werner Winning Four-Bagger
Costa Rising Top Attraction on Champions Day
NEW ORLEANS, La. – As the star attraction for last year’s renewal of the $150,000 Louisiana Champions Day Classic, Charles Castille Jr.’s Costa Rising responded like a good horse should – gamely repelling a challenge in the late stages to save victory by a head.
Now, Costa Rising will ship to Fair Grounds from the Evangeline Training Center Saturday, seeking to repeat in the 17th running of the Classic, premier event of Saturday’s 11-race card. The all-stakes event was the first of its kind for Louisiana-breds, with all four of the state’s tracks now offering similar cards.
Since last February, Costa Rising has been trained by Glenn Delahoussaye, who updated his horse’s schedule leading up to Saturday’s Classic while speaking over the phone from Evangeline.
“We will ship up Saturday morning just like last year,” Delahoussaye said. “It’s only about two hours away and we’re not going to alter anything from what was done in the past. When I took over this horse’s training, we set a schedule of three races for this horse – that last one (Gold Cup) he won Nov. 17 at Delta, this race coming up Saturday, and that other race coming up on Premier night in early February at Delta.
“If I had my druthers, I’d wish there was a little more time between the races,” Delahoussaye said, “but we based our preparation on wheeling him back in each race, so we haven’t been giving him works since that last race. It sounds a little presumptuous to say you’re using a $100,000 stakes race as a work, but that’s sort of what it came down to get him ready for this race Saturday.”
One other change of note for Costa Rising this Saturday will be the retention of Robby Albarado as the jockey to replace Kerwin Clark, who was aboard Nov. 17. It was a move that Delahoussaye was anxious to explain.
“When I acquired this horse back in February, we agreed that Robby would ride this horse whenever he was available, and that ‘Boo Boo’ would at all other times,” Delahoussaye said. “We decided to employ a ‘two quarterback system,’ except it’s with two riders. But I want to say that we’ve been very pleased with the way Kerwin has ridden this horse, and we feel that Kerwin is as much as a part of this horse’s success as anyone.”
What kind of strategy might be employed by Costa Rising Saturday, who has won in wire-to-wire fashion and also by coming from off the pace in his recent races?
“You got to trust Robby with that decision,” said Delahoussaye. “Every race has its own dynamics, and I’ve always considered Robby to be a real master of pace – especially at Fair Grounds. He just knows that track so well.”
Only one horse has repeated in the Champions Day Classic – Magnify, in 1997-98. Coincidentally, Albarado was aboard for the back end of that double effort.
‘Wheat’ Ready to Sprout Again in Louisiana Turf
Wachtel Stable, Brous Stable and Jerry Lee’s Desert Wheat won last year’s Louisiana Champions Day Turf and indicated that he has retained his form this season by winning an allowance race on opening day.
“He’s feeling great,” said Rudolph Brisset, Fair Grounds-based assistant for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott’s Louisiana string. “Since he won that last race (Thanksgiving Day), we’ve just been galloping him. We used that race to make him ready for this stakes on Saturday, and I’ve never seen him this good. He’s ready, fresh and happy.”
Brisset, a former jockey in his native France, has been getting on Desert Wheat for his local morning gallops and would be the first to notice if anything was amiss. “He really is a very nice horse, and I don’t think he’ll have any trouble against these Louisiana-breds.”
Brisset was employed by fellow Frenchman Patrick Biancone at this time last year and was not at Fair Grounds for Desert Wheat’s 2006 Louisiana Champions Day Turf tally. However, earlier the previous summer Desert Wheat accredited himself very well in open company on two occasions. He was beaten less than two lengths in the Grade III Arlington Classic, and then just over two in the Grade II American Derby.
Following Champions Day here last year, the son of Wheaton out of a mare by 1990 Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Royal Academy came back to win the $75,000 Dixie Poker Ace Stakes when facing state-bred competition once again.
Ramsey On A Roll – Zimmerman Rides 4 Winners Sunday
Ramsey Zimmerman became the first jockey at Fair Grounds to ride four winners on a single program when he accomplished that feat last Sunday.
After winning the second half of the double with Danielle’s Charm for trainer Clark Hanna, Zimmerman came back to the winner’s circle aboard Let’s Fight Over after the fourth for conditioner Bret Calhoun, won the featured ninth race for Calhoun on the undefeated Euroears, and then captured the finale with a last-minute pick-up mount on Jivs CC.
“Bret’s been helping me a lot,” said Zimmerman of Calhoun, “but I’m just grateful to be here and riding winners whenever I can. I want to ride for as many people as I can, but this is a tough place to get into new barns. I’m hoping things will open up a little bit as soon as Hot Springs (Oaklawn Park) gets going, but when they asked me if I wanted to ride that horse in the last race, I said, ‘Sure.’
“I’m just grateful to be here and be a part of this meet,” Zimmerman continued. “It’s a great place to be successful at, and I thought that was really cool to be able to ride four in one day here. I don’t see how that last horse (the pick-up mount) was 20-1. He’d finished second the last time he ran. I try to do the best I can with every horse I ride. That’s why I’m out here at 4:20 every morning. I want to get with as many trainers as I can and let them see me do the best I can for them.”
At Fair Grounds last season, Zimmerman enjoyed particular success aboard Cloudy’s Knight, winning the Grade III Fair Grounds Breeders’ Cup Handicap and then finishing second by a half-length in the Grade II Mervin Muniz Memorial Handicap on Louisiana Derby Day. (Last fall, he added wins aboard Cloudy’s Knight in Woodbine’s Grade II Sky Classic and Grade I Canadian International.)
However, after leaving New Orleans last spring, Zimmerman went on to be leading money-winning rider at Remington Park, and then won the jockey championship at Lone Star last summer.
Although Sunday’s quartet of victories was his best day at Fair Grounds, Zimmerman has had multiple five-win days at other ovals, and also boasts a seven-win day recorded at Fairmount Park two years ago.
At 25 years of age, the Chicago-born Zimmerman, with a brother Rylee who is a steeplechase apprentice rider and a mother Mary who is a Thoroughbred trainer, also now is the proud father of a 3-year-old son named Ryder.
Zimmerman was asked if his son has shown any tendencies to become the next jockey in the family.
“Right now, he just likes to fish,” Zimmerman said, “but I think he might want to become a Ninja Turtle some day. That’s all he talks about right now.”
Steve’s Double Gives Trainer Winning Four-Bagger
Trainer Ronny Werner had a perfect four-for-four winning day to kick off the month of December, becoming the first conditioner at Fair Grounds to enjoy a four-win afternoon this season.
Werner, a native of San Antonio, Texas, who celebrates his 48th birthday later this month, was posting the first four-win day of his 10-year Thoroughbred training career after training Quarter Horses for 15 years.
Steve’s Double, owned by Oxbow Racing LLC, won the Tenacious Handicap Dec. 1 after Warner won both halves of the Daily Double with Preside and Set Match, and then took the fourth race with Profit Eater prior to the Tenacious tally. Steve’s Double will be pointed for the $100,000 Louisiana Handicap Jan. 12.
The last trainer to saddle four winners on a single Fair Grounds card was Steve Asmussen on Jan. 1, 2005.
