Williamson’s Small but Mighty Barn Looks to Stay Hot with Miss Arlington in Saturday’s Bobby Kelly Memorial

By Kevin Kilroy —-

Miss Arlington; Hodges Photo
Williamson’s Small but Mighty Barn Looks to Stay Hot with Miss Arlington in Saturday’s Bobby Kelly Memorial

New Orleans, La (Jan. 27, 2025) – With two wins and two seconds from eight starts, trainer Brian Williamson has started the year strong at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots. The veteran trainer with a small but mighty barn will look to stay hot with four entries this week, led by Miss Arlington in the $100,000 Robert “Bobby” Kelly Memorial.

Saturday’s lone stake is a 5 ½-furlong turf sprint which attracted an oversubscribed field of 13 older fillies and mares, led by the Pan Zareta-winner Accomplished Girl who was tabbed as the 3-1 morning line favorite.

With $316,031 in lifetime earnings, Nancy Vanier, Mark Tauber, Brady Tauber, and Steve Gordon’s Miss Arlington scored her first stake this fall in the Mahoning Distaff. The Mark Valeski mare gifted with natural speed has excuses in her last two, running last in the Holiday Inaugural at Turfway Park and fifth in the Orleans Stakes at Delta Downs.

“It was a tough race at Turfway and she went too fast and kind of burned herself out,” Williamson said. “Delta (Downs) has that white sand on the track and she didn’t seem to take to that at all. Usually she could inhale the leader at least on the backside on any other track, but she got stuck out there spinning her wheels. She came out of it really good.”

After a 12-race freshman campaign as a 3-year-old, Miss Arlington raced half that many times the next year, taking a break over the summer and early fall.

“There wasn’t anything wrong with her when I gave her a break,” Williamson said. “She was just getting a little sour and didn’t have the same energy as she did before. It seems like that break did her a world of good. She came back and ran second in a tough allowance race at Churchill and then won that stake at Mahoning.”

In her final breeze ahead of the Bobby Kelly, Miss Arlington fired a bullet, going four furlongs in :47.80, the best time of 178 workers.

“She does it all on her own in the morning,” Williamson said. “I try to slow her down. Jareth (Loveberry) gets along with her real good, he usually works her. It seemed like he got her to relax when he rode her here last meet. She relaxed for him and finished a little better than when she is out there on the lead.”

Jareth Loveberry takes the call and will guide Miss Arlington from post 8.

Williamson has Baltimore Heart entered in Saturday’s opener, a first-level allowance turf sprint for older horses.

“I tried to get him in going long but since he ran for a claiming tag three starts ago, he was non-preferred so I couldn’t get him in,” Williamson said. “I saw this race has gone before without a full field, so I thought I’d enter him here. He’s one of those horses that I didn’t know at first if he was going to be a sprinter. He got in so much trouble (sprinting) in the first four or five races, you almost have to throw a bunch of them out. When we finally did stretch him out, he ran really good.”

It took Baltimore Heart ten tries to break his maiden, but since his score going 7 1/2 furlongs on the turf at Horseshoe Indianapolis, the 4-year-old by Heart to Heart has run third twice against first-level allowance ranks.

“He’s been off a little while so I think the 5 1/2 furlongs will be okay for him if it stays on the turf,” Williamson said. “He did run a good third on the wet track so that’s not out of the question. If I run him one more time in a non-claiming race then he’ll be back to being preferred for the allowance races. His numbers just seem to keep getting better, too. I think he’s got a lot of potential.”

On Friday, Jan. 31, Williamson has two maidens entered at Fair Grounds. In the second race, Wholeheartedly will make his fourth start, cutting back to 6 furlongs in a $12,500 claiming event on the main track. The 5-year-old horse by Cupid ran sixth last out going 1 mile 70 yards on a muddy track in a race that was taken off the turf.

“I put him in a maiden going 6 furlongs on dirt but the race didn’t go,” Williamson said. “We always wanted to try him on the turf with that breeding. When it came off the turf, I probably should have scratched him. He got checked going into the first turn and that was about it. It seemed like he couldn’t come back after that. I think we’ve got him in a good spot coming up here.”

Race 7 on Friday will see the 3-year-old filly Romany Road get a second shot on the turf in an optional claimer going 1 mile. In her first try on the local lawn, Romany Road rallied late to finish second, outrunning her 25-1 odds.

“I thought it was impressive because she was running into a soft pace,” Williamson said. “The jock said right after the wire she passed the leader. I was impressed with that race.”

In his third season stabled at Fair Grounds, Williamson has won 15% of his races from 65 starts. With ten stalls this meet, he has saddled 14, including sending out National Eclipse to a first-level allowance win on the “Road to the Derby Day” undercard.

“He is a big, good-looking, strong horse,” Williamson said. “He sometimes tries to manhandle you and stuff. He’s not mean but he’s just strong. Early on he would get too geared up in the paddock and kind of run his race before the race. Once we stretched him out and got him to relax a little bit in the paddock and the post parade, he’s been a different horse. At Keeneland he was much better, won pretty easy.”

In his first start at Fair Grounds, National Eclipse moved forward with an impressive second to D’oro Unbridled.

“Stakes could be in his future for sure,” Williamson said. “We’re going to take a look at the next book, see what they have. If they have some sort of starter allowance that could be good for him, too, because he did drop down to a $30,000 maiden claimer when he won. I wouldn’t be scared to try him in a two other than either, he just keeps getting better and his numbers keep improving.”

In Williamson’s first year at Fair Grounds, the long-time Chicago-based trainer won the 2022 Woodchopper with Britain’s Kitten. Miss Arlington would be Williamson’s second local stakes title.

The Bobby Kelly Memorial is slated as race 7 of 9 on Saturday. Post time is 12:45 p.m. CT.

Here is the field for the Bobby Kelly Memorial Stakes from the rail out (with jockey, trainer, and morning line):

1. Danse Macabre (Adam Beschizza, Kelsey Danner, 4-1)

2. Runninwiththeboyz (Ben Curtis, Lindsay Schultz, 12-1)

3. Harbor Springs (James Graham, Greg Foley, 15-1)

4. Cupids Crush (Jeiron Barbosa, Mac Robertson, 5-1)

5. Cecile (Axel Concepcion, Lindsay Schultz, 8-1)

6. Accomplished Girl (Jose Ortiz, Steve Asmussen, 3-1)

7. Riley Jean (Edgar Morales, Tom Amoss, 20-1)

8. Miss Arlington (Loveberry, Williamson, 20-1)

9. High Class (Brian Hernandez Jr., Steve Asmussen, 8-1)

10. Big Trouble (Jaime Torres, Greg Foley, 20-1)

11. Oeuvre (David Cohen, Chris Block, 5-1)

12. Speedy Traveler (Jaime Torres, Phil Bauer, 5-1)

13. Non Violence (C.J. McMahon, Bret Calhoun, 6-1)

Fair Grounds Announces “Twilight Tailgate Racing” on Super Bowl Weekend

With New Orleans serving as the host city for Super Bowl LIX, Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots will be joining the festivities by holding “Twilight Tailgate Racing” on Saturday, Feb. 8th. First post for the 8-race program will be 5 p.m. CT and all races will have a Superbowl theme. There will be a DJ in the Jamison Bar from 4 – 9 p.m. and The Wiseguys will be playing on the 4th floor in the Clubhouse from 8 – 11 p.m. Tickets are on sale now at www.fgno.com and through Ticketmaster.

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