Fair Grounds Barn Notes: Sunday, December 17

By Brain W. Spencer —-

• Promising 2-Year-Old Principe Guilherme Impresses in Second Career Outing
• Tenacious Winner Cooptado to Stretch Out Next Year; Likely Mineshaft-Bound
• 9-Year Old Dimension Still Going Strong
• Letellier Winner She’s Pretty Lucky Could Ship to Texas Next

PROMISING 2-YEAR-OLD PRINCIPE GUILHERME IMPRESSES IN SECOND CAREER OUTING

Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen appears to have a rising star on his hands with Principe Guilherme, a superb 11¾-length winner over the Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots main track on Saturday afternoon.

Owned by Three Chimneys Farm, the 2-year-old son of Tapit out of Grade I-winning mare Aubby K broke his maiden at Churchill Downs drawing off by 6¼ lengths where he produced a 95 Equibase Speed Rating.
In Saturday’s performance he earned a 105 and finished in a time of 1:42.94, which was only .06 seconds slower than that of Tenacious Stakes winner Cooptado.

“He came out of the race in good shape,” said Asmussen’s chief assistant Scott Blasi. “It’s nice to see him run two great races back to back. He really improved going two turns which is a good sign. This early on, it’s better to just stay calm.”

The first Fair Grounds race on the Road to the Kentucky Derby is the Gr. III Lecomte on Jan. 13 which awards the Top 4 finishers qualifying points on a 10-5-2-1 scale.

TENACIOUS WINNER COOPTADO TO STRETCH OUT NEXT YEAR; LIKELY MINESHAFT BOUND

Trainer Tom Morley believes “the further the better” for Tenacious Stakes winner Cooptado (Arg), and plans on stretching him out to longer distances later next year.

Meanwhile, Morley has his eyes set on the stakes program for older horses on the dirt at the Fair Grounds and mentioned that the $150,000 Gr. III Mineshaft Handicap on Feb. 17 is a possibility.

“He lacks a gear in the middle of the race,” Morley said. “You can see at around the three-eighths pole he hits a flat spot in his races. He’s a horse that we’ll probably look at those distance dirt races as the year goes on, but certainly after that performance we would have to start thinking of some of those major stakes here.”

“We’ll probably skip the race in January ($75,000 Louisiana Handicap on Jan. 13) now that he just ran back in three weeks so we’ll point for later in the meet,” Morley said.

The Tenacious Stakes was the third start American start for Cooptado, who previously ran third in turf allowance events at Keeneland and Fair Grounds. The son of Equal Stripes was a Group 1 winner in his native Argentina before racing in Singapore for two years, where he won the Group 1 Singapore Gold Cup in 2015.

9-YEAR-OLD DIMENSION STILL GOING STRONG

Not all Thoroughbreds are capable of winning stakes races at the age of 9, but not all Thoroughbreds are Dimension (GB).

Owned by Riverside Bloodstock LLC, the seasoned veteran lit up the tote board in Saturday’s Buddy Diliberto Memorial Stakes at odds of 39-1 for trainer Conor Murphy. The 1 1/16 mile event over the Stall-Wilson Turf Course was Dimension’s first victory since the Gr. II Play The King Stakes at Woodbine, where he won two other graded stakes events.

“This horse has been the flag bearer,” Murphy said. “We’re only a small stable and he’s jumped and gone the first three years and he’s turning ten in two weeks. We said that now that he’s older he’s settling a bit better so we said that we’d try the mile-and-a sixteenth. Two turns hasn’t been his thing before but (Jockey) James (Graham) gave him a great ride and he loved the turf course here because there is such a long stretch and that seems to be what he likes.”

Prior to Saturday’s win, Murphy entered Dimension in the Gr. I Shadwell Turf Mile at Keeneland, following a close seventh-place effort in the Gr. III Kentucky Downs Turf Sprint. In the Shadwell, Dimension went off at odds of 143-1.

“It was Grade I and we weren’t expecting to win,” Murphy said “He came out of Kentucky Downs in such good form and he’s a horse that needs good ground. We were going to just turn him out, but we took a shot and it didn’t work out.”

Murphy did not rule out running the horse next year at age 10 and stated that the $100,000 Colonel E.R. Bradley Memorial Stakes on Jan. 13 is a possibility.

“I don’t see why not,” Murphy said. “That’s the thing, I know he’s turning ten but if you watch this horse train every morning, he loves it. If you look back through his form, he’s only run five or six times every year and so we’ll have to see how he comes out of it but we’ll look at the Colonel Bradley as a possibility.”

LETELLIER WINNER SHE’S PRETTY LUCKY COULD SHIP TO TEXAS NEXT

Trainer Eddie Kenneally said that She’s Pretty Lucky, winner of Saturday’s Letellier Memorial Stakes, could make her next start in the $50,000 Bara Lass on Jan. 28 at Sam Houston in her native Texas.
“We’ll see, she’s Texas-bred so that’s a good spot for her, we’ll play it by ear,” Kenneally said.
She’s Pretty Lucky was just that in Saturday’s race. The daughter of Lookin At Lucky won the event by only a nose over Upset Brewing.

“I didn’t think she had it won,” Kenneally said “I thought that we were going to be second. She made a huge lunge at the last stride and got there. She’s a game filly and ran nicely (Saturday).”