FAIR GROUNDS STAKES ADVANCES: Pago Hop and Pan Zareta

By Michael Adolphson —-

SEVEN STAKES WINNERS CLASH IN WIDE-OPEN PAGO HOP;
KATHBALLU SEEKS BACK-TO-BACK STAKES IN PAN ZARETA

NEW ORLEANS – A full field of 14 sophomore fillies, plus one also eligible, have packed Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots’ $75,000 Pago Hop Stakes to its brim. Set for New Year’s Eve, the about one-mile event over the Stall-Wilson turf course attracted seven stakes winners, topped by a pair of improving types with excellent back-class in Glen Hill Farm and Hill n Dale Equine’s Most Beautiful (GB) and XYZ Racing’s Mom’s On Strike. Those two will have their hooves full in their first starts at the New Orleans oval, as they take on a quartet of stakes-winning local course lovers in Hugh Robertson’s Princess Erindelle, Carolyn Friedberg and Jeff T. Larson’s Inconclusive, Richard Klein and Bertram Klein’s Believe in Bertie and Arindel Farm’s Pancake.

Tom Proctor-trained Most Beautiful was a driving third last out in the Grade III Senator Ken Maddy at Santa Anita on Breeders’ Cup Saturday. Said effort was her second stateside, following a domestic debut fourth in the $100,000 Christiecat Stakes at Belmont Park going six furlongs on Sept. 9. A Group III winner as a juvenile, the former David Wachman trainee boasts easily the best back-class in the field, having finished a neck behind European Horse of the Year Minding in the Group III Debutante Stakes as a juvenile and racing respectably against Washington D.C., one of the top sprinters in Europe, in two consecutive races earlier this year. The daughter of phenomenal miler Canford Cliffs (IRE) will be stretching out beyond seven furlongs for the first time in her career when Robby Albarado picks up the mount from post two.

Joe Sharp-trained Mom’s On Strike did not luck out when drawing the outside post 14, but such may not be an issue for the daughter of First Dude. Second by three-quarters of a length when closing from 10 lengths astern last out in the $200,000 Pebbles Stakes at Belmont Park at this trip, the bay filly will be making only her second turf start following a dirt campaign that saw her finish a decent fifth in the Grade II Black-Eyed Susan and a tired sixth in the Grade I Mother Goose Stakes. Stall-Wilson savant James Graham picks up the mount.

Robertson-trained late-running Princess Erindelle (Marcelino Pedroza, post 10) and Ronnie Werner-conditioned Pancake (Colby Hernandez, post 13) renew a rivalry that last saw the former nail the latter in the final strides of last March’s $50,000 LaCombe Memorial at 7½ furlongs on this course. Since then, Princess Erindelle boasts a single stakes-placing from four tries and will look to return to form after three consecutive off-the-board finishes. Pancake seems to show her best stride in New Orleans, having landed the $50,000 Broussard Memorial at that same trip on Feb. 5 and falling flat in eight stakes tries since.

Minor stakes winners Inconclusive (Miguel Mena, post 11) and Believe in Bertie (Shaun Bridgmohan, post 12) hail from red-hot barns coming into the Pago Hop. Richie Scherer-trained Inconclusive has been working forwardly for a conditioner who has struck with 31% of his horses thus far in month-old Fair Grounds meet, while Brad Cox-trained Louisiana-bred Believe in Bertie exits a romp in overmatched state-bred allowance company – an effort that came six weeks after finishing fourth, less than three lengths astern Mom’s On Strike, in the Pebbles.

The remainder of the field for the 33rd running of the Pago Hop, which goes as the eighth of 11 races and first leg of the $0.50 late Pick-4, is comprised of multiple restricted stakes winner School Board Prez (Francisco Torres, rail), Ready for Chianti (Brian Hernandez, Jr., post three), Nobody’s Fault (Mitchell Murrill, post four), Always Right (Sophie Doyle, post five), La Peregrina (David Flores, post six), Motown Lady (C. J. McMahon, post seven), multiple restricted stakes winner Gianna’s Dream (Florent Geroux, post eight) and Frozen Hannah (Gabriel Saez, post nine). Pageant Material (Richard Eramia, 15) is the also eligible.

Three races prior is the 52nd running of the $50,000 Pan Zareta Stakes for filly and mare sprinters – the first of five Dec. 31 stakes – features a field of six, topped by Five D. Thoroughbreds’ Kathballu. A romping winner of the restricted $75,000 Orleans Stakes last out at Delta Downs going seven furlongs around two turns, the Ken McPeek-trained daughter of Bluegrass Cat has won a third of her nine 2016 starts and will attempt to shorten up to a trip at which she has yet to win. Florent Geroux picks up the mount from the outside post.

Charles Fipke’s Dallas Stewart-trained Pleasant Tales (Miguel Mena, post five) and Beau Lane’s Al Stall, Jr.-trained Blip n’ Th Bye (Colby Hernandez, post four) each carry significant running lines, with the former running a good second last out to solid sophomore sprinter Finley’sluckycharm at this trip in a Churchill Downs allowance. Earlier this season, Blip n’ Th Bye was a similar distant second to Grade I-winning top filly Carina Mia in the Grade II Eight Belles over seven furlongs.

B and G Racing Stable and Selman Shaby’s D R C’s Pretty Sky (Giovanni Franco, post two), from the barn of Robertino Diodoro, exits a neck victory in the $75,000 Zia Park Distaff at this trip and must garner respect considering that race’s runner-up, Wheatfield, returned to win with authority in the local $100,000 Louisiana Champions Day Ladies Sprint. The Joe Sharp-trained duo of Power of Snunner (Brian Hernandez, Jr., rail) and Calypso Run (Robby Albarado, post three) complete the lineup.

About Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots
Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots, the nation’s third-oldest racetrack, has been in operation since 1872. Located in New Orleans, Fair Grounds is owned by Churchill Downs Incorporated (NASDAQ Global Market: CHDN); it also operates a slot-machine gaming facility and 11 off-track betting parlors throughout southeast Louisiana. The 145th Thoroughbred Racing Season – highlighted by the 104th running of the Louisiana Derby – will run from November 2016 through April 2017. More information can be found online at www.FairGroundsRaceCourse.com.