Student Body Leads All the Way in Mardi Gras Stakes
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Photo: Hodges Photography / Amanda Hodges Weir
Student Body wins the Mardi Gras Stakes at Fair Grounds Race Course
Gary Broad's Student Body broke sharp from the starting gate and never looked back in Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots' Fat Tuesday feature March 5—the $75,000 Mardi Gras Stakes over the Stall-Wilson turf course.
Guided to victory by jockey Miguel Mena, the daughter of Colonel John wasted no time and went straight to the front, setting opening fractions of :22.57, :46.55 and :58.09. In the final furlong, Student Body was confronted by La Dame Blanche, but was able to keep that rival at bay and hung on to win by a neck. Excessivespending completed the trifecta.
Oxford Comma, who was pulled up at the three sixteenths, was vanned off and euthanized due to a catastrophic injury. Jockey Shaun Bridgmohan, who was unseated as a result, was transported to University Medical Center New Orleans for further evaluation. According to agent Anthony Martin, Bridgmohan was complaining of pain in his right shoulder.
Student Body has now won five of her nine starts and has won over turf, dirt, and synthetic surfaces for trainer Chris Davis. The Mardi Gras Stakes was her first stakes victory and enhanced her career earnings up to $158,556.
"Chris gave me some instructions and said that there's no 'Plan B' and to just go," Mena said. "That's what we did. We sent her to the front, she likes to be on the lead and when (La Dame Blanche) came to her she fought on and got the job done."
Davis is familiar with the 5-year-old mare's bloodlines, having trained her half bother, the winning Tizway runner Student Body Left.
"She's pretty prolific on dirt and today we got the opportunity to run her on turf and she showed what she can do. She's a very nice filly," Davis said. "A lot of synthetic horses usually take to the grass. Not all of them, but most of them. She's really fast. We'll see how she bounces out, talk to the clients, and go from there."
Bred in Kentucky by C. Kidder, N. Cole, J. K. Griggs, and Linda Griggs, Student Body was a $19,000 purchase from the 2015 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, where she was consigned by Gainesway. She is out of the winning Stormy Atlantic mare Stormy Antics, who dropped a Tiznow filly Feb. 16.