Adele Dilschneider’s Apart, hero of the Grade II
Super Derby at Louisiana Downs in September and the Grade III Ack Ack
Handicap at Churchill in November, looms a strong 8-5 choice in the morning
line for Saturday’s $60,000 Louisiana Handicap, first leg of Fair
Grounds three-race series for older horses that concludes with the Grade II
New Orleans Handicap on Louisiana Derby Day March 26.
Garrett Gomez, Eclipse Award-winning jockey of 2009,
will fly in from Southern California for the mount on the Al Stall Jr.-trained
Apart, who is assigned 120 pounds in the 1 1/16-mile Louisiana
‘Cap.
Shouldering the top impost of 121 pounds in the Louisiana
Handicap is Zayat Stables’ Z Humor, who will be ridden by jockey Shaun
Bridgmohan and is conditioned by 2009 Eclipse Award-winning trainer Steve
Asmussen. Z Humor is the 7-2 second choice in the morning line, won
the $125,000 Delta Mile at Delta Downs last November and most recently was
runner-up in Fair Grounds’ $60,000 Tenacious Handicap Dec. 18.
Third choice at 9-2 in Saturday’s main track affair for
older horses is Jim Tafel’s Country Flavor, 119, who won the Tenacious
Handicap by a neck and also captured last spring’s Grade III Hanshin Cup at Arlington
Park.
Jockey Shane Sellers, aboard for the win in the Tenacious, returns in
the irons aboard the Greg Geier trainee.
Completing the Louisiana Handicap field is Louie Roussel
III and Ronnie Lamarque’s Recapturetheglory, 118, Jamie Theriot
up; Richard Rudolph and Michael Vranich’s Royal Express, 116, Kerwin
Clark; Preston Stables’ Flat Out, 118, Corey Lanerie; and
Bonnie Heath Farm et al.’s Mad Flatter, 117, James Graham.