Expectations High as Fair Grounds Opens 2020-21 Meet

As one of only a handful of tracks racing on Thanksgiving, its opening day, Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots will begin its meet attracting attention, and with rich purses and a talented cast of horses converging there, that spotlight may remain for much of its 76-day season.

Essential Quality, the early favorite for next May's Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1), will stable at Fair Grounds after the Churchill Downs fall meet ends Nov. 29, and he is a possibility to race at the New Orleans oval. His trainer, Brad Cox, the meet leader at Fair Grounds the past three years, starts most of his stakes horses at Fair Grounds and Oaklawn Park during winter and early spring, though this year he will also have divisions in Florida and Texas.

"We're preparing for May with him but we're going to have to start racing with him in February," Cox said of the unbeaten Tapit  colt, winner of the TVG Breeders' Cup Juvenile Presented by Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance (G1).

Should Cox stick to that tentative February schedule, a race such as the $400,000 Risen Star Stakes Presented by Lamarque Ford (G2) at Fair Grounds Feb. 13 or the $750,000 Southwest Stakes (G3) at Oaklawn might fit into his plans. Last year Cox ran horses in both stakes, winning a division of the Risen Star with Mr. Monomoy and running 2-3 with Wells Bayou and Answer In behind  Silver Prospector in the Southwest.

Indicative of how he shuttles horses between the two tracks, Wells Bayou returned the following month to win the March 21 Twinspires.com Louisiana Derby (G2), after which Fair Grounds closed its meet earlier amid COVID-19.

The 2021 Louisiana Derby is March 20, just over a week before the track wraps up its meet March 28.

Already at Fair Grounds is another leading 3-year-old, the Steve Asmussen-trained dual grade 1 winner Jackie's Warrior, who ran fourth behind Essential Quality as the favorite in the Juvenile after chasing a fast pace. The stakes at Fair Grounds are options, though the track's lengthy preps on the Road to the Kentucky Derby could make out-of-town stakes more appealing options for the speedy colt. The Risen Star is 1 1/8 miles and the Louisiana Derby is 1 3/16 miles.

Essential Quality will have some good company this winter just from within his own barn. A number of Cox's top performers are expected to join him in New Orleans, including champion Monomoy Girl, who won the Rachel Alexandra Stakes (G2) at the track in February 2018.

She would seem more likely to work and stable at Fair Grounds than race—provided she remains within the filly and mare ranks. Though the track's stakes slate is extensive, featuring 51 races worth more than $7 million, absent are major races for older dirt females. 

Those types of runners often venture to Oaklawn to pursue races such as the $1 million Apple Blossom Handicap (G1) and the preps that precede it.

The hole for distaffers in the schedule aside, Fair Grounds is one of the leading winter tracks in the country, with many of its best stakes serving as preps to the Derby and Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1) in the spring, plus lucrative races over its turf course.

That course is considered in prime condition due to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival activities not damaging it after the event became a COVID-19 cancellation. Fair Grounds typically hosts the popular spring festival in its infield, which can lead to repeated crossings by attendees over its turf course, leading to wear and tear.

"Without the Jazz Fest this year, the turf course looks like Augusta—no exaggeration," said trainer Al Stall Jr. from Fair Grounds. 

The grass is greener at the Fair Grounds! Our dedicated staff is hard at work prepping the grounds for Opening Day this Thanksgiving! pic.twitter.com/gs0yOgV67a

— Fair Grounds (@fairgroundsnola) October 20, 2020

Particularly with Churchill Downs not running any grass races over its troubled turf course over the second half of November, the return of grass racing options can't come quick enough for Stall and other Kentucky trainers heading south for the winter.

Purses are also up from last year—maiden races go as high as $47,000—and Fair Grounds racing secretary Scott Jones said the track hopes to increase purses by Jan. 1.

Trainers Ignacio Correas, Cherie DeVaux, Tommy Drury, Austin Gustafson, Anthony Quartarolo, Kelly Rubley, and Shane Wilson are additions to the stable area this year, according to Jones. The track also granted stalls for a division for trainer Chad Brown, but he altered plans and recently informed Fair Grounds he will not have a string there, Jones said. 

Stall said he and other trainers with large Fair Grounds stables such as Cox, Mike Stidham, Asmussen, and Tom Amoss, saw their allotment of stalls decrease from a full barn of 50 to 44 this winter. As a longtime resident of New Orleans and a trainer at Fair Grounds for nearly 30 years, the cutback didn't sit well with him.

Nor was it a popular decision to scale back race dates from their usual 80, a move Fair Grounds officials believed was needed to maintain field size. That decision, along with the track's reluctance this summer to shelter horses at their facility impacted from Hurricane Laura damage at Delta Downs, frustrated some Louisiana horsemen and regulators. 

Fair Grounds is owned by Churchill Downs Inc., which kept open Fair Grounds for training well past the week-early conclusion of its 2019-20 meet during much of the country's COVID-19 shutdown.

Eight months later, operations amid COVID-19 remain a challenge, just as it is everywhere. The track announced last week that the pandemic would result in spectatorless racing to begin the meet, limiting attendance to participants and horsemen. Fair Grounds elected to keep their slots and 12 off-track-betting locations open. 

Along with much of the country, Louisiana has seen a rise in COVID-19 cases, leading Gov. John Bel Edwards to toughen restrictions on businesses and gatherings in an announcement Nov. 24. One restriction was a move to limit casinos to 50% capacity and the governor stated that more restrictions could follow.

Even watching from home or simulcast, fans should witness solid racing at Fair Grounds, beginning on opening day. The track's traditional opener, the $125,000 Thanksgiving Classic, drew the Stall-trained Bobby's Wicked One and seven other sprinters, including Nitrous, Landeskog, and Manny Wah. Last year only three went to post when Bobby's Wicked One led throughout, speeding six furlongs in 1:08.68. He repeated in the six-furlong Duncan F. Kenner Stakes vs. another small field in 1:08.55.

The 5-year-old Speightstown  horse then went badly off form in races out of town, finishing last in both the Count Fleet Sprint Handicap (G3) and Aristides Stakes. Stall regrouped by giving the Autumn Hill Farms Racing Stables-owned horse rest. 

"When he says no, he lets you know. When he says no mas, you know it," Stall said.

Though Bobby's Wicked One returns with a limited worktab, showing two published works at five furlongs this month, Stall said the horse is in excellent condition. The sprinter is 5-for-6 at Fair Grounds, losing only when he attempted a route.

"He actually looks the best he's ever looked in his life," Stall said. "He's filled out. He's a full-fledged sprinter. Solid as a rock, and actually moving the best he's ever moved in his life."

Miguel Mena, his jockey for every one of his races since 2019, is back aboard.

Mena is part of a deep rider colony, most of whom will be on hand for the start of the meet. Florent Geroux and few other riders could follow next week after Churchill Downs wraps up fall racing.

Last year, James Graham edged Mitchell Murrill and Colby Hernandez to notch his second Fair Grounds' jockey title. Geroux, who finished fourth in the standings with 56 wins, led all jockeys in purses earned with more than $2.9 million buoyed by 10 stakes victories.

Winalot Racing was the leading owner in 2019-20 with 13 victories, one more than Maggi Moss.