Fair Grounds Preps Playing Larger Role in KY Derby

For decades, Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots had a history of producing standout 3-year-old fillies, including a slew of Kentucky Oaks (G1) winners, but not near as many 3-year-old colts who triumphed at Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May.

During the prior century, only Black Gold (1924) and Grindstone (1996) used the Louisiana Derby (G2) as a successful prep for winning the Kentucky Derby (G1), with both colts capturing each of those races. Then, in the years after the turn of the century, Funny Cide would run second in the 2003 Louisiana Derby before running second to Empire Maker in the Wood Memorial Stakes (G1) and defeating that rival in the Kentucky Derby.

Through that same time period, the Risen Star Stakes (G2), the final local tuneup for the Louisiana Derby, had produced just a single Derby winner, War Emblem, who ran sixth in the 2002 Risen Star.

But the tide seems to have turned. 

Country House   and Mandaloun  , who respectively raced in both the Risen Star and Louisiana Derby in 2019 and 2021, took the Run for the Roses, both via disqualification. 

Many others have come close in the Derby or in other Triple Crown races. The same year in which Country House experienced Derby success, War of Will  , who had defeated him in the Risen Star before going unplaced in the Louisiana Derby and Kentucky Derby (though with trouble in the latter race), captured the 2019 Preakness Stakes (G1).

Last year's Risen Star winner, Angel of Empire , ran third in the Derby, while the show finisher from the Risen Star, Two Phil's  , was second to Mage  . Two years ago, Epicenter   and Zandon  —1-3 in the Risen Star—were 2-3 in the Run for the Roses behind 80-1 upsetter Rich Strike .

Similarly, Gun Runner  —who took the 2016 Risen Star and Louisiana Derby—was third in that year's Kentucky Derby. His steady improvement late in his 3-year-old year and into his 4-year-old season would make him Horse of the Year in 2017.

A combination of factors can be attributed to the spike in productivity for horses at Fair Grounds, among them an increase in purses and additional spacing and timing. Horsemen are also often keen to run more of their late-running horses over the approximate quarter-mile stretch at Fair Grounds, believing it better suits them than speed-biased surfaces or those types of races elsewhere that utilize sixteenth-pole finishes due to track configurations.

The 3-year-old route stakes that make up the Fair Grounds program also now have a steady progression in distance—from 1 1/16 miles in the Lecomte Stakes (G3) to 1 1/8 miles in the Risen Star and finally the Preakness distance of 1 3/16 miles in the Louisiana Derby.

The way these preps now fall on the schedule, most top Risen Star finishers tend to run one more time before the Kentucky Derby and those performing well in the Louisiana Derby go straight to Churchill Downs, provided they possess the necessary qualifying points.

Combine those factors, along with leading trainers such as Steve Asmussen and Brad Cox training most of their better stakes horses in the winter at Fair Grounds, and the track being able to lure invaders from Florida to race, and it has been a recipe for success.

Absent any withdrawals of leading contenders, the $400,000 Risen Star on Feb. 17 is one of the better renewals in recent memory. The 12-horse lineup includes the 1-2 finishers from the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes (G2) last fall at Churchill Downs, Honor Marie  and Real Men Violin ; Lecomte and Gun Runner Stakes winner Track Phantom ; Smarty Jones Stakes winner Catching Freedom ; Remsen Stakes (G2) runner-up and $2.3 million yearling buy Sierra Leone ; plus some up and comers, led by Hall of Fame , a 10 1/4-length route maiden winner and a $1.4 million yearling.

Asmussen, North America's all-time winningest trainer, runs both Track Phantom and Hall of Fame. He has won the Risen Star three times.

Asmussen's most recent top Derby prospects, Epicenter and Disarm , both raced through Fair Grounds' Road to the Derby on their way to Churchill Downs. Epicenter took both the Risen Star and Louisiana Derby in 2022 and Disarm  was second in the Louisiana Derby last year before a fourth-place finish in the Kentucky Derby.

"It's easy to compare what Track Phantom's done with what Epicenter did two years before," Asmussen said. "It is also very easy to compare Hall of Fame to what Disarm was last year, but with better timing. We are extremely excited about them."

Besides attracting the South Florida-stabled Sierra Leone from the barn of trainer Chad Brown, the Risen Star landed a couple of Todd Pletcher-trained runners from the Sunshine State in the graded-placed Moonlight  (cross-entered in an allowance on the card) and Cardinale . Pletcher also entered four other horses Saturday at Fair Grounds.

Bidding for his fourth Risen Star, the Hall of Fame trainer will remove blinkers from the equipment of Stonestreet Stables' Cardinale after a runner-up finish to Change of Command  in an allowance optional claiming race at Gulfstream Park Jan. 5.

Similarly coming off a start in the early part of the year is Albaugh Family Stables' Catching Freedom, who rallied to win the Smarty Jones at Oaklawn Park on New Year's Day for Cox, who will often pick and choose between stakes for 3-year-olds at Oaklawn Park and Fair Grounds.

Angel of Empire, for example, ran second in the Smarty Jones last year and, after winning the Risen Star, resumed racing at Oaklawn, winning the Arkansas Derby (G1).

Cox has won three runnings of the Risen Star since 2020, with the other wins coming with Mandaloun in 2021 and Mr. Monomoy  in one of two divisions in 2020.

For many others, the Risen Star is the start of their season, including Honor Marie, who is unraced since the Nov. 25 Kentucky Jockey Club.  A closer, he rallied to win his debut at six furlongs at Churchill Sept. 29, returned a month later to finish second between eventual stakes winners Otto the Conqueror  and Just Steel , and then turned in a career-best effort with a last-to-first, two-length triumph in the Kentucky Jockey Club.

Trainer Whit Beckman said he believes the Honor Code  colt "is a true mile-and-a-quarter horse."