Heart Rhythm Tops Fair Grounds' Thanksgiving Classic

The Thanksgiving Day feature at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots is the 98th running of the $175,000 Thanksgiving Classic for older sprinters.

John Ortiz trains the morning-line favorite, Heart Rhythm , for the six-furlong stakes. Ortiz claimed Heart Rhythm for $100,000 on behalf of owner Elliott Logan of TEC Racing this past September at Churchill Downs. In that race, he finished sixth behind horses he'll face again Thursday in the Classic, Ready to Pounce  and Surveillance .

"I think this horse will like the distance," Ortiz said. "I think the long stretch at Fair Grounds will be good for him. His last race was 6 1/2 (furlongs), so I like that he'll have a big kick cutting back in distance for that long stretch. We shipped him in right after the Keeneland race, I knew this is where I would go with him."

In his first start for Ortiz, Heart Rhythm dazzled the Keeneland crowd winning a $140,000 allowance, defeating Chattalot , whom he'll face again in the Classic as he tries for his first stakes victory. The barn's go-to rider, Reylu Gutierrez, will be on the Flat Out   4-year-old, looking to add to his impressive total of five opening weekend wins in 12 mounts.

Gutierrez will don TEC Racing's orange CRPS awareness month silks. Ortiz said Logan will be donating any winnings from the Classic, and all his horses' races this month, to charity in hopes of finding a cure for Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. Logan's daughter Taylor battles this rare disease.

After missing races for various reasons throughout the year, Caribbean Caper's fitness will be tested. Facing males for the first time, so will her ability.

"For fillies to beat males, it takes talent," trainer Al Stall Jr. said. "For whatever reason, history tells you that fillies sprint pretty well against the boys. Safely Kept won the Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1). Meafara got nipped in the Breeders' Cup Sprint. At short distances it seems like speed is speed."

If Caribbean Caper can return to her 2021 form, she could very well win. She went 5-for-5 as a 3-year-old, but she has been kept off the track for most of her 4-year-old campaign, running just once and losing by 4 1/2 lengths to Fille d'Esprit  on Aug. 16 at Colonial Downs.

Steve Asmussen has won the Classic six times, and his 3-year-old Bloom Racing Stable and David A Bernsen's Chattalot will try to replicate his win over the track as a 2-year-old in the Sugar Bowl Stakes. The lone need-the-lead runner in the field is 2-for-2 at Fair Grounds.

New Orleanian Tom Amoss has won this race three times. BCWT's Long Weekend  is in his care, but with Amoss on suspension, Chris Richard takes over the training duties in the interim. 

"Tom's main concern for this horse is he wants him to break sharp," assistant trainer Kinnon LaRose said. "When this horse breaks sharp and is on the front end or close to the front end, that's where he's done his best running. What we've been focusing on these last couple of weeks is getting his mind right and trying to get him to break sharp from the gate and be forward in the race."

For just shy of a month, Long Weekend had the fastest six-furlong time of Fair Grounds' 2021-2022 meet. On that day in February, he was able to get the early jump on the field and cruise through soft early fractions before emptying his tanks to run the final two furlongs in :23.64. He hasn't been back to the winner's circle since. 

If there is a horse-for-the-course in the field, those honors would go to Big Chief Racing and Rocker O Ranch L's Surveillance. Fair Grounds was the site of his spring 2022 coming-out party, going 2-for-2 on the main track along with a score sprinting on the turf. That accounts for all three of his career wins. After a string of five in-the-money finishes, this 5-year-old by Constitution   ran fifth last out Nov. 16 in the Bet On Sunshine Stakes at Churchill. 

Lotthenbach Stable's Ready to Pounce proved he belongs in stakes company after earning a 93 Brisnet speed figure, his fastest, and finishing in second ahead of Surveillance and Heart Rhythm in September at Churchill. 

Drawn to the far outside in post 7, Richard Davis' 3-year-old colt Simply Wicked  won a conditional allowance at Delta Downs on Oct. 7.